It is difficult to know to what extent American women contributed directly to the design of wartime camouflage. A case in point is the artist
Constance Cochrane (1888-1952), whose father and grandfather were career military officers. As a painter, she had a lifelong interest in seascapes and coastal views.
In one source it is said that “she joined the navy during both the first and second World Wars to design camouflage for ships.”
Another claims that “during World War I she, like
Frederick Waugh [a prominent seascape artist], designed camouflage for navy battleships.” A graduate of the
Philadelphia School of Design for Women (Moore College of Art), she was associated with an alliance of women artists known as
The Ten or
The Philadelphia Ten. During WWI, she was a member of the
Women’s Reserve Camouflage Corps, whose activities
we’ve discussed at length in earlier posts and in an
online video talk.
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
