French Camouflage and Criminals

WWI French camoufleurs wearing hooded cagoule outfits

In an earlier post, we reproduced various images of French camoufleurs dressed in paint-streaked hooded outfits, the term for which was cagoule. These were adopted early in World War I by artists in the French infantry, to prevent themselves from being seen by aerial observers as they manned field artillery. Above is the cover of a French magazine (dated June 5, 1915) in which soldiers are wearing uniforms that look eerily like a mottled variation on the sinister ceremonial hoods of the American Ku Klux Klan. At the time, the French public was disturbed by this radical change of attire. This was described thirty years ago by art historian Elizabeth Louise Kahn in The Neglected Majority: "Les Camoufleurs," Art History, and World War I (University Press of America, 1984)—

Hidden beneath camouflaged cagoules…was a ghoulish image of the modern soldier, whose finely fitted and brilliant red and blue clothing was replaced by an amorphous costume of drab greens and browns that turned the individual into a frightening form.

Later on the same page, she mentions that one of the reasons for the initial disdain for camouflage was that "the very term camouflage held a devious and unseedy [sic] meaning for French readers of popular literature…" Prior to the founding of the first camouflage unit, it "was a word used to describe evil criminals who lurked about city streets and hid themselves from the police" (p. 148).

We were reminded of this when recently we ran across various images from French popular literature and film, before and during WWI, of a fictitious criminal named Fantomas. Created in 1911 by French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, the character was central to more than forty crime novels. The popularity of the books was amplified by various adaptations for film, television and comic books.

French crime character Fantomas

I mention this because in some of the images (such as those posted here), this crime character has an uncanny resemblance to a WWI hooded camoufleur. If Fantomas was on the minds of the French public at the outset of the war, no wonder they viewed with suspicion the cagoules (the "hoodies") of the camoufleurs.

books & historic prints and photographs

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)

Ship Camouflage | SS Matilda Weems

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Above Two views of a World War I dazzle-camouflaged ship, the SS Matilda Weems, as photographed on 23 August 1918. Sixth Naval District. Designs on the starboard (top) and port sides (bottom) differ remarkably. From photographs in the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Items 6925070 and 6925071.

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John Windsor, "General Patterns Army" in The Independent (August 4, 1996)—

Camouflage is the creation of aesthetes, not military tacticians. In fact, ever since the first purpose-designed camouflage of the First World War, hardened fighting men have gone into battle wearing patterns dreamed up by artists who considered them rather gorgeous.

WWI Ship Camouflaged as Island

Philip Little (c1917), battleship disguised as island

We've discovered something rather odd. It's an unusual painting in the collection of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It is undated (but presumably goes back to 1917) but bears the very clear signature of Philip Little, Salem, Mass. The most curious thing about it is foretold by its title: Battleship camouflaged as "An Island." This is followed by a note that reads: Canvas screens painted appropriately would be used, as in some foreign service. Boston Navy Yard. Zooming in on it on screen, it becomes apparent that the painting was made on the surface of a line drawing (or diagram) of an "outboard profile" of a World War I-era ship, identified as the USS Delaware, an American dreadnought battleship. Shown below is a close-up of a detail of this behemoth dressed up as an island, while above are three other views, including the entire painting, the artist's signature, and the label that's glued to the surface. Odd indeed.

Philip Little (c1917), battleship disguised as island

So who was Philip Little (1857-1942), and how and when was he involved in ship camouflage? There is no shortage of sources, online and otherwise. In the Boston Sunday Globe (September 9, 1917, p. 38), there is a news article by (Globe art critic) A.J. Philpott titled IN CAMOUFLAGE WAR MAKING DECEPTION INTO A FINE ART. It's a substantial article, near the end of which there is this note—

Philip Little, the Salem artist, who paints both landscapes and marines and who is one of the foremost painters in the country, recently experimented with camouflage on a boat with very remarkable success. It is men of his stamp who should be called on for service in this new emergency.

This may be in reference to Little's proposal (above) to disguise a battleship as an island, or it may refer instead to his other attempts at ship camouflage. In an unpublished and undated typescript by US Navy camoufleur Everett L. Warner ("Summary of Points to be Made in a General Lecture on Marine Camouflage") states that two photographs of camouflage schemes, designed by Little, were forwarded to him by the Boston Navy Yard on January 10, 1918. According to Navy records, the photographs (of the USS Yacona and the USS Aztec, both shown below) were taken on December 20, 1917. Clearly, these are not examples of island mimicry, but appear instead to fall between the "low visibility" (or optical mixture) experiments of muralist William Andrew Mackay (inspired by the findings of physicist Ogden Rood) and various "disruption" schemes.

Philip Little (1917), camouflage schemes for USS Yacona and USS Aztec

Encountering Two Dazzled Ships WWI

WWI dazzle camouflage (c1918)

It is always interesting to hear from UK ship modeler Jim Baumann who sends us links to amazing World War I ship models, as well as vintage photographs of dazzle-painted ships from the same era. Recently he shared a link to a wonderful model by Hou Wenchang of the HMT Olympic (1918). Be sure to zoom in on the detailed close-up images on the left side of the page. And above is an unusual photograph of two exquisitely-camouflaged ships, either British or American.

dazzle camouflage website

 

WWI Dazzle-Painted Cafe Buses

Camouflaged British café buses (1933)

Years ago, we ran across a news photograph (above), with a note explaining that, after World War I, unemployed British navy veterans were given jobs as servers on mobile café buses. As a reminder to the public, these buses were painted in striped ship camouflage patterns. Last week, we found a brief news article in the La Porte City (IA) Progress Review (dated June 15, 1933, p. 9) with a headline that reads CAFÉ BUSES CATER TO MOTORIST TRADE. Part of the rest of the article reads—

Traveling cafes on British roads are the latest development in catering for motorists, says Answers Magazine. A scheme for a fleet of these has been worked out as a means of providing employment for retired naval officers.

These traveling cafes are really super coffee stalls, fitted out with the most up-to-date equipment for providing refreshment for hungry wayfarers. The first of them are already on the road and may be recognized by their blue and white exteriors, in the style of the wartime "dazzle" camouflage for merchant ships. 

books & historic prints and photographs

Dazzle Camouflage Film Trailer

Author and designer Roy R. Behrens is interviewed in a new trailer (just posted) of Jonnie Morris' upcoming documentary on RAZZLE DAZZLE: The Hidden Story of Camouflage. The new graphics, pacing and editing are dazzling in and of themselves.

books & historic prints and photographs

Same Camouflage on Two Ships

Two dazzle-painted US ships (c1918) with the same camouflage

When dazzle ship camouflage was first adopted by the British Royal Navy in 1917 (and later by the US), the original plan was that no two ships should be painted with the same design. But it soon became apparent that this could never be accomplished, so a single design was often applied to multiple ships, with modifications as needed. In an earlier post, as an example of this, we featured photographs of two dazzle-painted British ships, the SS Empress Russia and the SS Osterley. Pictured above is another example, as seen in two American ships, the USS Congaree (top) and the USS Lake Borgne (bottom). According to a note made by US Navy camoufleur Everett L. Warner, the camouflage for the American ships was designed by a well-known marine painter named Frederick Judd Waugh (a student of Thomas Eakins), who is shown below in the process of painting a "victory mural" at the conclusion of World War I. Three hundred works by Waugh are in the collection of the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University in Wichita KS.

WWI ship camoufleur Frederick J. Waugh

Waugh's Victory Mural (c1919)

Behrens Camouflage Lecture at UNLV

UNLV lecture on Monday, September 16, 2013 at 7:00 pm

Roy R. Behrens, Professor of Art (graphic design) and Distinguished Scholar at the University of Northern Iowa, will be a guest at the Department of Art at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He will speak about "Closure and Disclosure: The Dance of Form and Function in Art and Camouflage" at 7:00 pm on Monday, September 16, 2013, at the Marjorie Barrick Museum on the UNLV campus. The event is open to the public.

Other sources

Review of Coutin Camouflage Book

Pages from the WWI notebook of André Mare (1916)

LAST APRIL IN a blog post here, we shared our excitement about a new book by French historian Cécile Countin on WWI French camouflage, titled Tromper l'ennemi: L'invention du camouflage moderne en 1914-1918 (Paris: Éditions Pierre de Taillac, 2012). We couldn't review it, as much as we wanted to, because the text is entirely in French. Nonetheless, we have greatly benefited from it because it is a rich array of French camouflage artifacts from that era, with exquisite full-color images of posters, magazine illustrations, camoufleurs' sketchbook drawings—you name it—along with scores of black-and-white wartime photographs, many of which have presumably never been published before. Reproduced above, for example, is a page spread from the notebook of French army camoufleur André Mare, showing 1916 photographs of camouflage-painted cannons.

In recent days, a review of Coutin's book has been published online. It was written by American historian E. Malcolm Parkinson (associate professor emeritus of history at Worchester Polytechnic Institute), whose article on "The Artist at War: Painters, Muralists, Sculptors, Architects Worked to Provide Camouflage for Troops in World War I" we blogged about a year ago. Now, Parkinson's review of the Coutin book can be accessed on the web at Leonardo Reviews >>more

Did Dazzle Camouflage Really Work?

Blodgett ship camouflage plans (redrawn)

WHILE LECTURING recently at the Sydney College of the Arts in Australia, I shared my digital reconstructions of a number of course deception plans for World War I ship camouflage (commonly known as dazzle camouflage). Five of those are shown above. The original study was conducted by Leo S. Blodgett, a Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering student at MIT, and the results were published in his Bachelor of Science degree thesis (1919).

This full document can be accessed here at the MIT library website. His hand-drawn colored diagrams of camouflaged ship models are somewhat imperfectly rendered, so I have redrawn them on computer. A more serious problem is that the color swatches (a key to the colors applied to the ship models) were apparently made with opaque watercolor (gouache), and some of the colors have dramatically changed with the passage of time. So the colors in my reconstructions may differ considerably from the originals. Also, as Blodgett mentions in his text, he restricted his experiments to those that made intentional use of perspective distortions or forced perspective (aka "false perspective").

Using a ship camouflage testing theatre that, at the end of the war, was given to MIT by Boston-area camouflage artists (he includes two photographs of it, reproduced below), he determined that average course estimation errors could sometimes be substantial. To date, this is the most persuasive proof that not only was dazzle camouflage effective in diverting the aim of the U-boats, it was far better than anyone thought.

Ship Camouflage Testing Theatre (c1919)

More recently, I found another document, titled Notes on Course Deception Principles. In public domain, it appears to be a US Government report [Contract NObe-72039. Task 3 (Final Report). Report No. 3-8. September 1959]. The study was conducted by MIT optical physiologist Seibert Quimby Duntley, whose emphasis on "false perspective" may suggest that he had some awareness of the research by Blodgett. Also, in the final paragraph, when he mentions automobile styling in relation to camouflage, he is probably alluding to the work of designers and color consultants at General Motors (notably H. Ledyard Towle, who was an army camoufleur during WWI). Here is the full text (there are no illustrations)—

PREFACE
These notes were originated in support of efforts to avoid course deception effects in the painting of aircraft. They constitute a brief discussion of some of the principles employed in the design of the course-deception patterns and type-deception patterns formerly incorporated in the painting of surface ships as a defense against submarine and surface ship attack directed by visual sightings. Although technical developments have eliminated these measures from naval practice, the concepts from which they were developed are not without present value. The notes are reported herein primarily because no comparable written material on this subject appears to be available.

INTRODUCTION
Several effective patterns for the painting of surface vessels were devised in World Wars I and II to decrease the probability that the true course and speed of the ship would be correctly estimated by an observer at sea level. It is the purpose of this report to discuss some of the principles upon which the design of these patterns was based.

BASIS OF COURSE ESTIMATION
Successful estimation of the course of a vessel involves a special mental process in the recognition category: When some object which might be a ship is visually perceived, the observer is required to search his memory and generate within his brain visualizations of known ship-types at various headings in order to compare these visualizations with the appearance of the object. When the correlation between the apparent object and one of these visualizations is sufficiently good the observer experiences a sense of recognition and course estimation. This mental process, usually subconscious and rapid, requires familiarity with the appearance of ships and, of course, improves with experience due to the accumulation of memory. If visualizations at more than one heading correlate closely with the appearance of the unknown object, course estimation is ambiguous; accuracy is possible only if there is a rapid rate of change of correlation between the appearance of the unknown object and a series of visualized ship headings. Any factor causing the appearance of the object to fail to correlate with visualizations based upon memory of known ships will inhibit or prevent recognition and course estimation. It is not surprising, therefore, that several types of course deception pattern techniques have been evolved. These can, however, be classified into two main groups, which might be termed confusion measures and falsification measures, respectively, for lack of more standardized terminology. These two categories will be discussed separately in the following sections.

CONFUSION MEASURES
As previously stated, any factor causing the appearance of an unknown object to fail to correlate with visualizations based upon memory of known ships will inhibit or prevent course estimation. Two classical methods for achieving confusion by means of paint have been called dazzle and low visibility, respectively.

The weird and garish dazzle designs so common on ships plying the North Atlantic during World War I have long disappeared from the seas, but pictures of them are easily available and universally excite curiously concerning the origins, the functions, and the basis for their design. All dazzle patterns sought to give the ship an unrecognizable appearance from a "periscope viewpoint." Almost any large discordant pattern departing markedly from all natural lines of a ship can accomplish this confusion objective. Each of the artists who conducted dazzle studies at model scale evolved favorite pattern-types, all of which served to produce course deception by confusion. The best of the dazzle patterns, however, sought to incorporate false perspective as a further course deception feature; perspective distortion as an independent course deception measure will be discussed in a later section.

Low visibility painting schemes for ships are still in use and are intended primarily to reduce the probability of the presence of the ship being visually detected. This is usually accomplished to some useful degree, but every low visibility treatment is a compromise and approaches true concealment within only a very narrow gamut of lighting and viewing conditions. At other times, portions of the vessel may be difficult or impossible to see, but other parts are readily visible. When this situation prevails, recognition of the ship may be impossible and its course may be difficult to estimate. The low visibility paint is then serving to provide course deception by confusion.

FALSIFICATION MEASURES
Since any factor causing the appearance of an unknown object to fail to correlate with the correct visualization of the ship being observed may lead to an erroneous course prediction, falsification of several kinds were employed in ship camouflage. Included in this category of course deception measures are disguise, false cues, false perspective, and symbolic patterns. Many ingenious falsification measures have been devised, but this report will mention only a few examples.

Disguise took many forms and was more commonly employed for reasons of type deception than course deception. False superstructure was added, for example, to tankers to make them resemble freighters, transports, or even warships, and in so doing reverse bow and stern in order to add an element of course deception.

False Cues included such devices as a bow wave painted at the stern of the ship, or a pint pattrn on or near the stack of a vessel intended to make the stack appear to learn toward the bow rather than the stern.

False Perspective was not confined to dazzle patterns. False superstructures and false water lines were employed to produce an untrue illusion of distance and to produce errors in stadiometric ranging through a periscope. False water lines tilted slight from bow to stern gave to the ship the illusion of a false heading. An analogous effect was sometimes achieved by the use of non-parallel bands of paint on the sides of vessels having multiple decks, thus inducing a false convergence relation.

Symbolic Patterns saw relatively little use in naval camouflage but they are extensively used as a type of "falsification measure" in many forms of art and design. A recent example is found in the current styling used by a certain automobile manufacturer, who says that his cars appear to be in motion even when standing still. This is achieved by an overall wedge-shaped motif high at the rear and tapering to a low point in front, suggestion of the configuration of recent high speed aircraft or of an arrow point. Arrows or chevron markings are often used to indicate direction.

books & historic prints and photographs

Australian Radio Interview | Roy R. Behrens

Click here to access podcast

Above An interview of Roy R. Behrens by Margaret Throsby, broadcast live on Midday on ABC Classic FM on August 13, 2013, in Sydney, Australia. Among the topics of conversation were music, improvisation, Eric Satie, Billie Holiday, Keith Jarrett, Eden Ahbez, Gertrude Stein, William Cook, Le Corbusier, Buffalo Bill, ventriloquism, Iowa—and camouflage.

Ann Elias on Camouflage and Max Dupain

Online article by Ann Elias

Art historian Ann Elias, the author of the online article linked below is an Associate Professor of Theoretical Enquiry at the Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney, in Australia. In the coming week, she will also be co-hosting, with Nicholas Tsoutas, a major international conference on camouflage, called Camouflage Cultures: Surveillance, Communities, Aesthetics, Animals.
 
Max Dupain and Frank Hinder are among the many significant artists who contributed decisively to Australia's modernist tradition. Less well known, however, is that they both worked for Australia's military during the Second World War. >>>more

Camouflage Cartoons | Maurice Ketten

Until a few days ago, we had never heard of an Italian-born American cartoonist named Maurice Ketten (1875-?), née Prosper Fiorini, and at this point we still know very little. Apparently he studied art in Paris at the École des Beaux Arts, then emigrated to the US around 1906. He became a well-known cartoonist for the New York World (1907-1930s), for which he produced a daily cartoon. Shown here are two cartoons he made about camouflage that were featured in the Washington Post in 1917.

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Dialog for Office Camouflage (above)—

—Mr. John, hereafter I want to see you at your desk more. You spend too much time out of the office. Tell Mr. Bill this applies to him too.

—Yes , Boss.

—He! He!

.

—Yes, Boss, they are at their desks.

—Good!

.

—Did it work?

—Yes, the boss thinks he saw you at your desk, Mr. John.

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Dialog for Home Camouflage (below)—

—Go to our room and go to bed! You can't go out tonight.

—O, very well.

.

—The inventor of the fire escape must have been a married man.

.

—Something queer! He is not snoring.

.

—Well! What a clever home camouflage!

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—Won't she get onto it?

—Never! If she goes to my room she'll think I'm asleep. I did a nice little bit of camouflage.

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—The idiot! He doesn't know yet after forty years that he never sleeps without snoring.

New Uses of Dazzle | Stephanie Syjuco

Dazzle-painted Fallingwater (2013) © Stephanie Syjuco

Above In recent years, all sorts of people have adapted disruptive camouflage schemes (or dazzle patterns) for innovative use in surprising contexts. None have been quite as refreshing as the recent work of a Philippine-born artist named Stephanie Syjuco, who is now based in California (BFA San Francisco Art Institute, MFA Stanford University). Earlier this year, she completed a series of digital renderings of "speculative proposals for public works" called Dazzle Camouflage Propositions. Shown above is her dazzle-surfaced version of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater (she's also done something comparable for Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye). Among her other proposals (see below) are dazzle applications for Silicon Valley "Google buses," IKEA furniture, and a Philippine jeepney.

Camouflaged Google bus (2013) © Stepanie Syjuco

Dazzle-patterned IKEA furniture (2013) © Stephanie Syjuco

Camouflaged jeepney (2013) © Stephanie Syjuco

See also: Roy R. Behrens, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT and Mason City: Architectural Heart of the Prairie (2016). 

Ship Camouflage Poster | L.A. Shafer

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Above During World War I, those artists (civilian or military) who were not assigned to camouflage contributed in other ways. In the US, for example, a considerable number of artists designed recruiting, fundraising and propaganda posters. This particular one of a brightly dazzle-painted ship was produced in 1918 by an American artist named Leon Alaric Shafer (1866-1940), better known as L.A. Shafer.

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From "WILL EXHIBIT 'CAMOUFLAGE'" in the Washington Post, December 30, 1917, p. 14—

"Camouflage" will play an interesting part in the fourteenth national motorboat show at Grand Central Palace, New York. There will be at least one exhibit illustrating in models how "camouflage" is applied to ships in the form of war paint. "Camouflage" as painted these days has all the evidence of an escaped lunatic having enjoyed an orgy with paint pots.

Camouflage Artist | Nishan G. Toor

Armenian-born American camoufleur Nishan G. Tooroonjian

In a recent post, we mentioned the return to San Francisco at the end of World War I of two dozen California artists who had served as US Army camoufleurs in France. Among those listed was an Armenian-born sculptor named Nishan G. Tooroonjian (1888-1966), who later changed his family name to Toor. 

Reproduced above is a photograph of him that appeared in a periodical called The New Armenia, Vol X No 3, March 1918 (at which time he was still in France). His drawing appears on the cover of that issue, and the photo caption reads: "N.G. Tooroonjian. Camoufleur, AEF in France. The cover design of The New Armenia was drawn by him." 

A substantial entry on his life was published in the 1942-43 edition of Who's Who in California, and there is a website that features about forty of his works, as well as some wonderful photos of him, self-described as a "disguised agitator."

additional sources

Dazzle Camouflage Skirts and Swimsuits

Above Here's one more example of the fashionable adoption of dazzle camouflage bathing suits near the end of World War I. Add this to our previous posts on the same subject. Accompanying this photograph was the heading WARS[sic] EFFECT FELT IN BATHING SUITS: Camouflage is supposed to hide things. Bathing suits seem built to reveal. Yet here are these beach nymphs in paradoxical camouflaged bathing suits. The same photo appeared in various newspapers in the US and Canada around the same time, this one in The Winnipeg Tribune, in the Society Section and Woman's Magazine, Saturday, August 16, 1919, p. 1.

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From the "It's Town Talk" column in Free Lance (New Zealand), Issue 972, March 6, 1919, p. 22—

That the new "dazzle camouflage" design on summer skirts may be all right for the ethereal nymph-like form, but for over umpteen stone specimens the least said the better.

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From "Camouflage Finds Use in Fashions" in The Coshocton Tribune (Coshocton OH), April 15, 1920, p. 8—

LONDON—The artists who decorated our recently almost invisible ships and who hid the armies of the western front behind and under painted canvas and "ersatz" villages are out of a job.

Hence the spring millinery styles.

The dazzle hat has arrived, and with it a game.

Says one fashion writer:

"If you see coming toward you a woman who in some unaccountable way seems to melt into a sort of rainbow mass above the shoulders, don't be alarmed; try to find her hat."

To the uninitiated the new spring designs seem to be meaningless collections of colored stripes and zigzags. Some are even more like forked lightning.

additional sources

San Francisco Camouflage Artists

Chameleons, German book illustration (1897)

We've recently located a 1919 news article that describes the return to San Francisco from the war in France of twenty-five American camoufleurs, all but two of whom were from San Francisco. They arrived on the evening of February 12, and the news story (including three photographs) appeared on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle the following day. The headline reads (in part): S.F. SOLDIER ARTISTS BACK FROM FRONT. Detachment of Camoufleurs From 20th Engineers Return to City. It mentions in particular Sergeant Frank W. Swain, who "was a well-known art student of San Francisco before he joined the camouflage section. He studied at the University of California School of Fine Arts, and later under [Frank] Duveneck, the great American artist of Cincinnati." Here is the article's list of the twenty-five men in the unit—

Lieutenants [Richard S.] Meryman and Jack [Gage] Stark [neither one from San Francisco]; Sergeant Nishan Tooroonjian, sculptor; Sergeant Jack L. Osthoff, artist; Sergeant Frank W. Swain, artist; Sergeant Louis De Wald, artist; Sergeant Marcus M. Meherin, Jr, artist; Sergeant Joseph Kopersky, designer; Sergeant Sam Macloud, painter; Stanley Long, painter; Sergeant Albert [Sheldon] Pennoyer, artist; Corporal Clifford Neil, artist; Sergeant William R. Moran, mechanic; Sergeant Frank Duncan, artist…

…All of the men wore on their left shoulder a yellow chameleon—nature's own camoufleur, and emblematic of the soldiers' work in colors to deceive and mislead.

Some of these names are familiar. The lieutenant in charge, Richard S[umner] Meryman, was a student of Abbott H. Thayer in Dublin NH, and had collaborated with Thayer and (his son) Gerald H. Thayer prior to 1909 in illustrating their influential book on Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom (available online). 

In two earlier blog posts, we've also talked about A. Sheldon Pennoyer, who was one of the founders of the pre-war organization called the American Camouflage Western Division. There is mention of Pennoyer in an earlier column called "Artists and Their Work" by Anna Cora Winchell (San Francisco Chronicle, November 23, 1917), which reads as follows—

A greeting from artists and the camouflage corps comes from Camp Lewis, Washington, through A. Sheldon Pennoyer. It will be remembered that he was the dominating spirit, previous to being drafted, in organizing the camouflage in San Francisco.

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 From R. Tripp Evans, Grant Wood: A Life. New York: Knopf, 2010—

During World War I, [Grant] Wood was stationed in Washington DC, where he worked for the American Expeditionary Force Camouflage Division…Given his penchant for self-effacement it is equally fitting, as [his sister] Nan records, that he kept a pet chameleon in his studio.

additional sources

Camouflage Artist | Edgar Walter

Edgar Walter, Beauty and the Beast (n.d.)

Above A sculpture titled Beauty and the Beast (n.d.) by San Francisco artist Edgar (Melville) Walter (1877-1938), who also played a prominent role in World War I ship camouflage, as noted in the brief news article below.

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From "Sculptor Named Chief District Camoufleur" in San Francisco Chronicle, May 22, 1918, p. 6—

Edgar Walter, sculptor, has returned from a trip to New York, where he was called by the US Shipping Board. He has been appointed chief camoufleur for the Seventh District, which embraces California and a portion of Southern Oregon, and will direct the work of camouflage in the emergency fleet of the Shipping Board.

Camouflage Music | Dinner Disappears

Above The cover of the sheet music for a song called Camouflage: A Soldier's Song, with words by F.P. Drowne and music by Harry C. Zerfing (1918).

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From "Camoufleurs Makes Seven Course Dinner Disappear" in the Chicago Daily Tribune, March 17. 1918, p. 8—

The camoufleurs of Camp Grant, Chicago artists and cartoonists, who are proficient in the art of making things disappear, caused a seven course dinner to vanish last night in the club rooms of the Advertising Association. Numerous camouflage stunts added "pep" to the function.

Camouflage Around the House

Above A cartoon by H.M. Bateman from Punch, February 27, 1918, p. 133.

• Our thanks to Richard Hawkins for providing additional info.

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From "Dazzle Dinners" in the Aukland Star, Saturday, May 13, 1922, p. 19—

Nothing is stranger in appearance, more barbaric than the latest style in the French dinner table.

Wine glasses are of the weirdest forms, without stems, and each guest has a different colored glass before him.

Plates are any shape except circular. Some are square, some irregular, and some simply no shape at all. They are not plain white, or colored, or even decorated with floral designs, but in their coloring resemble the 'dazzle paint camouflage' of war memory.

Knives and forks retain their usual shape, as nothing better has yet been invented for cutting up food and conveying it to the mouth, but their handles are of queer, tortured forms, and made of green glass or composition of many hues. Table cloths have, of course, gone long ago, and red lights in alteration, by means of clockwork devices, and so the whole atmosphere is one of uncanny strangeness.

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From "Pumpkin Pie, Without, A Camouflage Trick" in the Boston Daily Globe, November 19, 1917, p. 3—

Washington, Nov 18—The art of camouflage has now reached the good old pumpkin pie. Mrs. G.M. King of East Orange NJ today sent to the National Emergency Food Garden Commission a recipe for making pumpkin pie without the pumpkin. Here it is:

Scald one quart of milk, add scant cup of indian meal, little salt. When cold, add two eggs. Cinnamon and ginger to taste. Sweeten with brown sugar. Put little cream or milk on top and bake.

additional sources

Camouflage Artist | Grant Wood

Dust Jacket with Grant Wood painting (detail)

Above Dust jacket for R. Tripp Evans, Grant Wood: A Life (New York: Knopf, 2010), based on a detail from one of Grant Wood's lesser known (but especially compelling) works, titled Death on Ridge Road (1935). In fact, there is a scenic route called Ridge Road in the vicinity of Anamosa and Stone City, Iowa.

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It's nothing new to mention that Iowa artist Grant Wood (1891-1942) enlisted in the US Army near the end of World War I, and that he served briefly as a camouflage artist. Nearly every account of his life makes note of that in passing, and states that he was responsible for the camouflage of artillery. Here, for example, is one account, from R. Tripp Evans' recent biography (cited above)—

[After his enlistment in the Army Corps of Engineers in 1917] Wood was stationed outside Des Moines at Fort Dodge, where he passed his free time sketching portraits of his fellow soldiers. After an appendicitis attack landed him in an army hospital, Wood was transferred to Washington DC, where he joined the American Expeditionary Force Camouflage Division. Charged with camouflaging heavy artillery and creating convincing cannon "dummies" [sometimes known as "Quaker guns"], Wood found that his background in theater design served him surprisingly well.

Meanwhile, we recently ran across a news clipping in scrapbooks put together by Wood's sister, Nan (available online here), in which Wood talks briefly about his wartime camouflage service. The article (the source isn't noted, but it's most likely from the Des Moines Register and Tribune, accompanied by the penciled note "Nov 1933?") is titled "3 Will Show Oil Paintings. Iowan's in Exhibit Here Next Week." It goes on to announce an upcoming joint exhibition (at Younkers in Des Moines) by three artists "who served in the same camouflage squad during the world war." Grant Wood is the Iowan, and the remaining two artists are John Kilgore from Chicago and Orrin White from Pasadena. "Stationed at Washington DC," the text continues, "the three young men were trained to camouflage cannons." And there is this paragraph in which Wood remembers their camouflage work—

"It was a difficult job," Mr. Wood recalls. "They took airplane photographs before and after our work was finished. Grass photographs like velvet, every footstep leaves its mark. We had to dig the hole for the cannon and fix it so that not a mark showed."

I have since been able to locate one of the artists who worked on camouflage with Wood. He was Orrin A[ugustine] White (1883-1969). Born in Hanover IL on December 5, 1883, he studied at Notre Dame and the Philadelphia School of Applied Arts. His parents owned a woolen mill in his hometown, and he was initially interested in textile design and the chemistry of dyes. He even taught chemistry briefly at Portland University, but eventually turned instead to interior design and landscape painting. Several online sources confirm that he was a second lieutenant in the 40th Engineers Camouflage Section.

As for John Kilgore, his case is slightly more challenging. The Iowa news article lists him as John Kilgore, as does Nan Wood's scrapbook note. But I can't find an artist-camoufleur named John Kilgore, although I've easily located one named Charles P. Killgore (or Kilgore) (1889-1979). Other than the apparent name error, everything else fits perfectly. Born in Huntington WV, he attended Marshall College and the Art Institute of Chicago. His professional life was centered in Chicago, where he worked for forty-three years as a color consultant for the Chicago Tribune. He too is said to have served as a WWI camoufleur, and to have been a good friend of Orrin White.

Mystery solved—sort of.

Additional sources