Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 9

Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #10 of 32

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Locomotive Crane

The image speaks for itself.
So I'll mention instead that, years after we married each other, Marianne Porter and I both discovered that we were early fans of Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel. I because my name was "Mike," and she because the steam shovel's name was "Marianne."
It was fate.

 And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #9 of 32

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Coffer Dam and Intake Canal at Power House

Isn't this a wonderful image? It is! I hope you click on it so you can admire the fine detail.

This is a good time to pause and explain what the purpose of this enormous project was. It was 1918 and World War I, "the War to End All Wars," was ongoing. Lots and lots of ammunition was needed. And to create that ammunition, the armorers needed nitrates.

And here I will pause in the middle of the previous pause to mention that my father, whom I loved and of whom I was and am proud, was an engineer for General Electric. He worked on the space program and he worked on ICBMs--intercontinental ballistic missiles. Which is to say, he was front and center on the best and worst projects of the twentieth century.

The nitrates plant was finished just in time for the Great War to end. So it was never used for munitions. But nitrates were still needed for fertilizer. Swords were beaten down into plowshares.

So, like my father, Chesley Bonestell was front and center on the best and worst projects of the twentieth century.

 And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Books I Own and You Don't: THE WRITER'S SIDEKICK

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I have compiled this book as a useful tool for the convenient use of both the amateur and the professional author. To collect these gems I have cream-skimmed the writing of myriad novelists, to whom grateful acknowledgment is hereby made. To quote Montaigne: "I have here only made a garland of choice flowers; I bring nothing of my own but the thread that binds them."

--Clifford Pierce Redden 

I discovered Redden's The Writer's Sidekick at a writing workshop I agreed to teach at during the1980s. Like many an indieauthor, he apparently had trouble finding a market and so he left a stack on the freebies table. Had I realized howentertaining my fellow writers would find it, I would have swiped a dozen on my way out.

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TWS is a compilation of adjectives, mostly compound and hyphenated, thatRedden found attached to various nouns. Under JOKES, for instance, he has:

age-worn

back-number

bad-taste

barnacle-encrusted

below-belt

chuckle-compelling,

corn-fed

corset-busting

and so on, all the way to X-rated. The nature of the booksthe author consulted really shows in his categories of women, including B-GIRL (onepage), BLONDE (two pages), HARLOT (one page), and NYMPHO (two). Some of themare pretty funny. TEEN-AGE SEXPOT includes:

sweater-bulging cheerleader

back-seat popularity

under-age sexcitress

butt-sprung usherette

haymow-taught sex

slumber-party gossip

and hand-knitted socks.

The unintentional comedy of "under-age sexcitress" and the like is amusing at first. But after a while, the sexism of the project makes reading it dreary and depressing.

 Still, in short bursts it's a hoot. And I'm absolutely certain you don't own a copy.

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #8 of 32

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Looking from Coffer Dam to Power House

If you've been following this series of lithographs, I hope you've been clicking on the images to admire them in detail. There's a lot of it.

Note that in the background of this image is the smokestack of the powerhouse. This will pop up again and again in the series. It's the metaphoric North Star of the construction project.

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #7 of 32

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 .Intake Canal and Coffer Dam

 

Look at the size of this project! The human figures quietly bring out the massive scale of it.

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #6 of 32

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The Drainage Canal

 The same scene as yesterday, but a different artistic take on it.

What is extraordinary about the nitrates plant is that the entire project, from start to finish, took less than a year. Chesley Bonestell was there for the beginning and he was there at the end. People knew how to build things fast back then. Also--as you'll soon see--huge.

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #5 of 32

 The Drainage Canal

As a kneejerk, pro-ecology liberal, I'm supposed to be appalled by big industrial builds, especially when they're for the munitions industry. But this is majestic. Look at the beauty Bonestell found in those curves!

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #4 of 32

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Site Looking from River Road

While we cannot prove it and, indeed, have no evidence it is so, Marianne and I are both convinced that one of the equestrians must surely be John Fetherston, the project head/chief engineer for the nitrates plant. 

After retirement, Fetherston and his wife lived in Packwood House in Lewisburg, parts of which dated back to the eighteenth century. Edith filled the house with antiques bought at auction. She "enjoyed arranging her objects in charming and whimsical combinations." After her death, in accordance to her will, a trust was created and in 1976 the Packwood Museum opened, displaying her collection of ceramics, glass, textiles, furniture, paintings, Pennsylvania German decorative arts (in this part of the world it is almost obligatory for rich people to collect fraktur and redware), and Oriental art.

Two of Bonestell's lithographs were framed and so, presumably, available for view at the auction. So they were not technically "lost." But they were not seen by anybody who had any idea what they were.

Alas, this by all accounts charming museum closed in 2020, when the Covid Isolation drove down its attendance and it could no longer pay its own way. The building went to the local historical society and its possessions, in accord with Edith's will, went to her parish church. Which had no earthly use for the and so put them for sale in several auctions. One of which was held by Pook & Pook.

"I don't know what that is, but I hope you win them," the lady at the auction house told Marianne when Marianne said that the only thing she really wanted was the Bonestells.

We had two reasons for wanting them. First, because they're terrific. Second, because we knew that if an interior decorator got hold of them, they'd be slapped in chrome frames and sold into dentists' and doctors' offices to be ignored for a few decades and then thrown away.

Luckily for us, nobody with deep pockets knew what they were, and we were able to buy them for less than what they must surely be worth.

And because we were aware of what they were, we understood that we had an obligation to share them with the world.

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #3 of 32

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River Road Looking West from Plant  

Not long after the previous litho, the cotton fields and the people who toiled there are gone, and the plant is under construction.

The entire project, from beginning to end, took less than a year.

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #2 of 32

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 Site Looking from River Road

Whatever order Bonestell's lithographs originally had is now lost. But this bucolic scene (though not so to the workers in the field, obviously) of a cotton field untouched by construction, surely came first. It's a "before" picture. If you zoom in on the workers, you can tell that they were all Black and even make out the patterns of some of the clothing.

 

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we're posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

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