Friday, September 2, 2016

Un-Nixing Emett's Caricatured Castle

One of E. L. Moore's earliest publications was a photo essay of a diorama he built celebrating the work of Rowland Emett. While going through a stack of E. L. Moore's photographs I came across this one of the diorama's castle - it's located in the upper left corner of the scene.
For whatever reason, Mr. Moore 'Nixed' the original photo and stashed it away. Sixty years later I come along with a scanner and software to do the un-Nixing. 
Why might this photo have been marked 'Nix'? From the note on the back of the picture, I suspect it was one of the 8 photos that accompanied Mr. Moore's 'Versatile Modeling Tool: The Woodburning Pen' manuscript. He sent it and the photos to Model Trains on 12 November 1961, and Andy Anderson, Model Trains' editor, offered to buy it for $45 on 1 December 1961. Model Trains soon ceased publication; however, the article appeared in the July 1962 issue of Model Railroader, who owned Model Trains assets, but without the Caricatured Castle photograph - probably because it wasn't railroady. There's some upside-down handwriting possibly noting when the photo was returned to Mr. Moore; hence, Nixed.

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