WWI Armenian-American camoufleurs in US Army

WWI American poster

Back in 2013, I first learned about an Armenian-born American artist named Nishan G. Toor (born Nishan G. Tooroonjian), who had served as a camouflage artist during World War I. I had long been aware of the camouflage involvement of another Armenian artist, the famous American painter, Arshile Gorky, who taught camouflage at Grand Central Art School in New York during WWII, until “visited” by the FBI.

More recently I’ve found out about a third Armenian artist, named Katchador Boroian (1889-1989), who contributed to camouflage during WWI. Born in Chunkoosh, Armenia, Borolan emigrated to the US in 1912, and settled in Chicago, where he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. During those years, he supported himself as a commercial artist, which, among other projects, included his completion of a mural for the Chicago Daily News building.

In June 1917, he registered for the draft in Chicago. He was soon after inducted into the US Army where, according to various sources, he “painted helmets and artillery for camouflage.”

He moved to Los Angeles after the war, and lived there for the rest of his life, initially in Yettem, then in Dinuba, and finally in Fresno. Earlier, he had taught himself needlepoint, which would prove invaluable when, disabled by glaucoma in the 1940s, he could no longer use standard art materials. Twenty-five years later, he discovered that he could resume his earlier work if he used needlepoint, which he continued to do for the rest of his life.

At the close of his life, at age 99, Boroian was blind in one eye, but continued to work at a card table in his retirement quarters at the California Armenian Home in Fresno.

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

a frieze of tiny men in uniform take pot shots at doves

Donald Friend. Anne Gray, Ed. The Diaries of Donald Friend. Vol 1. National Library of Australia (Canberra), 2001—

One day the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald came to Peter Bellew with a tin helmet: the editor was an Air Raid Warden, and he wanted his helmet “camouflaged.” Could Bellew get one of his artist friends to do the job? Peter gave it to me to do. Of course the camouflage idea for a warden was sheer frivolity. I suppose the editor thought it would look prettier that way—or fashionable, or useful or something. I was delighted to do the job. I took it home and painted on it numbers of fat, white, vapid peace doves, flying around with olive branches in their beaks, and on the lower part of it, a frieze of little men in uniform take pot shots at the birds with cannon and rifles.

French Infantry helmet broken up by painted lines

POILUS CAMOUFLAGE EVEN HELMETS NOW in Bridgeport Telegram (Bridgeport CT), September 13, 1918—

The French poilus [slang term for WWI French soldiers] have startled the Hun [German forces] repeatedly with their cunning in fighting materials. The latest bit of strategy pulled by the French fighters is the camouflage helmet. The poilu found that the ordinary steel helmet was visible for some distance against the mottled background of brush and barbed wire. So the army artists were called upon to help. Now the helmets are marked with a series of white lines which makes them blend with the background and helps make the wearer part of the landscape.

Veil on Helmet intended to Deflect Flying Fragments

Above WWI infantry helmet (1918) with a suspended veil of chain, which was supposed to lessen the damage caused by flying schrapnel fragments. Public domain NARA photograph 533656.

•••

CAMOUFLAGED NOISE LATEST FROM FRONT: Burlap Coverings Prevent Tin Derbies from Playing Tunes on Wire, in Stars and Stripes (France), April 5, 1918—

The camouflaged tin hat is the latest in spring styles in the Army. It appeared first among a number of men a few weeks ago, and is now becoming a real sensation.

The camouflage hat is a homemade affair, in so far as the camouflage goes. You take a piece of burlap, fit it neatly to the helmet, and then bind it in place on the inside rim with threaded cord. The main idea of the camouflage is to keep your hat from being noisy in the trenches. Wire and strips of camouflage are stretched across the trenches at intervals, and you have to duck under them. If you raise up too soon and your helmet scratches against the wire, it fairly rings. Hence the burlap-noise-camouflage idea.

Every day that goes by brings more affection for the tin hat from the American fighting man. There are few who have been in the trenches, or about artillery emplacements who have not had shell pieces pounced off their helmets. Without the tin hat these shell pieces would have meant death or at least a serious wound.…

WWI Camouflage, Motion Pictures and Surrealism

Charlie Chaplin disguised as tree trunk in Shoulder Arms (1918)

Above Screen grab from Charles Chaplin's famous film, Shoulder Arms (1918) about the surrealist dimension of being a doughboy during World War I , in the process of which he disguises himself as a tree trunk. In fact, it wasn't entirely absurd, since it was not unheard of to make use of steel-lined imitation tree trunks as elevated observation posts (see close-up below).

Phony tree trunk observation post (c1918)

Camouflage has everything to do with film-making, from costumes and make-up, to camera work and scenic design. Elsewhere we have talked about a few of the contributions made by Hollywood-based special effects designers, but there are many (many) more points of connection (in both World Wars), the majority of which are waiting to be documented.

Speaking of Surrealism (which I tend to think of as Dada + Freud, thanks to André Breton), the German-born American photographer and designer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) once made a Dada-inspired photo collage portrait of Chaplin (below), in which he appears to be wearing an image-adorned WWI trench helmet. The image on the helmet is from a well-known Dadaist poster from 1922.

Erwin Blumenfeld, collage portrait of Charlie Chaplin

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Melvin W. Riddle, CAMOUFLAGE! Concerning One of the Major Arts of Motion Pictures. The Atlanta Constitution. Sunday, October 24, 1920—

CAMOUFLAGE!
A new word—coined during the great war by the French, to denote an art which was highly developed during the war. A new word, but an age-old art—old as war itself, older than mankind, for even Nature made use of it as a means of protection for animals and plants. Truly, an age-old idea, but only in the last few years has it been developed by mankind to that state of perfection wherein it might be called an art.
    
Camouflage saved from distruction during the war innumerable lives and properties of inestimable value. Now that the war is over, one might think that the word and the art would temporarily become passé and useless until another war should come along to revive them. But such is not the case, for camouflage is an art without a knowledge of which, one of the greatest industries of today—the motion picture industry—could hardly exist.

Camouflage and the Movies
The art of camouflage is a vital factor—in fact, it might be said, almost a prime factor in the production of motion pictures, and it is with that phase of camouflage that this article is concerned.
    
It is the general impression, perhaps, that the war itself first developed the art of camouflage. This impression, however, is erroneous. For long before the war began, the art had been developed to a high degree by the industry of motion picture production, but as developed by this industry, it was an unidentified art because it was an art without a name. The truth of this assertion is proven by the fact that when America entered the war, men from the motion pictures studios, who had gained a knowledge of the art of scenic deception, formed an important part of the ranks of special camouflage corps which were sent over there. This was because these men had already a practical knowledge of this great study and had only to adapt this knowledge to the particular requirements of defense in war.
    
The one great difference between camouflage as practiced in motion pictures and as practiced in war is that war camouflage, although deceiving to the human optics, is readily detected by the camera, while in motion pictures the camouflage is especially arranged and prepared to deceive the eye of the camera, although it sometimes also deceives the human eye, unless a very close-up view is obtained. Primarily, it is the camera lens upon which the deception is practiced, however, for the eye of the camera is ultimately the eyes of the motion picture audience.

Vital Necessity
Motion pictures, before the beginning of the war, did more and are now doing more to develop the art of camouflage on a large scale than any other industry or even possibly could do. Camouflage is the very life of a motion picture—a vital necessity. Of course, the art has been employed from time immemorial in the theatrical profession—in the dressings of stage settings for legitimate productions, but camouflage, as used on a stage, is very limited in its scope, and is admittedly camouflage, for this reason loses its very effectiveness. It is when camouflage is mistaken for the genuine and the delusion is unquestioned, that it really serves the purpose for which it is intended.
    
Examples of some of the numerous instances where camouflage is employed in motion pictures might be of interst. At the Lasky studio, for instance, which is one of the largest of west coast film plants, one might see on every hand the evidences of this great art.
    
To begin with, the very make-up of the players is often the most perfect camouflage. The feeble-looking old man or the dissipated, rum-soaked hobo might be, in reality, one of the most gentle and best-appearing young men on the lot, hiding his real identity under a skillful application of camouflage.…
   
Even the most conscientious, exacting and painstaking producers, who fairly dote on realism in their productions and always secure it whenever possible, are never slow to admit the importance and the value of the art of camouflage, and the great frequency and regularity with which it is employed in the production of motion pictures.

Painted Battlefield Helmets during World War One

Above Allied soldier during WWI with a disruptively-painted helmet.

•••

Anon, IN ART CIRCLES, in Long Beach Independent (long Beach CA), March 27, 1949, p. 10—

[A retired oil-field worker turned artist, Carl R. Walline’s] interest in painting dates back to the first World War, when he drummed up a lively business on a returning troop ship painting camouflage on the helmets of soldiers at a dollar a helmet.

With this leftover camouflage paint he did his first landscape.

•••

Anon, SOLDIERS HUNT WAR TROPHIES, Camouflaged Helmet the Favorite But Another German Souvenir Will Do, COMING HOME LOADED DOWN, in Elwood Call Leader (Elwood IN), December 30, 1918, p. 1—

With the American Troops, Dec. 26—Pretty nearly every doughboy at the front has become a boche souvenir hunter and has annexed a quantity of excess baggage that in some cases is appalling.

The first impulse of a German soldier who decided to retreat or to surrender seemed to be to get rid of his steel helmet, beautifully or weirdly camouflaged. In any column of prisoners to be seen on any road behind the American lines not over five in any 100 are still wearing their helmets. All have donned the soft slouch cap that so detracts from their soldierly appearance.

Every Fighter Loaded Down
The helmets were dropped, thrown away in haste, and all but cluttered up the battlefield. Nearly every American soldier who has been fighting at the front either has a German helmet by now or has sent one home. For under a new rule by general headquarters it is now possible to paste a home address on a German helmet, drop the headgear into the mail box and send it to mother, sister or sweetheart. Just how many have gone home, ostensibly as the personal booty of the sender, it would be hard to say.

Many of the helmets are interesting to say the least. Many boche soldiers have in their idle hours painted and camouflaged their headpieces until they have a weirdly odd appearance. The German helmets have vastly more surface space than the American, the British or the French. It has protection for the ears and neck in the shape of a rim or extension, so that quite a little picture can be drawn on it.

Disruptively-patterned German helmet

 
Most Popular Camouflage
The most popular camouflage is a series of two-inch stripes that meet at the top of the helmet and extend like the ribs of a fan outward and downward to the edges of the hat. In other cases the entire surface space is painted into squares of yellow, green and gray, or in all the colors of the rainbow. The composite effect is startling. These are the most coveted of all souvenir helmets, and the doughbory who has not the opportunity of finding one on the battlefield gladly gives a sack of tobacco for one.

Shoulder straps make another interesting and portable souvenir though they are also a distinct military value because they help to identify the units that have been opposed to the Americans. Yet there are enough for this purpose and to spare, and they are eagerly sought by the solider who does not care to be burdened with a heavy helmet in addition to his own.

•••

Anon, ORIZABA BRINGS LEATHERNECKS IN, Giant Troopship Has On Board 11th Regiment of Devil Dogs, in The Daily Press (Newport News VA), August 7, 1919, p. 3—

The transport Orizaba landed at the naval base yesterday with one of the largest groups of soldiers she has ever carried, when she brought home the 11th regiment of Marines. More than 4,000 men were aboard the transport…

Nearly all the Marines had their helmets painted with all the colors of the rainbow. The men said that a camouflage artist aboard was responsible for the tortoise-shell effects given to the tin hats.…

USS Orizaba in dazzle camouflage scheme