Construction of the Edmund Fitzgerald--Cargo Hold

On February 1st, 1957, then President of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Mr. Edmund Fitzgerald, commissioned Great Lakes Engineering Works of Ecorse-River Rouge, Michigan to build what was, at the time, the largest vessel to ever travel the Great Lakes—the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. Work began on August 7, 1957, and Fitzgerald’s namesake ship was launched June 7, 1958, and placed in service the following day. Coupled with this project was a second commission forMilwaukee’s premier industrial painter, Edmund Lewandowski, to create a series of three paintings: two documenting the construction, and a third of the completed craft on the water.

As a commission, the set was a bit of a departure from Lewandowski’s strictly Precisionist style, but nonetheless it featured a number of characteristics emblematic of the artist. He spent a great deal of time at River Rouge laying the foundation of the series, but true to his modern approach, he also worked from the numerous photographs he made while on-site. Similar to Charles Sheeler’s work at Henry Ford’s River Rouge plant decades earlier, Lewandowski created an extensive photo essay of the machinery, apparatus, and activity of the shipyard and its surroundings. And, like Sheeler, his photos would inform and direct much of his future work.

This work showcases the monumentality of the giant hull of the Edmund Fitzgerlad and its capacity. As a crane lowers a giant section of steel flanking in place, the workers’ role is diminished as they are dwarfed by the massive operation. Including a completed ship on the left allowed the artist to further reference the significance of scale in building the grandest, sturdiest ship to have traveled the Great Lakes.

Courtesy of the Collection of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company