About the Object

This pencil sketch, completed in the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Plant in Buffalo, New York, includes images of airplane wings set against the lights in the ceiling of the factory. Crawford’s notations about color mention “deep blue grey,” “whitish grey,” “violet,” and “bluegrey undertones.”

 

Additional Information

In December 1944, Crawford received a commission from Burton Tremaine, president and chairman of the Miller Lighting Company, to commemorate the installation of nine miles of continuous fluorescent lighting in the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Plant in Buffalo, New York. Crawford was given special permission to photograph inside the plant, taking a least a dozen pictures and creating dozens of drawings, many of which were drawn on the back of War Department letterhead.