The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1922-11-22
MAKES 96-FOOT
|. LAKE PHOTOGRAPH

CHICAGO, Nov ga 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 panorama 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 ana
southeastern environs of Chicago. The
photograph is tinted in natural co1ors.
The picture is one Of four i'm
mense panorama photographs which,
when all are complete, will form the
backgrounds of exhibits showing the
birds, animals, reptiles, trees anc flow
ers common now or in earlier days in
the Chicago region.
Second One ~ Feet Long
A second picture. seventy-two feet
long and ten feet high, has been COM
pleted, and two more, one ninety-six
and the other seventy-tWo feet long,
are to be made.
The photographs mark the advent
Of a new art and have displaced oil
paintings costing thousands of dollars.
A picture ninety-two feet long can
be produced, according to DR.. Wood
ruff, for less than 500, and the tint
ing In transparent oils costs but a
small amount additional as compared
with the heavy cost Of oil painting
Any art student who understands
color can do the tinting, he says, as
the photograph itself furnishes the
high lights and shadows.
Photographic backgrounds, accord
ing to Government ornithologists who
recently inspected the pictures during
the convention here of the American
Ornithologists' Union, mark a mile
stone in museum displays. Unlike the
oil paintings formerly used. they are
exact in every detail and the perspec-
tive is much better. The improved
perspective blends the background
into the foreground and carries out
the illusion of vast space.
Animal Life Added
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 pic
ture, tinting it and sticking 1t on
with pin. Birds in flight Of the
same species shown among the
stuffed foreground exhibits give the
appearance of actual motion through
space because the pin suspends them
in front Of the background.
II making the photographs DR..
Woodruff who took all the original
pictures himself, had to develop new
methods and special equipment. The
photographs are printed in ten by one
foot sections, each section being the
enlargement OF one eight by ten mega
tive. Developing paper in strips
eleven feet long and forty inches wide
is used, three strips being mounted on
the printing board at a time. To keep
all parts OF such large printing
board il focus 1t was necessary to
build 1t in a curve corresponding to
an arc Of the circle Of which the en-
largiug camera IS the centre.
To develop the huge prints an inn
mense 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 mounted
on a broomstick handle and assists
their efforts.
In addition TO the four big pictures,
DR. Woodruff has completed 10 photo
graphs ten feet high and five feet
wide for smaller exhibit cases.