Not only did he work with this unusual women’s organization, he also became prominent as a “color engineer” in the years following the war.
He had a significant influence on the postwar popularity of brightly colored automobiles, the colors used in American homes (inside and out), and the choice of colors used (for increased worker safety) in factory interiors. We’ve talked about his activities not only in various blogposts but also in an online video called Art, Women’s Rights, and Camouflage.
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Here now are two more recent finds about Towle’s doubly “colorful life”:
GLEANINGS FROM THE WORLD’S PRESS. What Colors Can Do. Queenslander (Brisbane, Queensland). August 8, 1929, p. 63—
“Who did this?” roared the president of a New York bank when he discovered an impish cartoon of himself on the back of an envelope. The guilty 13-year-old mail clerk jumped guiltily, but stood his ground, “I did, sir.” He held out shaking fingers, for he needed his three dollars a week. “I’ll rub it off for you, sir.”
“You will not!” snapped the president. He put the cartoon in his pocket, and his eyes twinkled at the young culprit. “If you can draw as well as that you’d better study art. Go to school nights if you have to, but leave my stationery alone, young man!”
In this unconventional way began the artistic career of Capt. H. Ledyard Towle, chief color expert for the General Motors Corporation and a pioneer in the modern movement to put beauty and color into the American home. If you have a lavender ice box, or a “sunlit” alarm clock, or a flame-colored sports car, the chances are he is responsible (writes Grace M. Fletcher, in “The World’s Work”).
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Carnegie Hero Fund Commission (online post). Harold Ledyard Towle, Merry Point VA. Act Details: July 5, 1951. Type of Act: Drowning—
Harold Ledyard Towle saved SheIva Jean Lankford from drowning, Merry Point, Virginia, July 5, 1951. While riding on an inflated tire-tube in the Carrotoman River, Shelve, 9, who could not swim, was swept into deep water by a strong wind and drifted 300 feet from the bank. Although warned by a physician to avoid exertion, Towle, 51, color engineer, ran 250 feet to the bank and entered the water. He waded 50 feet and with great effort swam 325 feet through waves two feet high to overtake Shelva. In a badly winded and weakened condition he took hold of Shelva and supported her. A man rowed a boat to them, and he and Towle aided Shelva from the water. Towle lacked strength to climb into the boat and grasped the gunwale. The man rowed towing Towle to wadable water, and all reached the bank. Shelva was extremely nervous, and she and Towle sustained numerous welts from stinging nettles. Both recovered.
RELATED LINKS
Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? / Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage / Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage / Optical science meets visual art / Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness / Under the big top at Sims' circus
