Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #4 of 32

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Site Looking from River Road

While we cannot prove it and, indeed, have no evidence it is so, Marianne and I are both convinced that one of the equestrians must surely be John Fetherston, the project head/chief engineer for the nitrates plant. 

After retirement, Fetherston and his wife lived in Packwood House in Lewisburg, parts of which dated back to the eighteenth century. Edith filled the house with antiques bought at auction. She "enjoyed arranging her objects in charming and whimsical combinations." After her death, in accordance to her will, a trust was created and in 1976 the Packwood Museum opened, displaying her collection of ceramics, glass, textiles, furniture, paintings, Pennsylvania German decorative arts (in this part of the world it is almost obligatory for rich people to collect fraktur and redware), and Oriental art.

Two of Bonestell's lithographs were framed and so, presumably, available for view at the auction. So they were not technically "lost." But they were not seen by anybody who had any idea what they were.

Alas, this by all accounts charming museum closed in 2020, when the Covid Isolation drove down its attendance and it could no longer pay its own way. The building went to the local historical society and its possessions, in accord with Edith's will, went to her parish church. Which had no earthly use for the and so put them for sale in several auctions. One of which was held by Pook & Pook.

"I don't know what that is, but I hope you win them," the lady at the auction house told Marianne when Marianne said that the only thing she really wanted was the Bonestells.

We had two reasons for wanting them. First, because they're terrific. Second, because we knew that if an interior decorator got hold of them, they'd be slapped in chrome frames and sold into dentists' and doctors' offices to be ignored for a few decades and then thrown away.

Luckily for us, nobody with deep pockets knew what they were, and we were able to buy them for less than what they must surely be worth.

And because we were aware of what they were, we understood that we had an obligation to share them with the world.

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #3 of 32

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River Road Looking West from Plant

 

Not long after the previous litho, the cotton fields and the people who toiled there are gone, and the plant is under construction.

The entire project, from beginning to end, took less than a year.

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #2 of 32

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 Site Looking from River Road

Whatever order Bonestell's lithographs originally had is now lost. But this bucolic scene (though not so to the workers in the field, obviously) of a cotton field untouched by construction, surely came first. It's a "before" picture. If you zoom in on the workers, you can tell that they were all Black and even make out the patterns of some of the clothing.

 

And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we're posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #1 of 32

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In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

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Chesley Bonestell's Lost Lithographs

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"I don't know what that is, but I hope you get them."

 

That's what the lady at the auction house said when Marianne Porter told her that all Marianne wanted were the Chesley Bonestell lithographs. There were 32 of them in the lot, and it was clear nobody at Pook & Pook knew what they were.

 

Over a century ago, in 1918, when Bonestell was a young artist specializing in architectural renderings, he was commissioned to create a suite of lithographs documenting the creation of a nitrate plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. That he made them was a matter of record. But the lithographs themselves disappeared from public awareness. In Ron Miller and Frederick C. Durant III's The Art of Chesley Bonestell, the number of lithographs was speculated to have been ten.

 

This project was long before Bonestell began creating the astronomical paintings that would make him famous.  But his extraordinary artistic skill is on display in the array of techniques he employed. Some of which later informed the infrastructure of his visual documentation of future spaceflight technology.

 

Now Marianne and I are making those lithographs available to the public for free. Starting this Thursday, April 4, we will be posting one image every weekday on this blog.

When the entire series has been posted, a torrent will be created containing the complete collection in high-density format. All of the images are in the public domain.

 

 

Bonestell's astronomical art was not only beautiful in its own right but a major influence on early modern science fiction. Marianne and I are thrilled to be able to make these images available to whoever wants them.

 

 

 

Above: Marianne and me, examining our collection.

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