Nice lot of negatives and photographic prints of Otto Berg's iconic 1954 photomosaic of Earth from space, created using imagery captured on a 16mm movie camera flown 100 miles high aboard an Aerobee rocket on October 5, 1954. These were the first natural-color images of the Earth successfully taken from a high-altitude rocket. The photographs include: a vintage color semi-glossy 10.5 x 8.5 print of the image, which clearly shows a hurricane over the state of Texas; and two vintage glossy black-and-white 10 x 8 silver gelatin photographs of the same image, both captioned on the reverse, "4-18-55, Rocket's Eye View of the Earth, Official U.S. Navy Photo." The negatives/transparencies include two medium format 4″ x 5″ negatives of the image, plus an unretouched 4″ x 5″ positive transparency of the mosaic made by Berg. In overall very good to fine condition, with moderate scattered creasing to the color print. Accompanied by an offprint of Berg's article, "High-Altitude Portrait of Storm Clouds," reprinted from the Office of Naval Research's Research Reviews (September 1955).
From the collection of Dr. Otto Berg.
