Joseph Pennell's Pictures of War Work in America: Reproductions of a series of lithographs of munition works made by him with the permission and authority of the United States government, with notes and an introduction by the artist

In Short

This volume collects Joseph Pennell’s 1918 lithographs documenting the United States' industrial war effort alongside his own vivid commentary. Created with official government authorization, the artworks record shipyards, munition plants, gun foundries, and military camps across the nation during World War I. Pennell captures the staggering scale of modern production—from massive presses to soaring locomotives—framing these industrial spaces as the new cathedrals of the machine age. The work endures as both an aesthetic tribute to the "Wonder of Work" and an indispensable eyewitness record of home-front mobilization.

The Story

The book traces an artist’s journey through the immense industrial infrastructure of World War I America, recording the national transition from peace to war. Having previously documented British war factories under the authority of David Lloyd George and suffered a failed attempt to record French facilities, Pennell returns home convinced that an American artist's proper place is in his own country. With official permission from the United States government—specifically the Secretaries of War and the Navy—he gains unprecedented access to restricted military and industrial sites across the nation.

His account opens in the shipyards, where he captures the dramatic construction of battle fleets. He documents the laying of keels, the assembly of submarine chasers andGreat industrial machines operate on a scale that dwarfs the human form, turning raw steel into the machinery of destruction. In these massive, smoke-filled factories, labor becomes a vast, terrifying spectacle of modern power.

In Short

This volume collects thirty-six lithographic prints capturing the colossal scale of American war manufacturing during the First World War. Artist Joseph Pennell travels through shipyards, gun foundries, shell factories, and military camps, documenting the gargantuan machines and industrial processes driving the war effort. Through detailed visual records accompanied by his personal commentary, Pennell captures the terrifying beauty of heavy industry. The work survives as a stark historical witness to the moment American manufacturing shifted its immense mechanical capacity toward total war.

The Story

The narrative begins with an artist returning home to America after witnessing the European war effort. Having drawn British munitions factories with official permission and attempted similar work in France, he secures authorization from the United States government to document the nation's industrial mobilization. He approaches his subject not to promote military conflict—which he views as an unnecessary tragedy—but to capture what he calls the "Wonder of Work."

His journey opens along the coastal shipyards where immense steel vessels take shape. Pennell watches from the water as ocean liners, battleships, destroyers, and submarine chasers are assembled within cavernous sheds. He moves from the shipways into heavy forging shops, documenting giant armor-plate presses capable of crushing massive steel ingots yet sensitive enough to leave a watch crystal undamaged. Continuing through the manufacturing pipeline, he records the production of turbine engines, propeller blades, and specialized colliers designed to fuel fleets at sea.

Moving inland, the focus shifts to ordnance production. Pennell enters vast rifle galleries where hundreds of workers assemble small arms beneath American flags. In shell factories, he observes the dark, heat-radiating forge rooms where laborers maneuver glowing metal under giant steam hammers. He records the process of casting shell heads, noting the contrast between older, darker foundries and modern, brightly lit manufacturing plants.

The artist then gains access to gun pits and heavy artillery works. He documents the shaping of massive gun barrels from solid steel ingots, watching them lowered into deep pits to be bored, planed, and finished over months of labor. He visits firing grounds where completed artillery pieces are tested against rocky cliffs, noting the eerie absence of visible smoke or flying shells due to the immense velocity of modern munitions.

Finally, the artist turns his eye toward transport and infrastructure. He visits locomotive works where finished engines stand ready for delivery to Allied nations, observing cranes lifting fully assembled locomotives through the air to clear crowded factory floors. His journey concludes at newly constructed military cantonments, where modular wooden barracks arise in minutes to house thousands of troops, creating vast, functional cities almost overnight.

How It Unfolds

The shipyard perspective Pennell begins his survey in the coastal shipyards, viewing huge ship hulls rising among timber scaffolding. He records the orderly chaos of ship sheds where cranes move engine parts and heavy steel plating directly into place.

Pressing the steel Moving into heavy manufacturing, he documents the immense hydraulic presses used to shape armor plate. He compares these gargantuan machines to the fantastical inventions of satirical literature, recording ladles so large that human workers are swallowed in their shadows.

Inside the ordnance shops The focus shifts to small arms and shell production inside towering factory halls. Pennell captures the heat and noise of forge fires, watching workers steer molten metal ladles and turn heavy shells under pounding steam hammers.

The gun pits and testing grounds Entering specialized gun factories, he draws deep subterranean pits and high-vaulted shops where heavy artillery is turned on massive lathes. He then follows completed guns to proving grounds where they are mounted and test-fired against rocky hillsides.

Locomotives and cantonments The narrative concludes with the machinery of transport and logistics. He records flying locomotives suspended from overhead cranes in assembly plants, ending his tour at sprawling military camps constructed in a matter of hours.

The People

Joseph Pennell The artist and narrator, who seeks to record the visual grandness of human labor regardless of its purpose. Though opposed to war, he is consumed by the aesthetic power of heavy machinery and travels from plant to plant capturing the industrial landscape.

The Factory Workers The mechanics, riveters, and forge hands who operate the great machines. They view the visiting artist with a mixture of curiosity and good-natured teasing, often offering blunt, humorous commentary on his drawings while performing hazardous, exhausting labor.

The Government Officials and Managers The cabinet secretaries, military directors, and plant managers who grant Pennell access to secure facilities. They facilitate his work by stopping cranes, positioning heavy guns, and arranging models to aid his drawing efforts.

In Its Own Voice

"I have come back from the Jaws of Death--back from the Mouth of Hell--to my own land, my own people."

Pennell opens his introduction reflecting on his return to America after documenting wartime industry across Europe.

"The mills are the modern temples and in them do the people worship."

Commenting on a massive forge, the author describes how industrial manufacturing has become the central, dominating force of modern civilization.

"And as the engine sailed toward me I tried to make a note of it."

While sketching in a locomotive plant, Pennell records the dramatic moment a multi-ton engine is lifted over his head by an overhead crane.

What It's Really About

The text wrestles with the profound contradiction between industrial beauty and human destruction. Pennell is captivated by the supreme engineering of the modern age—the towering cranes, perfectly calibrated presses, and vast factory architecture—yet he remains acutely aware that every object produced is designed to kill. The book functions as an unintentional meditation on how human ingenuity, artistic devotion, and industrial organization can be harnessed toward horrific ends. It also documents the changing nature of work itself, where individual human laborers are reduced to small details within a landscape dominated by self-moving machinery.

Why Read It Today

This work offers an extraordinary, first-hand visual record of the American home front during a pivotal global conflict. Readers interested in industrial history, military technology, or the history of printmaking will find Pennell's commentary engaging and direct. His style is devoid of complex literary pretensions; instead, he writes with the immediate, energetic voice of a working artist reporting from the factory floor.

The primary difficulty for modern readers lies in the book's episodic structure, as it consists of brief, descriptive notes paired with specific lithographic plates rather than a sustained narrative. Furthermore, Pennell's early twentieth-century racial attitudes and social observations reflect the biases of his era. Yet the book remains striking for its candid view of early mass production. What stays with the reader is Pennell's haunting vision of the industrial landscape—a world of mechanical giants where human skill and technological triumph are bound directly to the machinery of war.