Photographs: ‘The War at Home: Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information Color Photographs’ by Alfred Palmer Part 2

October 2013

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Large pipe elbows for the Army are formed at Tube Turns, Inc., by heating lengths of pipe with gas flames and forcing them around a die, in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1941
1941
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC

 

 

Kodachrome sheets 1941-1943

This is the second of a two-part posting on the large format Kodachrome colour transparency photographs of the American photographer Alfred Palmer taken during 1941-1943.

This man was a true master of his craft. Look at the lighting in the first three photographs. Palmer really understood the theatre of the scene he was photographing. The first photograph, an inanimate object picturing an elemental force, brings me to tears when looking at it. Too sentimental, too emotional? I don’t think so… just an amazing experience from a magnificent photograph.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

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Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. Many thankx to the Library of Congress for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. No known copyright restrictions on any of the photographs.

 

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Casting a billet from an electric furnace, Chase Brass and Copper Co., Euclid, Ohio. Modern electric furnaces have helped considerably in speeding the production of brass and other copper alloys for national defense. Here the molten metal is poured or cast from the tilted furnace into a mold to form a billet. The billet later is worked into rods, tubes, wires or special shapes for a variety of uses
February 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Crane operator at Tennessee Valley Authority’s Douglas Dam
June 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
An employee in the drill-press section of North American’s huge machine shop runs mounting holes in a large dural casting, in Inglewood, California, in October of 1942
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
North American Aviation drill operator in the control surface department assembling horizontal stabilizer section of an airplane. Inglewood, California
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Here’s our mission. A combat crew receives final instructions just before taking off in a mighty YB-17 bomber from a bombardment squadron base at the field, in Langley Field, Virginia, in May of 1942
May 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Hitler would like this man to go home and forget about the war. A good American non-com at the side machine gun of a huge YB-17 bomber is a man who knows his business and works hard at it
May 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Young woman employee of North American Aviation working over the landing gear mechanism of a P-51 fighter plane. Inglewood, California. 
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Working on the horizontal stabilizer of a “Vengeance” dive bomber at the Consolidated-Vultee plant in Nashville
February 1943
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Testing electric wiring at Douglas Aircraft Company. Long Beach, California
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Truck driver at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Douglas Dam
June 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Experimental staff at the North American Aviation plant in Inglewood, Calif., observing wind tunnel tests on a model of the B-25 (“Billy Mitchell”) bomber
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
An experimental scale model of the B-25 plane is prepared for wind tunnel tests in the plant of the North American Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, California. The model maker holds an exact miniature reproduction of the type of bomb the plane will carry
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Parris Island S.C., barrage balloon
May 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Women are trained as engine mechanics in thorough Douglas training methods, at the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California, in October of 1942
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Annette del Sur publicizes a salvage campaign in yard of Douglas Aircraft Company, in Long Beach, California, in October of 1942
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Annette del Sur publicizing salvage campaign in yard of Douglas Aircraft Company. Long Beach, California
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

Alfred Palmer (American, 1906-1993)
Engine installers at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, California
October 1942
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency
Alfred Palmer/OWI

 

 

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