The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-28
HUGE PHOTOGRAP \
is COMPLETED BY.
CHICAGO CURATOR
Picture Is Largest of Kind
Ever Made-ShoWS Entire
Section of Lakes
Bank

CHICAGO, Dec. IA photograph
80 feet long and 10 feet high. one of
the largest ever made, has been com
pleted by DR.. Frank NJ. Woodruff,
curator of the Chicago Academy of
Science. in Lincoln Park.
1t shows a panorama of the Lake
Michigan shores at Miller Beach.
near Gary, Ind, the famous Indian
sand dunes, the sluggish Grand Calu-
met river and the swamps and the
swale stretching around the eastern
and southeastern environs of Chicago.
The photograph Is painted in natural
colors.
The picture is one of the four i'm
mense panorama photographs, which,
when all are complete, will form the
background of exhibits showing the
birds, animals, reptiles, trees and
flowers common now or in earlier
days in the Chicago region.
A second picture, 70 feet long and
10 feet high, has been completed and
two more, one 96 and the other ~
feet long, are to be made.
VIII show Scenery
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 somewhere above the north
shore suburbs.
The photographs mark the advent
of a new art, and have displaced oil
paintings costing thousands of dol
lars. A picture 90 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 paintings.
Any art student who understands
color can do the tinting. he says. as
the photograph itself furnishes the
highlights and shadows.
Photographic backgrounds, accord
ing to government ornithologists who
recently inspected the pictures dur
Ing the convention here of the Amer
lean Ornithologists union, mark a
milestone in museum displays. I'm
like the oil paintings formerly used,
they are exact in every detail, and
the perspective is much better. The
improved perspective blends the
background into the foreground ex-
hibit, and CARR out the illusion of
vast space.
I, idded
Birds, amin, trees of special
shape or anythi else can be added
to the background, DIR. Woodruff
found, by enlarging their photo
graphs to the right size, cutting out
the picture, tinting it, and sticking
it on with a pin. Birds in flight of
the same species shown among the
stuffed foreground exhibits, are
given the appearance of actual mo-
ton through space because the pin
suspends them in front of the back
ground, instead of their being a
painted part of it.
In making the immense photo
graphs DIR. Woodruff. who took all
the original pictures himself, had to
develop new methods and special
equipment. The photographs are
printed in 10x11-foot sections, each
section being the enlargement of one
Sx10 negative. Developing papers in
strip II feet long and 40 inches wide
is used. three strips being mounted on
printing board at time. To keep all
parts of such> a large printing board
in focus 1t was necessary to build it
in a curve corresponding to an arc of
the circle of which the charging
camera is the center.
To develop the huge prints an i'm
mense tray is mounted on wooden
horses and four extra tall men drag
the paper back and forth, while a
boy wearing rubber boots climbs
into the developer armed with a
swab mounted on broomstick han
die and assists their efforts.
In addition to the four big pic
lures, DIR. Woodruff has completed
ITO photographs 10 feet high and five
feet wide for smalled exhibit, cases.