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| Dazzle Ship float in NYC parade 1918 |
Among the vehicles in the 1918 Fourth of July parade down Fifth Avenue in New York City was a truck carrying a large-scale model ship. Adorned in a
dazzle camouflage scheme (probably mostly black and white) in a nest of stars and stripes below, it was labeled with a sign that read “Built by Finnish shipbuilders, launched by Foundation Co., Kearny, New Jersey.” (Actually, the spelling is more eccentric than that: "Build by Finnish Ship Builders Launchd by Foundation Co., Kearny NJ.")
We’ve found four photographs of what may be the same parade float. Three of these are moving to the left, and appear to have been taken by the same photographer just moments apart. But the fourth (see colorized version above) is moving toward the right, so it may have been the work of a second photographer, on the opposite side of the street.
Sounds like a reasonable theory, but there are some inconsistencies: In the group of three photographs, the men walking along with the float are wearing fedora hats, but in the single photograph the men are dressed not in fedoras but in straw boater hats. Hmm. Were there two or more ship building floats that day, perhaps in recognition of the different nationalities of the shipbuilders? Or, was there an exchange of hats or escorts? On closer inspection, our best guess is that there were (at least) two different floats that day, largely because two different styles of dazzle designs seem to have been used on the two model ships—although, granted, we can see only the starboard side on one, the port side on the other.
Our versions of these photographs (reproduced below) have been digitally enhanced (dust and scratch removal, contrast adjustments, cropping) from the originals which are available online at the
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs website at the link below each image.
The fourth photograph (sepia-toned below) is listed as being the same event, on the same day. The source of its original is the
National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) website as linked below the image.
