AA-2026-60BDAE
On the image
The person operating this motorboat has positioned themselves low enough to catch the bow spray square in the face, which suggests either a complete indifference to comfort or a deliberate decision to prove the engine works. The boat is moving fast enough through calm water that the white water column rises in a proper arc, the kind of spray that costs money to generate and therefore must be worth documenting. Behind the boat lies a forested shoreline of the Great Lakes region, the kind of landscape that in the 1940s was still mostly unpeopled and accessible by water to anyone with a functional motor.
This is the visual record of someone who believed that speed on water, captured on film, was evidence of progress and mastery, a small domestic proof that postwar America could manufacture vessels that cut through natural obstacles with practical force. The photograph was taken from a chase boat or a second vantage point, meaning at least two boats and two operators participated in creating this single moment of spray and velocity. The composition suggests vacation documentation rather than commercial work, the kind of amateur film roll that recorded a weekend on the water as though it were a minor triumph of engineering.
Visually related — by likeness
Motorboat Bow Spray, Great Lakes, 1940s. 1940–1950. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-60BDAE. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/motorboat-bow-spray-great-lakes-1940s.
@misc{aaAA202660BDAE,
title = {Motorboat Bow Spray, Great Lakes, 1940s},
year = {1940–1950},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-60BDAE},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/motorboat-bow-spray-great-lakes-1940s}
}TY - ART TI - Motorboat Bow Spray, Great Lakes, 1940s PY - 1940–1950 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-60BDAE UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/motorboat-bow-spray-great-lakes-1940s ER -
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