RISD Scholar Claudia Covert on Camouflage

SS Mauretania in New York harbor on December 1, 1918

Above This is the most amazing photograph of a famous example of World War I dazzle ship camouflage. It's a US Signal Corps photograph of the British SS Mauretania (sister ship of the Lusitania), a 31,938-ton Cunard ship after its arrival at New York harbor on December 1, 1918. It was bringing home from France 5,000 American troops, among them 1,100 wounded.
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Last October, we (at the University of Northern Iowa) excitedly looked forward to a visiting lecture on our campus by Claudia Covert, a research scholar and Readers' Services Librarian at the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design. Regrettably, Hurricane Sandy decided to visit Providence that same week, with the result that the lecture had to be rescheduled. It will now take place later this month, at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 27, 2012, in Room 111 of the Kamerick Art Building. 

Her talk will be one of two keynote events, along with other presentations and panels, that are part of a two-day symposium at UNI called ENVISIONING DESIGN: Education, Culture, Practice. The gathering (which is free and open to the public) begins at 5:00 pm on Friday, April 26, and concludes at 4:00 pm the following day. A detailed schedule of events is now available online here.

Claudia Covert's lecture is a richly illustrated presentation on the bizarre, colorful camouflage patterns applied to Allied ships in World War I. RISD has a collection of 455 color lithographic plans of "dazzle camouflage" ship designs, which she has extensively researched and written about. In her presentation, she will talk about her findings, the function of this odd approach to camouflage, and the role of designers and artists in devising these deceptive schemes.

[By the way, from 4:00 pm Friday through Sunday, parking is open on campus.]

Conference logo designed by Kimberly Breuer

Camoufleurs Maurice L. Freedman & Frank B. Masters

Launching of SS Everglades at Tampa FL, 1918 (AI digital color)

The United States entered World War I, on the side of the Allies, in 1917. The following year, American artist Maurice L. Freedman (1898-1983) served as a District Camoufleur for the United States Shipping Board, Emergency Fleet Corporation. He was assigned to Jacksonville FL, where it was his responsibility to oversee the application of camouflage to merchant ships. He was provided with colored lithographic plans of “dazzle camouflage” schemes that were designed by US Navy artists in Washington DC. When they did not exactly fit the ships, civilian artists at the docks (such as Freedman and his colleagues) made the required corrections.

Freedman was one of about two hundred civilian camouflage artists, who were assigned to seaside shipping ports on the east, south, and west coasts of the US. The extent of Freedman’s service was clarified about fifteen years ago, when Claudia Covert, a librarian and research scholar at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), realized the significance of a collection of 450 colored lithographic plans of ship camouflage that had been in the school’s possession since 1919. As Covert researched this material, it soon became apparent that Freedman, at the end of the war, had enrolled as a student at RISD, where he studied drawing, painting, and design. While there, he donated his collection of the plans (only two other sets, complete or nearly so, are known to have survived, although scattered, stray components can be found in public and private collections), along with vintage photographs of the dazzled-painted ships.

To support her research, Covert was awarded a grant from RISD, which enabled her to visit the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London, and the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Maryland, both of which have extensive holdings related to ship camouflage. As a result, she and others at RISD were able to embark on the arduous process of preserving the original lithographs, developing a lexicon of the different kinds of patterns, making archival digital scans, and arranging to share them publicly through publications, web-posting, exhibits, and symposia. As a way of supporting the project, some of the plans were reprinted at actual size, and sold online through RISD Works, the art school’s retail gift shop.

SS Everglades (1918), plan above, ship below

In 2008, Covert and librarian Ellen Petraits, working with other RISD staff and interns, documented their efforts in a presentation titled Dazzle Prints: Digitizing a Large Format Collection, which they then presented at a conference of The Art Libraries Association of North America (ARLIS/NA). Their report can be accessed online, as can other materials in the RISD Dazzle Print Collection.

Reproduced in that document are the plans for the camouflage pattern for an American merchant ship, named the SS Everglades, a 3,500-ton steel steamer. It had the distinction of being the first ship in which a camouflage pattern was applied while the ship was still being constructed, before the vessel had actually launched. As reported in several articles in the Tampa Tribune, the launching had originally been scheduled for July 4, 1918, but, because of complications, it was delayed until July 29. At 6:00 pm that day, it was officially launched at Oscar Daniels Shipyard in Tampa.

Maurice L. Freedman (who was headquartered in Jacksonville) may or may not have been present at the launching. His name does not appear in a lengthy news account as being among the attendees. But there is an explicit reference to the presence of one of his fellow artists, photographer and illustrator F(rank) B(ird) Masters, who is described in the article as having “completed his job Sunday.” The resulting “dazzle system” design, the article adds, is “one of the prettiest completed jobs imaginable.” It then speaks in some detail about the advantages of this approach to ship camouflage—

The “dazzle system” of camouflage, an adaptation from the latest English system, makes a much prettier looking boat. Instead of the hard straight lines with sharp angles that have characterized camouflage as used on vessels in the past, the new system comprises a series of graceful, curved lines and figures which deceive as to speed, size, and direction of progress, instead of attempting to hide the vessel. It Is said that as a cover or blending for the purpose of hiding the vessel, camouflage has been a failure but that it has proven its adaptability as a protective agency through deception. The new smooth and curving lines are said to be even more deceptive than the straight lines and hard angles. Certainly, on close-up observation the boat camouflaged under the new system is a much more pleasing sight to the eye, and as a success its value was apparent as one riding into town on Fifth Avenue looked down the estuary from near its head. Even at only this short distance away the vessel appeared considerably shorter as it was being towed to the river plant of the builders where a greater part of the machinery fitting and installation will be done.

Through the efforts of Covert at RISD, combined with other sources, there is additional information about Maurice L. Freedman. We know, for example, that, following his studies at RISD, he worked as an advertising artist in Providence RI, and, in the 1940s, designed Warfare: Naval Combat, an early iteration of a game since known as Battleship. In the 1950s, he was an assistant art director of Paramount Cards, the nation’s third-largest greeting card company, in Pawtucket RI. When he died at age 85, on December 4, 1983, he was living in Revere MA.

By comparison, there is considerably more information about Frank Bird Masters (1873-1955), who more often signed his work as F.B. Masters or Frank B. Masters. According to online postings, Masters was born in Watertown MA in 1873. He was initially drawn to science and engineering, with the result that he earned a BA degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1895. He worked briefly for the B.F. Sturtevant Company (the country’s oldest fan manufacturer), and then taught high school industrial arts for several years in Boston.

Illustration by Frank B. Masters (1907)

Around the turn of the century, his interests appear to have shifted from science and technology to art. In 1900, he rejoined the Sturtevant Company, but this time as an advertising artist. He also worked as an illustrator for the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia. After his work was represented in several art exhibitions, he subsequently studied art with the prominent illustrator Howard Pyle in Wilmington DE. At the same time, he experimented with photography (specifically cyanotypes), by which he made candid images of workers, backstreets, locomotives, and industrial sites. He made these not as “photographic art,” but as image references for his illustrations for books, magazines, and advertising. From 1905-1918, he maintained a studio in New York at 23 West 24th Street, near Madison Square Park (in the Flatiron District).

Illustration by Frank B. Masters (1907)

In 1918, Masters accepted employment as a civilian ship camoufleur in New York with the US Shipping Board. He subsequently worked on projects in Jacksonville FL, Tampa FL, Washington DC, Charleston SC, and Savannah GA. The war effectively ended with the Armistice on November 1, 1918, and soon after Masters returned to New York, where he resumed his profession as an advertising illustrator.

Advertising poster for Century Magazine by Frank B. Masters (1903)

•••

Above The two black-and-white illustrations by Frank B. Masters shown were originally published in the Washington Evening Star (Washington DC) on September 22, 1907.  

News articles about the launching of the SS Everglades were published in the Tampa Tribune on July 30, and August 4, 1918; and in the Tampa Bay Times on May 24, and August 1, 1918.

Camouflage Sheet Music Covers

Sheet music illustration | Albert Barbelle (1919)

Thanks to camouflage scholar Claudia Covert at the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design, we are now aware of the work of an American illustrator named Albert (Wilfred) Barbelle (1887-1957). It was Claudia who alerted us to an illustration by Barbelle of a dazzle-painted World War I ship on the cover of the music for Down the Lane and Home Again (1919), reproduced above. In the 1930s, he drew the lead character for the first Walt Disney book about Mickey Mouse. Beyond that, we've since located a sheet music cover by Barbelle (for Baby's Prayer Will Soon Be Answered (c1919)) in which he again includes a dazzle-camouflaged ship (shown here).

Sheet music illustration | Albert Barbelle (1919)

Pertinent to ship camouflage (if not to Barbelle) we have also happened upon the sheet music for a Camouflage One Step (1917), for which the illustrator was Roger de Valerio (1886-1951), a prolific French designer who created more than 2,000 sheet music covers.

As you may recall, one of our earlier posts featured yet another example of camouflage-themed sheet music for Camouflage: A Soldier's Song (1918).

Sheet music illustration | Roger de Valerio (1917)

Camouflage Poster | Rachel Matlack

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Rachel Matlack. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

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Preston Slosson, The Great Crusade and After. New York: Macmillan, 1931—

Dazzle camouflage aimed at deception rather than obscurity. Transports and cargo ships were decorated in huge zigzag designs, like so many floating cubist paintings, until American ports resembled nightmare harbors beyond the gates of ivory and horn.

***

C.R.M.F. Cruttwell, A History of the Great War 1914-1918. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 1936)—

Twenty or thirty ships elaborately camouflaged with streaks and blotches of violently contrasting colors, all zigzagging in formation, presented an uncertain and bewildering target.

Camouflage Poster | Kellie Heath

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Kellie Heath. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

Anon, “‘Fresh Red Salmon Proves to Be Old Catch Camouflaged ” in the Washington Times, Wednesday, March 6, 1918, p. 3—

A local food inspector discovered by accident that all camouflage artists are not at the front.
Salmon so "red" that it blushed like a rouged lady in the chorus, had every indication to the eye of being this year’s catch, but was contradicted by the sense of smell, indicating that the salmon was taken from David Jones’ locker some time previous.

The slabs of fish, after a thorough coat of red paint, had been put through a smoking process to destroy the odor.

Health experts are making a diagnosis of the "paint," and if found injurious to the health the "camouflager" will be sent over the top.

Camouflage Poster | Stephanie Mathena

 

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Stephanie Mathena. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

Arthur Guiterman, “Camouflage” published originally in Life magazine, then reprinted in the Iron Country Record (Cedar City UT), January 11, 1918, p. 2—

What’s Camouflage?—The juggler’s trade;
Delusion, glamour, masquerade;
The mummer’s artifice, designed
To make the Sense betray the Mind;
The tint of rouge, the scent that clings,
The curl that grew not where it swings,
The touch that thrills the blood of man,
The soft, shy glance behind the fan;
The sweet, low laugh of badinage—
That’s Camouflage.
What’s Camouflage?—A web for flies;
The mist that blinds the lover’s eyes;
The dainty scrap of this or that
Which ransoms yester-season’s hat;
The sauce that turns the humble stew
To some delectable ragout;
The motor-builder’s happy scheme
To make the humble chariot seem
A car from Croesus’s garage—
That’s Camouflage.
What’s Camouflage?—The printed lure
That promises the wondrous cure;
The caster’s fly of colors gay,
The mining stock, the smooth toupée,
The bluff that screens the empty purse
Or masks untidy prose as verse,
The veil of picturesque romance
That changes theft to High Finance
And treachery to Sabotage—
That’s Camouflage.
What’s Camouflage?—Oh, many things!
The pomp and pride of thrones and kings;
The gambler’s hope; the rosy wreath
That fades and leaves the thorns beneath;
A wrecker’s light; the phosphor glow
Some mocking star has cast below
To make the eye of men behold
Their gold as dross, their dross as gold;
The zealot’s vision, Fame’s mirage—
That’s Camouflage.

RISD Camouflage | SS Matilda Weems

In October 2013, we posted two views of a World War I dazzle-camouflaged Matilda Weems, as photographed on 23 August 1918. Recently, we were delighted to learn from Claudia Covert, scholar and librarian at the Rhode Island School of Design, that the library at RISD has (in its extensive camouflage collection) prints of the original dazzle-painting scheme that was applied to that ship. Above is a photograph of the starboard side of the painted ship, with the starboard plan below it. Similarly, below on this page is the photograph of the port side, and the matching port side plan. It's interesting to notice the differences (especially on the port side) between the diagram and the painted ship. What a wonderful discovery. Ship diagrams are reproduced by courtesy of Special Collections, Fleet Library at RISD, Providence RI.

Camouflage Poster | Randy Timm Jr.

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Randy Timm Jr. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

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C.M. Holland, “Brief Review of Experiences with the AEF…” in Northwestern Dental Journal. Vol 13 Nos 2-3. June-October 1919, pp. 52-53—

Each ship was well camouflaged by various, freakish designs in gaudy colors which to our critical eyes seemed less beautiful and logical than the old reliable battleship gray. Until the principle of marine camouflage had been explained it was difficult to conceive how such bold grotesque designs could render any degree of protection from submarines, but we learned that it required science, research, consultation and good judgment, to arrive at conclusions for effective camouflaging, and our eyes were soon dimmed to the beauty of the battleship gray for it had been shown that within the effective range of the submarine no ingenuity could render its gray invisible so that idea had given way to the idea of confusing the enemy.

Camouflage Poster | Brandi Weiss

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Brandi Weiss. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

Charles DeKay, "Ships That Fade Away" in The Nation. Vol 107 No 2769 (July 27, 1918), pp. 105-107—

That this kind of cubist painting [dazzle ship camouflage] on a colossal scale should have proved useful in the world war is only one example more of that fact—that you can never tell! What could be duller, more trivial and tiresome—one is tempted to say imbecile—than the pictures so-called of the cubists, with their broken lines, ugly corners, wretched colors, and long-winded explanations that signify nothing? Yet some of their extravagances can be made use of, it seems, in such marine and moving deceits. If indeed it cannot be said that the practitioners of Cubisterie have suffered a sea change into something rich and strange, at any rate they have found some place to stand upon.

Camouflage Poster | Elise Drewson

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Elise Drewson. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

Hugh Hurst, "Dazzle-Painting in War-Time" in International Studio. September 1919, pp. 93-99—

Those who were not fortunate enough to see the docks at one of our great ports during the war may imagine the arrival of a convoy—or, as frequently occurred, two at a time—of these painted ships, and the many miles of docks crowded with vessels of all sorts, from the stately Atlantic liner to the humbler craft bearing its cargo of coal or palm oil, each resplendent with a variety of bright-hued patterns, up-to-date designs of stripes in black and white or pale blue and deep ultramarine, and earlier designs of curves, patches, and semicircles. Take all these, huddle them together in what appears to be hopeless confusion, but which in reality is perfect order, bow and stern pointing in all directions, mix a little sunshine, add the varied and sparkling reflections, stir the hotchpotch up with smoke, life, and incessant movement, and it can safely be said that the word “dazzle” is not far from the mark.

Camouflage Poster | Melanie Walde

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Melanie Walde. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

Anon, “Jazz and Dazzle” in The Independent. May 3, 1919, p. 160— 

What we are coming to in the way of costume was indicated by the Dazzle Ball given by the Chelsea Arts Club at Albert Hall, London. Four British naval officers, distinguished for their success at camouflage, had charge of designing the dresses, and the ballroom looked like the Grand Fleet with all its warpaint on ready for action. The jazz bands produced sounds that have the same effect upon the ear as this "disruptive coloration" has upon the eye.

Who would have thought a dozen years ago, when the secessionists began to secede and the cubists to cube, that soon all governments would be subsidizing this new form of art to the extent of millions a year? People laughed at them in those days, said they were crazy and were wasting their time, but as soon as the submarines got into action, the country called for the man who could make a dreadnought look like [Marcel Duchamp’s painting] A Nude Descending a Staircase. They dipped into the future far as the human eye could see—and then some. They converted sober freighters into objects that were exempt from the proscription of the Second Commandment. The submerged Hun with his eye glued to the periscope could not tell whether it was a battleship or a post-impressionist picture bearing down upon him. So he fired his torpedo at random and generally hit it.

The term "camouflage," now a part of all languages, originated in the French greenroom where it was applied to the actor’s make-up. Now, after its brief discursion into the army and navy, it is demobilized and returns to the toilet. But in its new and dazzling guise it may cause collisions in the ballroom as it did on the sea. In these days when dancers do the one-step, two-step, three-step and on up to eight-step simultaneously to the same tune, it is becoming difficult to keep the necessary leeway and seaway. When a ship or a woman is disguised by dazzle decoration one is likely to be more than fifteen points off in judging her course.

Camouflage Poster | Grace Tuetken

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Grace Tuetken. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

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Home Economics Division at Iowa State College (Ames), “The High School Clothes Line” (script for a fashion show in the form of a play) in Journal of Home Economics. Vol 13. April 1921, p. 171—

ADA: "…Mother is an old peach at fixing things up. She is a regular camouflage artist."

***

Anon, “Women Knew About It” in the Hartford Herald, Wednesday, December 19, 1917, p. 3—

Paint is used to deceive the eye. That is camouflage. But is it a new thing under the sun? Go to! It is not so. Are we all not distressingly familiar with the camouflage girl? The idea is just the same when applied to faces, we take it, as in the case of submarines and tanks—to deceive the eye of the critical observer. Camouflage as applied to ships and armored tanks may be more or less a success, but as applied to the ladies it doesn’t fool even the wayfaring man.

Camouflage Poster | Samantha Schilmoeller

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Samantha Schilmoeller. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***
 
Anon, “Cubist Art and Filigree Designs Make Manufacture of Drums a Difficult Task” in Music Trades. September 2, 1922, p. 31—

The production force today [in manufacturing drums] must be greatly enlarged since jazz happened along and turned things topsy-turvy in the music world. In addition to others necessary for the production end, there must be an artist, an authority on cubist designing, a camouflage expert and others who are both numerous and expensive. The jazz orchestra, with its craze for something different, has affected the drum making business.

"In addition to a good drum in the strict sense of the word [said a company executive], the musician wants a lot more…

What are you going to do when such an order comes in?…[Maybe a member] of the jazz fraternity wants a drum head done in a cubist design to match his uniform. The average artist knows little and cares less for cubist art. So we must look among such Bohemians as may be found in Indianapolis and ferret out one who has studied along those lines.

Others want stripes, large and small, around one way; and others want stripes, small and large, around the other way. What’s the poor manufacturer to do? …Believe me, styles are getting more uncertain in the drum business than for women’s hats."

Camouflage Poster | Cassie Onnen

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Cassie Onnen. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

E.S., “Impressions of the Fifth Year” in The Atlantic Monthly. December 1918, p. 808— 

[WWI ship camouflage] is so incredible to rational thinking that even its remoter manifestations seem grotesque. One thinks of it as of a prodigious joke, in which the world conspires to conduct the neophyte through some solemn farce of preposterous initiation. To the summer tourist, what could be more unreal than the ostentatious secrecy of sailing, the ships painted in whorls or cubes or checkers, as a child would paint his Noah’s Ark or a vorticist his exhibition canvas; the cruisers, destroyers, balloons, and hydroplanes enveloping the convoy; the passengers, with life-preservers on their shoulders, looking for all the world like stage figures in some masque of Pilgrim’s Progress; and at night the blackened ports and the secret flashings from bridge to bridge, as if the ships were winking at each other in enjoyment of some monumental humbug? Gradually the sense of illusion weakens. The decks, crowded with khaki, moving bands of gray-green topping the camouflage of the ship’s side, grow very real.

Camouflage Poster | Christian Gargano

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Christian Gargano. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

S.J. Duncan-Clark, "The Impressions of a Landlubber" in The Recruit: A Pictorial Naval Magazine. Vol 5. Great Lakes Athletic Association, 1919—

Imagine a lunatic cubist painter turned loose with three brushes and a pot each of black, white and blue paint, and the results would be much like those that were visible on the hulls of our sister ships [during World War I].

History of Camouflage Comic Book

Camouflage comic © John Kramer

Thanks to Claudia Covert, Special Collections Librarian at the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design, for alerting us to the recent posting of an online comic book version of the history of modern camouflage. Produced by Washington DC comic book artist John Kramer and published by The Wilson Quarterly, the 10-page cartoon story, titled HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: WWI, WWII, and [the] Surprising History of Camouflage, is well-worth an online visit, albeit Abbott Thayer becomes "Abott Thayer," and it's regrettably skimpy on sources.

Camouflage Poster | Abbey Dentel

Above On Wednesday, October 31 (Halloween), Claudia Covert (scholar and librarian at the Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design) is coming to our university to talk about World War I dazzle ship camouflage, and the wonderful RISD collection of 455 color lithography diagrams of marine camouflage plans from that era. We're so excited about the event. In anticipation, about thirty of our graphic design students have each designed three posters (90 different posters!) to celebrate her visit. Over the coming weeks, a selection of these will be posted on this blog. This one (which features a dazzle camouflage plan by Everett L. Warner) is by Abbey Dentel. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

G.F. Norton, quoted in Norman Wilkinson, A Brush With Life. London: Seeley Service, 1969, p. 78—

Captain Schmidt at the periscope.
You need not fall and faint.
For it's not the vision of drug or dope,
But only the dazzle paint.

1918 pandemic spitting image | deja flu all over again

Above A poster issued by the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation (Philadelphia), as a means of controlling the spread of the “Spanish Flu” in late 1918. Source: Free Library of Philadelphia.•

The narrative at that weblink describes conditions that are disturbingly parallel to those of the current spread of COVID-19—

[The flu epidemic] reached Philadelphia by early September 1918, after infected sailors from Boston came to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Once patients began appearing, it became apparent how ill-informed and ill-prepared the City was. World War I created demands for increased labor at home and doctors abroad. This resulted in overcrowding in the city, and critical shortages of the doctors, hospital space, morgues, and burial services necessary to handle an out-of-control crisis. Accelerating the devastation was the City’s refusal (against the advice of the medical experts) to cancel a rally for the Fourth Liberty Loan Campaign, which brought 200,000 Philadelphians together on Broad Street, on September 28. Within three days (the incubation period of the virus), the number of cases skyrocketed. The epidemic in Philadelphia claimed 16,000 lives altogether, with 12,000 of those deaths occurring in the five-week period immediately following that war bonds rally.

•••

Here is more information about that pandemic from the Wikipedia article on the Spanish Flu—

The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. Lasting from February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people–about a third of the world's population at the time–in four successive waves. The death toll is typically estimated to have been somewhere between 17 million and 50 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.…

While systems for alerting public health authorities of infectious spread did exist in 1918, they did not generally include influenza, leading to a delayed response. Nevertheless, actions were taken. Maritime quarantines were declared on islands such as Iceland, Australia, and American Samoa, saving many lives. 

Social distancing measures were introduced, for example closing schools, theatres, and places of worship, limiting public transportation, and banning mass gatherings. Wearing face masks became common in some places, such as Japan, though there were debates over their efficacy. There was also some resistance to their use, as exemplified by the Anti-Mask League of San Francisco.

Vaccines were also developed, but as these were based on bacteria and not the actual virus, they could only help with secondary infections. The actual enforcement of various restrictions varied.…

• Thanks to Claudia Covert for alerting us to this image.

Camouflage Poster | Chelsey Mcnamee

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Chelsey Mcnamee. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

Francis Rolt-Wheeler, The Wonder of War at Sea. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1919, pp. 346-347—

“Do you suppose, Chief," asked the lad, as they were standing on deck, rejoicing in the capture of the submarine and looking at her checkerboard colored conning tower, "that this marine camouflage is really useful? Some of it looks so absurd?"…

[The Chief replies] "The ‘dazzle’ system o’ camouflage, which is British, is designed to puzzle the eye. At a mile and a half or two miles, ye can’t tell whether a ‘dazzled’ ship is comin’ or goin’. Ye can’t tell if she’s high out o’ the water, or low. Ye can’t tell, sometimes, if she has one, two, or three funnels. For a soobmarine, with a periscope maybe four to six feet out o’ the water, a ‘dazzled’ ship is like shootin’ at a ‘now ye see it an’ now ye don’t’ target. Soobmarines have been known to fire torpedoes as much as eight degrees out o’ line, when thinkin’ they were firin’ straight at a dazzled ship, even at close range. The human eye, after all, is no’ a pairfect mechanism.”

Camouflage Poster | Daniel O'Shea

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Daniel O'Shea. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

Wallace Stevens—

From time immemorial, the philosophers and other scene painters have daubed the sky with dazzle paint.