Whether it is the traditional green, black and brown patterns seen on military uniforms or the more flamboyant “Dazzle Ships” of World War I, a new exhibit coming to the District’s International Spy Museum will cover it.
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New exhibit on camouflage coming to DC’s Spy Museum
Whether it is the traditional green, black and brown patterns seen on military uniforms or the more flamboyant “Dazzle Ships” of World War I, a new exhibit coming to D.C.’s International Spy Museum will cover it.
The history and dedicated science will be on display beginning in March in “Camouflage: Designed to Deceive.”
“This is a phenomenon that has its origins in nature,” said Kathryn Keane, vice president of exhibitions at the Spy Museum. “Anybody that studied evolution or adaptation has studied camouflage, and it’s been adapted by humans in all these super interesting ways.”
Opening March 1, the exhibit will explore the history of camouflage as both the noun, which is the designs of camouflage often seen in military uniforms and the global industry that has developed around it, and the verb, the ability to camouflage and disguise yourself in the real world, and how they’ve been adapted by various military and spy organizations.
The exhibit will also give visitors an overview of the scientific principles of camouflage, to disappear, to distort, to disguise and to deceive.
Keane said the real history of modern camouflage can be traced back over a century ago to World War I and later World War II. Entire “camouflage corps” were created that were made up of largely artists working on deception campaigns.
“Camouflage really was not a thing until World War I,” Keane said. “A group of artists who were really interested in camouflage and the effect of camouflage in nature were able to influence some of the military strategists in the lead up to World War I. They said we should be applying some of these principles that we study in nature to evasion techniques in warfare and on the battlefield.”
The greatest example of art-inspired World War I camouflage, Keane said, were highly colorful “Dazzle Ships.”
German U-boats had been regularly destroying U.S. and British supply and transport ships in the Atlantic. Artists tried to find a way to help these ships with very distinct and flamboyant patterns.
“You can’t hide a ship, but maybe if you paint it in these bright, distorting colors that were inspired by the study of disruptive camouflage that you find in nature, we could distract the captains of these U-boats long enough that they might miss and all it takes is a split second,” Keane said.
The dazzle ships will be heavily featured in the exhibit as one of the most audacious attempts at camouflage. While it may not have worked quite as effectively as intended, the dazzle ships improved morale and even entered the design zeitgeist of the 1920s.
“People started wearing these black and white bathing suits and outfits. They had a dazzle ball at the Chelsea Arts Club in New York. And just really interestingly, sort of coincided with a period in art history where you saw the avant garde art style start to come about as well,” Keane said.
In World War II, Gen. George Patton created a camouflage Ghost Army, with inflatable tanks, jeeps made of cloth and wood, and faux barracks and mess halls in order to deceive Nazi Germany on troop locations in the U.K., and disguise at which point would they invade Northern Europe.
The exhibit will also include information on literally thousands of camo patterns from over 160 countries that the Spy Museum was able to discover in its research.
“A lot of them really don’t have anything to do with actually camouflaging yourself. Camouflage has become such a fashion statement,” Keane said.
The exhibit will also have interactive displays where you can design your own camouflage.
The Spy Museum will also explore more modern takes on camouflage developed by intelligence agencies. Spies have to blend into their environment, and rarely does that mean putting on fatigues with camo print.
“We have some masters of disguise that we profile in the exhibit, including a couple who are involved here at the museum that have worked for the intelligence agencies on how to make somebody look different or adapt to a culture that they don’t belong in,” Keane said.
Going beyond disguising yourself, the exhibit will examine the psychological and behavioral aspects of deception and camouflage, such as how to disappear in a crowd while still surveilling targets.
“It’s all part of the same theme, right? This idea that deception is at the core of effective intelligence, and camouflage is just the best example of that,” Keane said.
With the rise of infrared and heat signature cameras, there are even camouflages that have been designed to deceive beyond the visible spectrum of light.
“For every tool that is developed to try to detect someone, there’s an equally interesting technology that’s developed to evade that detection,” Keane said.
Like many of the exhibits at the Spy Museum, there will be plenty of interaction for kids and adults, including giant LED screens of landscapes where you try to spot camouflaged people. They will even have a display that shows how facial recognition software works.
“It will map your face and show you, in real time, how the how the camera does that, and then it will compare your face to a database of 200 random images of sort of famous, important people that we’ve chosen,” Keane said. “We also talk a little bit about how people are going to extraordinary lengths to avoid facial recognition technology and things that you can do to protect yourself from it.”
The exhibit will open March 1, and will be open through 2029. Tickets for the exhibit are on sale now.
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