The world's largest camera. CHS

Preparing for a flight over the Chicago stockyards CHS

Atop a 15-foot tripod surrounded by standards for flashlight powder, one rigged with a canvas smoke trap. CHS

Original Lawrence panoramic camera in Thomas Yanul's collection

From the beginning, Lawrence seemed destined for greatness... or disaster. In his early experiments with improved flash powders he blew his young son out the window! In later adventures with photography from balloons he crashed...TWICE. Other early projects included the world's largest camera (1400 lbs.) and photographs from ladders and giant tripods.

But Lawrence's most enduring claim to fame came when he paired up his cameras with the kites of fellow Chicagoan Silas J. Conyne. It is with cameras suspended from trains of multiple Conyne kites that Lawrence took some of the most spectacular aerial photos ever taken.

All this and more is explored in this collection of articles written by Dr. Baker between 1988 and 1997:

• The Mammoth Camera of George R. Lawrence
• "The Hitherto Impossible in Photography Is Our Specialty"
• San Francisco in Ruins
• A Giant in Kite Aerial Photography
• The Lawrence Captive Airship Over San Francisco in 1906 and 1908
• George Lawrence & His Aerial Photos

There's a bit of overlap in subject matter; remember the articles were not intended to be presented together. In addition, here are the original U.S. Navy reports from which we know the details of kite and camera operation:

• Lieutenant Chandler's 1905 Report of tests from a Navy tug
• Follow-up tests aboard the U.S.S. Maine
• About the U.S.S. Maine

George Lawrence retired from photography in 1910, but he left a unique legacy of the most amazing aerial panoramic photographs ever taken.