Mid-June, 1921
graphite pencil on commercially-made paper
12 x 10 1/8 inches
Charles E. Burchfield Archives, Gift of the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation, 2000
local kilns – Our presence as might be expected threw a cloak of silence over them – we felt like intruders.; After supper Travis and I climbed a hill overlooking the town – here again, as at the River, the vegetation above a certain point on the hills had been killed by the chlorine in saline gas; a scene of brutal desolation, like an open ulcer on the face of the earth –; Down to the valley again, and for a walk to one of the kilns – It was now dark, and the arched openings in the kilns glowed with an ominous orange in the black night. The man in charge introduced himself as Mike O’Keefe – His operation, as he explained was providing the glase (sic) on the tiles – This was done by building under the racks on which the tiles had been placed a fire of soft coal – then alternate shovels of coal, and rock salt – the gas generated by the burning salt put the glase (sic) on the bricks or tiles.