Winchester Batteries' Bullet-Fast Light 1944

     In 1944 Wally created this interesting alternative viewpoint of the moment Christopher Columbus first set eyes on the New World in October of 1492**.  The illustration is part of an advertisement for Winchester's unit cell batteries which were about to hit the US market.



     As the Winchester Ad explains, Columbus "saw dim, flickering lights in the West."  This illustration depicts what that flickering light may have been.  

   


     According to the write-up, the natives of the Americas possibly used Tabanuco tree wood resin as thier burning material for torches.   Now I know. 

   
     Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a division of Western Cartridge Company located in New Haven, Connecticut in 1944.  



**If you look closely, you may notice Walter's signature is nowhere to be found on this illustration.  Many of the illustrations I've uncovered were set aside by either my father or by the artist himself (my Grandpa) as illustrations he produced as commercial art.  In fact, I found hundreds of such clippings in one box marked 'Personal Illustrations'; this is one of them.

Bad Medicine For Big Bombers: An Illustration For Westinghouse Electric

     It's easy to gravitate to Walter DuBois Richards's World War II illustrations.  While his career spanned nearly seven decades, there is a certain excitement and awe connected to this four year period that draws in my attention.




     This action filled illustration by WDR gives us a good idea of just how intense a naval battle could get.   The above scene seems to depict the British Navy's QF 2 Pounder naval gun, also known as the 'pom pom.'   


     The Westinghouse Electric elevator company division was given the responsibility of producing gun mounts that controlled the aiming of anti-aircraft artillery guns or batteries found on many US Navy warships.  
    This illustration advertisement appeared in Collier's on May 2, 1942.  Like most American corporations during WWII like GE and GM, Westinghouse Electric devoted most of it's resources to giving the allies an edge over it's enemies, and wanted the home front to know it.    

A 1943 Cadillac / Fighter Plane Illustration

     Soon after joining the Charles E. Cooper Studio** in the late 1930s, Walter Richards began producing lithographic illustrations for Cadillac, a division of General Motors.  Its possible that Wally's work for Cadillac in the 1930s led into the various illustrations he made for General Motors throughout World War II and beyond.  For example, Walter produced a series of tank illustrations for Cadillac, as well as an illustration for the Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 torpedo built by Pontiac, also a division of General Motors. 

     This illustration, published in Collier's on September 11, 1943, is meant to raise awareness that during WWII General Motors mass-produced precision parts for various machines; such as the Allison transmission found in the above fighter plane. 
     The detail seen in the ground crew's clothes, their ripples, their shadows and reflections; it's all very impressive to me.  I remember that Wally enjoyed working in this war-time atmosphere.  With a wink he would tell me that he was an officer in the military during WWII, and brandish an official-looking military identification.  He explained to me he was given his rank so that he could have priority flying from one assignment to another.  

It's worth a read.  Notice the "Buy War Bonds And Stamps" stamp.  

   Starting in 1939, Cadillac began to focus it's manufacturing on producing precision parts for the liquid cooled Allison aircraft engine.  Turns out, WDR made illustrations profiling the Allison Transmission as well.  Impressively, Cadillac had to mass produce with extreme accuracy the machining of over 170 different aircraft parts.  Many of these machine parts required a tolerance grade of no more than three-ten thousandth of an inch.  Wow.  


I'm always interested in any further thoughts/knowledge you (the reader) may know about the illustrations I post, for example:

What type of plane is used for this illustration?
I see there are tents in the background, and the trees seem perhaps tropical in nature?  Is this an airfield in the South Pacific?

** This is a link to Leif Peng's Blog on illustration art titled "Today's Inspiration."   It is an endless and priceless source of information from which I have benefited many times over again and am forever grateful for.

A Great Source For WWII Posters by Michael E. Moss

     Michael E. Moss was the curator at the prestigious West Point Museum in the 1970s and published this short but fascinating anthology of World War II Posters.  The title is "Posters For Victory: The American Home Front and World War II, Posters From The West Point Museum."  In it he includes brief essays about the various subjects and intentions of the posters that were published in the United States during the war.  On a select few he includes colorful commentary and thoughts.  Although the posters are all printed in black and white, it offers insight on Wally's work I haven't found anywhere else, making it an invaluable source.  


     Walter DuBois Richards made at least two posters during World War II that I know of.     

     This exciting poster showcases an Army artillery unit in action and was "one of the more popular and well designed posters [of WWII]" according to Moss.  Published by the Office Of War Information in 1943, "Housewives... Save Waste Fats For Explosives" is both entertaining and informational.  Click here for the color version of this poster. 
   
     In Framingham, Massachusetts there exists one of the greatest private collections of WWII artifacts in the World.  Called Museum Of World War II, you must be over 18 years of age (they will make exceptions) and must obtain special permission just to access its halls.  In it you will find a bronze bust of Hitler that General Patton owned and trained his dog to urinate on.  The stains can clearly be seen streaking down Hitler's forehead.  
     Like the vast majority of the artifacts in the Museum, the bust is not behind an acrylic pane, instead it is on an eye level pedestal, and the visitor is free to get as close as he/she comfortably wants to.  The Museum is built on trust and the assumption that the visitors will be respectful and careful.  Which explains why no High - School field trip is allowed in.  
     There is an actual Sherman tank that still has sand from the African Desert in its metal crevasses and joints.  (Notice the various guns you can pick up and inspect.)  Just about every country that participated in the Great War is represented with separate rooms dedicated to propaganda, weaponry, correspondence, for each country.  It is a truly breath-taking collection.   
     It was at this museum I first saw this poster, "They've got more important places to go than you!... Save Rubber, Check Your Tires Now."  

     What a thrill it was to see it in such a remarkable and prestigious collection.  The poster was published by the Office Of Emergency Management, date unknown. 
     For a color version of this poster, click here. 

A personal note from the Author of "Posters For Victory"

"Tin Fish... from the sky!" A 1943 Illustration for Pontiac.

     One way I've discovered previously unknown illustrations my Grandfather produced has been by looking over scanned pages of Life Magazine on Google Docs.  It is quite impressive; Google has uploaded virtually every page of every Life Magazine, published by-weekly, since at least the late-1930s (where I started looking).  
     It's a tedious process, requiring a careful examination of each page with an illustration, and by the 1940s, at least half of all advertisements were still drawn (not photographed).   
     This was the first illustration I found by Walter DuBois Richards.  It appeared May 3, 1943 on page 78.  At the time, Wally was an illustrator at the Charles E. Cooper Studio in New York City.

     What a thrill, I had no idea he made such exciting war-time illustrations.  


     At first glance, the focus here seems to be the United States Navy's Torpedo Bomber, the Grumman TBF-1 Avenger, attacking what appears to be a Japanese Aircraft Carrier in the South Pacific.  The carrier looks similar to the Akagi, but in it's pre-WWII deck configuration. By 1939, Akagi had one long deck that extended from the bow to the stern.  
     In fact, this illustration is a short action piece illustrating the torpedo specifically.  According to this write-up, they were mass produced by Pontiac, a division of General Motors, throughout World War II.

     The aerial weapon illustrated here was probably a Bliss - Leavitt Mark 13 torpedo, the torpedo of choice for the Navy Avenger.     

Click to see larger version.

  

Hopefully, if I've designed this blog correctly, you should be able to click on any of the images in this blog to view them in a larger size on Flickr.  I've included the dialog from the illustration here so that you can click on it and read a larger, clearer version of it.  If I become more ambitious, I'll add the dialog from the illustration to the blog itself, since it is an entertaining mini-action story of the illustration Wally made.