New Britain herald., 1922-11-14
.NINETY-SIX FOOT
 PHOTO COMPLETED.
Made by the Curator of the Chicago Academy of Sciences

Chicago, Nov. 14.--A photograph ninety-six feet long and ten feet high, one of the largest ever made, has been completed by Dr. Frank M. Woodruff curator of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, in Lincoln Park.
 It shows a panarama of the Lake Michigan shore at Miller Beach, near Gary, Ind, the famous Indiana sand dunes, the sluggish Grand Calumet river, and the swamps and swale stretching around the eastern and southeastern environs of Chicago. The photograph is tinted in natural col ors.
 The picture is one of four immense panarama photographs which when all are complete, will form the back grounds of exhibits showing the birds, animals, reptiles, trees and > flowers, common now or in carrier days in the Chicago region.
 A second picture, 7a feet long and ten feet high, has been completed, and two more, one 96 and the other 72 feet long, are to be made.
 When complete the series will show typical bits of scenery from the sand dune region, through the swamps to the Calumet Sag, north through the prairies, and back to the lake some where above the north shore suburbs.
 Mark Advent of New Art
 The photographs mark the advent of a new art. and have displaced oil paintings costing thousands of dol lars. A picture a2 Meet long can be produced, according to pr. Woodruff, for less than s100, and the tinting in transparent oils costs but a small amount additional, as compared With the heavy cost of oil paintings.
 Any art student who underestimate color can do the tinting, he says, ai the photograph itself furnishes the highlights and shadows
 Photographic backgrounds, accord ing to government ornithologists whc inspected the pictures during the con vention here Of the American Orni thoogist union, mark a milestone in museum displays. Unlike the oi; paintings formerly used, they arc exact in every detail, and the perspec- tive is much better. The improved perspective blends the background in to the foreground exploit, and carries out the illusion of vast space.
 Birds, animals, trees of special shape or anything else can be added to the background, Dr. Woodruff found, by enlarging their photographs to the right size, cutting out the pie ,t .tt, ia, on with pin. Birds n flight. of the same species shown among the stuffed foreground exhibits, are given the ap pearance of actual motion through space because the pin suspends then in front of the background, instead of their being painted part of it.
 Had to Develop New Method
 In making the immense photo graphs pr. Woodruff, who took all the original pictures himself, had to de-. veop new methods and special equip ment. The photographs are printed in 10 by II foot sections. Each sec ton being the enlargement of one eight by ten negative. Developing papers in strips eleven feet long and forthy inches wide is used three strips being mounted on the printing board at time. To keep all parts of such a large printing board in focua it was necessary to build fl in a curve corresponding to an arc of the circle of which the enlarglng camera IS the center.
 To develop the huge prints an im- mensc tray is mounted on wooden horses and four extra tall men drag the paper back and forth, while boy wearing rubber boots climbs into the developer armed with a swab mount ed on broomstick handle and assists their efforts.
 In addition to the four big pictures, Dr. Woodruff has completed 1l0 photographs ten feet high and five feet wide for smaller exhibit cases,