Art

NZ Observer, 4 May 1918, p. 5
1910s, Art, Australia, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures

The mystery aeroplane scare in New Zealand — III

For a country so far from the frontline, there was a surprising amount of discussion in the New Zealand press in the autumn of 1918 about the possibility of Auckland being bombed or Wellington being shelled. It’s true that it was often framed in a joking fashion, as with the above cartoon which appeared in […]

1910s, Archives, Art, Books, Ephemera, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics

Interdependent and inseparable — II

Previously I looked at Excubitor’s claim that in 1913 the Anglo-German naval race was turning into a more dangerous aero-naval one, and that Britain, having won the first was now in the process of losing the other. Here I’ll look at some related strands of thought in the press more generally, and what the point

Dellschau 1969
1900s, 1910s, 1920s, Aircraft, Art, Before 1900, Books, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures

Seeking Sonora

The art of Charles Dellschau has been receiving some attention lately, thanks to the recent publication of a book about his work. Dellschau, who produced thousands of strange and wonderful watercolours, drawings and collages in Houston, Texas, between about 1899 and 1922, is significant as an early outsider artist, but he is mainly of interest

Illustrated London News, 1 March 1913, pp. IV-V
1910s, Art, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Poetry, Post-blogging the 1913 scareships

Saturday, 1 March 1913

The Illustrated London News is not really a campaigning newspaper, but it has followed up last week’s striking graphical depictions of the airship menace with this fantastic double-page drawing by Norman Wilkinson, RI, of a German aerial fleet on its way to bomb Britain (pp. IV-V; above). The title asks WILL IT EVER BE SO

1910s, Art, Australia, Books, Civil defence, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures

The hydroairplane-supersubmarine threat to New York

[Cross-posted at Society for Military History Blog.] New York waited for an air raid in June 1918. For thirteen nights from 4 June, much of the city was blacked out to avoid giving German pilots any assistance in locating targets to bomb. The New York Times reported the following day that: Electric signs and all

1910s, 1920s, 1930s, Archives, Art, Australia, Books, Ephemera, Periodicals, Radio, Tools and methods, Words

Trenchardism?

[Cross-posted at Society for Military History Blog.] In the published version of his 2008 Lord Trenchard Memorial Lecture, Richard Overy concluded that now air power is projected for its potential political or moral impact. In Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan it is the political dividend that has been central to the exercise of air power, just

Norman Lindsay, ?
1910s, Art, Australia, Books, Ephemera, Film, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures

Fear, uncertainty, doubt — VI

It’s been more than two weeks since I’ve posted anything on my current mystery aeroplane research, but it’s not because I haven’t been working on it. In fact it is coming along pretty well. There are still some frustrating gaps in my understanding of the archival records, but the writing is coming along. I’ve written

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