Pritzker Military Museum Shadowbox Frames For The USO

The USO of Illinois in conjunction with the Pritzker Military Museum in downtown Chicago, presented these two shadowbox collage frames to members of the U.S. Navy for their part in the historic renovation of the U-505, a German WWII U-Boat (submarine) that is on permanent display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. It needed a lot of restoration work and the museum created a whole new indoor space for the sub to protect it. They restored it to its original condition with the help of the U.S. Navy and others,

The shadowbox is a Gemini 2934 flat-top mahogany wood frame, with a Bainbridge 4836 Imperial Blue suede mat as the basic platform for all the mounted pictures and commemorative coins. As you can see, many of the photos overlap each other and can do so because the collage was designed with 3 different heights of risers underneath each photo. It adds variety and interest to the composition when it is not a straight "grid" and, also, lets you add more content to the collage than you might otherwise have room for. The platforms upon which the photos are mounted are Crescent Brite-Core mat boards, which are white mats with yellow cores,which are exposed on the edge of the photos when we trim the outside edges after mounting, using a 45 degree bevel.








The two commemorative medallions on the bottom are the front and back side of each, mounted on a disc-shaped mat board platform. The message is laser printed and appears in a keyhole mat opening at the bottom between the discs. Glass used was Tru-Vue AR anti-reflective glass.

Framing designed and crafted by Dana L. Fisher, MCPF
Photo credits: Brian D. Flax, CPF
Images shown by kind permission of the USO of Illinois