Atomic Photographers & Artists Frank J. Davis

Frank J. Davis

Frank J. Davis was born July 14th, 1924 in Baltimore, Maryland. In his early years he attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. This school was an all-male high school which focused mainly on science and engineering.

He first became interested in photography when he received a small camera as a gift in high school. He started processing his own films and prints at home. After he gained the schools school camera group and had several of his pieces in the yearbook he decided to become a professional photographer.

He Graduated in 1941, and saw an ad in the paper that the University of Maryland’s hospital was looking to hire. He ended up getting hired and he started photographing patients under treatment, specimens like brain sections and body parts, and photomicrographs. He says that during his movie that he filmed (of a cancer operation on a man’s face) he ended up fainting. Frank didn’t know at the time that his photography gig at the hospital was actually preparing himself for his future as a medical photographer in the U.S. Army.

He was drafted in 1943, and was sent to Camp Crowder, Missouri where he received Signal Corps basic training. The Army knew about his medical experience and after a couple months of training he was transferred to the Army Medical Corps at Camp Barkley, Texas. Later he was transferred to the Army Medical Museum, in Washington, D.C. where he joined the 6th Detachment of Medical Museum Art Service. Soon he went to Italy with the MMAS 3rd Detachment operating in Naples, and from there he went to France, and then lastly to the Mariana Islands.

He returned home in February 1946 and continued his career for several years, and in 1971 he ended up selling his studio and moving to Williamsburg, VA. He retired in 1986 and he has toured 25 countries in all.

ca. August 6, 1945-November 6, 1945 Image of the port view of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named the ''Enola Gay''. The bomber is at ''parade rest'', parked on a runway at the East Field on the island of Saipan. On the nose of the plane, below the cockpit windows, the text ''Enola Gay'' has been painted. According to Shaffer: ''[This is] the Enola Gay, [some time] after the nuclear bombing run on Hiroshima. The plane was transported back to the United States and now is at the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.''

Image of the front starboard view of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named the ''Enola Gay''. The bomber is at ''parade rest'', parked on a runway at the East Field on the island of Saipan. According to Shaffer: ''[This is] the Enola Gay at 'parade rest' on Saipan before being brought back to the United States.''

Image of one of the starboard engine nacelles and nose of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named the ''Enola Gay''. The bomber is at ''parade rest'', parked on a runway at the East Field on the island of Saipan. On the nose of the plane, below the cockpit windows, the text ''First Atomic Bomb, Hiroshima - August 6, 1945'' has been painted.

Images DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University