IH, helping the war effort in 1942
 

I found this picture while surfing.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/3549?size=_original#caption

I thought it was a rather cool picture. The site has many more neat shots.

Great picture, thanks for sharing it.

That's a cool pic, that tractor is pretty new and look how bald the front tires are.

I'm skeptical of the authenticity of the pic.....

That appears to be an IH I-4 which was basically an industrial version of the W-4. It would have been painted yellow, not red. In 1942, they didn't have color photos.... and I've seen black and white colored photos... that one appears to have been taken in color. The hood is a much different color than the frame, and the muffler is awfully rusty and the front tires pretty bald and the paint on the frame and front axle is pretty faded for a no more than two year old tractor. If you zoom in on the pic, you can't tell any color lines where the photo has been colored. Plus, the dungarees the guy bending down next to the tire is wearing look pretty modern.

I say it's staged. :bigthink:

It appears to have an I4 decal on it.

It is not a colorized black and white picture.
They did indeed have color film back then.
Especially the war department.

And if it is an early production I4 sometime in 1940, it could be over two years old by the time that picture was taken.
Zipping around 50% all day seven days a week on new not yet worn concrete the tires of the time would not last long, especially the fronts.

And they apparently came in red too:
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/...20100626213500

My dad was an airline and Air force mechanic. He had to have metal wheels on his tool box because the fuel would eat up rubber. Those tires are melted.

I'll say it's a genuine photo... go look up "Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information" and you'll get many more color photos going back to 1942 and maybe earlier.

Love the tread pattern on the rear tires!

I'm not convinced. All the pics I find from that era are way more grainy than that one.

I digress. Just lots of things don't seem to add up to me. Maybe it is real, maybe it is staged. Still a cool pic.

The film was 4" x 5" Kodachrome, so the resolution is super. The site has may pictures taken on 8 x 10 glass negatives.

Kodachrome is a brand name for a non-substantive, color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935

There are an awful lot of B 17s to the left in that picture, so I'm saying it's legit.