Aircraft nose art has long been a military institution. First appearing in the form of a sea monster on the front of an Italian flying boat in 1913, through WWII, Vietnam, and on to today, Nose Art catalogs and presents it all.
Hundreds of detailed illustrations through the decades give the full picture of the evolution and history of these mini-murals. From early shark and tiger mouths below front propellers, to historical logos and Loony Toons characters, to the modern banning of nude pinups, author Tony Holmes explores this incredible subject in detail.
Allen Schery is perhaps the first Anthropologist to have designed a Car Museum. Prior to his design we generally only see rows of cars with small signs. Allen’s unique idea was to place each car in a set featuring a giant 15 x 30-foot photo mural that utilized a curved dioramic wall to give a 3-D effect incorporating a symbol of American Culture as a backdrop. Allen then took several trips around America logging in some 20,000 miles of trips procuring pictures of Mt. Rushmore, Niagara Falls, The Golden Gate Bridge, the Alamo, and other well-known American Landmarks. Each set featured real earth scenes and stage lighting. The Corvette was used as a time-coordinated symbol of American Culture to anchor the exhibit. He then theorized that as the original owner of each car placed the key in the ignition he was surrounded by the culture of a bygone year of Americana. He sought to recreate the sights. sounds and memories of that bygone culture by using the music, television, and movie snippets of that year along with slides of news events and time-coordinated artifacts. The Museum won many awards as well as being chosen as one of the ten best museums in New York State. Each room became a time capsule to that year with the entire museum a giant time tunnel.
