FARRER (Anne)Livre Rare Book
World War II Aviation Nose Art on U.S. Army Air Forces Bomber and Fighter Aircrafts Photo Archive
1943réf. 239731943. World War II military nose art photo archive circa 1940s documenting the names pin up figures cartoons and painted emblems through which American servicemen personalized aircraft during and immediately after the global conflict. Nose art occupied an unofficial visual culture alongside standardized military insignia allowing crews to attach humor sexuality regional identity private jokes and individual names to mass produced machines assigned by the armed forces. The practice became so widespread during World War II that pin ups cartoons and popular culture imagery applied to aircraft became commonly identified as "nose art" while surviving institutional collections preserve comparable photographs because the painted designs themselves were vulnerable to repainting damage reassignment and postwar disposal. Photo archive of 18 silver gelatin photographs measuring from 1.75 x 3 to 4 x 5 inches circa 1940s. The photographs concentrate on painted fuselage decorations and names on American military aircraft particularly heavy bombers such as the B-29 and B-24 with designs including glamorous women reclining pin ups cartoon figures lettering and comic imagery. Identifiable aircraft include "Supine Sue" subtitled "The international figure" with a reclining woman painted beside the cockpit; "The Arabian Lady" with a veiled or draped female figure; "The Dragon Lady" represented by a large female figure in a cloak; "Tail Wind" accompanied by a pin up; and "The Lady is a Tramp." Other views record "Forbidden Fruit" additional female figures painted at large scale on aircraft skins humorous character designs and servicemen posed beside decorated aircraft. Several photographs move closer to the painted surfaces preserving rivets mission markings lettering and the relationship between the illustrations and the industrial aluminum skin beneath them. One image records comparable decoration on a ship rather than an aircraft extending the group beyond aviation to the broader wartime practice of personalizing military equipment. Versos carry scattered numbers and handwritten identifications including one inscription reading "Charles Polutsky just before taking off from Alamogordo New Mexico to Gulfport Miss." while another photograph is dated "11/10/45." American servicemen had personalized aircraft before World War II but the scale of wartime mobilization made the practice especially visible across U.S. Army Air Forces units. Smithsonian collections preserve wartime photographs of named aircraft and nose art from the Pacific China Burma India and other theaters while the National Museum of the United States Air Force identifies pin up girls cartoons and contemporary popular imagery as characteristic forms of World War II aircraft decoration. Artists could be ground crewmen or servicemen with professional artistic experience: Army Air Forces photographer Robert Serotkin for example painted aircraft while serving during the war and Corporal Tony Starcer became known for painting the Memphis Belle and other aircraft of the 91st Bomb Group. The photographs preserve the intersection of standardized military machinery with an unofficial servicemen's culture that transformed individual aircraft into named and illustrated objects carrying the humor erotic imagery references and identities of their crews. Light to moderate handling wear occasional creasing edge wear tonal variation and scattered surface marks; several prints with handwritten or stamped verso markings. Overall in good condition. A concentrated photographic record of the vernacular art through which American servicemen personalized wartime aircraft and military equipment. unknown books
Max Rambod Inc. · États-Unis2 800,00 $US≈ 2 496,66 €
