The Harbinger

Date1910

Artist William Harnden Foster (American painter and illustrator, 1886–1941)

Illustration Citation"On the Highway of the Sky," by William Harndon Foster, in Scribner's Magazine, March 1911

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions29 3/4 × 19 5/8 in. (75.6 × 49.8 cm)
frame: 31 1/4 × 21 1/4 in. (79.4 × 54 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Estate of Frieda Becher, 1981

Object number1981-36

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPAINTING

Label TextWilliam Harnden Foster joined Howard Pyle's school after studying at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In 1911, Scribner's Magazine published what one critic called "a very striking series of pictures in color, entitled "On the Highways of the Sky," in which William Harnden Foster's brief texts accompanied his four illustrations depicting airplanes. His caption for this arriving aircraft reveals one role for this still-new method of transportation:

An ocean liner held up by fog at the entrance to the harbor. An aeroplane comes out to meet it with mail and newspapers from the port.