Russell W. Porter's Palomar Art on Exhibit

Shown above is Russell Porter's 1939 drawing The Two Hundred Inch Telescope Looking Northwest. It is one of Porter's many fantastic visualizations of the 200-inch telescope project. Porter's work earned him the nickname "cutaway man" because many of his drawings featured cutaway views of the interior of the telescope and its many parts.

Now five of Porters original drawings (3 of the 200" and 2 of the 48"), including the one shown above, are on public exhibition for the first time. They are part of an exhibition at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA called "Tools".

From their website:

Objects on display are not sleek contemporary designs but rather belong to the worlds of contemporary art, science, and natural history, and can be simultaneously appreciated for their aesthetics and impact on human development, as well as for their utility. The resulting blurred boundaries are the intention of the exhibition's organizers.

The exhibition runs until January 10, 2010.