From Pasture to Production: Construction of Plancor 980 Synthetic Rubber Plant, Institute, West Virginia 105 Photographs, 1942 Ford, Bacon & Davis, Engineers and Constructors Each 8" x 10" silver gelatin print. Photo Lots

A remarkable photographic record of wartime industry at its most urgent: 105 large-format professional photographs documenting the rapid construction of the Defense Plant Corporation s Plancor 980, a massive synthetic rubber facility erected at Institute, West Virginia in 1942. Each print bears a sequential number and date (beginning with #2 and concluding at #133, though not all numbers are present). Approximately one-quarter of the images are aerial views, allowing a panoramic view of progress over time. Several carry the printed credit in the image: Ford, Bacon and Davis, Incorporated DEFENSE PLANT CORPORATION PLANCOR 980 Rubber Plant Institute, W. VA. The series captures the conversion of farmland along the Kanawha River into a sprawling wartime manufacturing center. Views include drainage excavation, tank footings, scaffolding, derricks, road grading, early worker housing, and foundations, as well as general site overviews showing the orderly advance of construction. A few prints retain typed annotations on verso, such as "Looking East West End of Drainage Pipe Line" and "Looking Northwest Tank Footings." Two prints have been linen-backed; the remainder are in very good condition, free from creasing or edge wear. Constructed under the auspices of the Defense Plant Corporation, a subsidiary of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Plancor 980 was among the emergency facilities established after the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia severed access to natural rubber. Operated by the U.S. Rubber Company, the Institute plant was one of several sites responsible for producing synthetic rubber critical to the Allied war effort. The facility remained in operation after the war and was later absorbed into West Virginia s developing petrochemical complex. An extensive, well-preserved visual archive of the mobilization of American industrial power from untouched pastureland to full-scale production a rare complete set of mid-construction views seldom seen outside government or corporate archives. Condition: Very good overall; two prints linen-backed, the rest clean and crisp. Quantity: 105 photographs. Dimensions: Each 8" x 10". Date: 1942.