Air Brushed Photographs/Renderings
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Cooper-Bessemer Corporation (Mt. Vernon, Ohio)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Cooper-Bessemer Corporation Records
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1909-1930s, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This series consists of air brushed black-and-white photographs, primarily of engines, generators, parts, and some buildings, mounted on mat board with annotations about dimensions, where to add color and text and other production notes. Some of the photographs are described and numbered, noting a negative number, the type of engine, the name of a building and the name of the company and location of the engine installation. In some instances, the original photographers name is noted. However, most are unidentified.  

Some mat boards also contain who completed the art work. Cooper-Bessemer contracted with outside firms and indivduals such as Arthur J. Olson of Cleveland, Ohio; the Powers-House Company; Terry Engraving Company, Columbus, Ohio; the Bartlett Orr Press File; and Chasmar-Winchell Prep Art Department; and Wightman-Hicks, Inc. 

These images were presumably used for assembling the company catalog, product literature, and other promotional materials. Air brushing allowed artists to create highly rendered images with a high level of realism.