La Jolla, California: 1965.
Price: $5,000.00
Unbound. Collection of just over 400 photographs documenting the U.S. Navy’s Sealab Project, a groundbreaking program that greatly expanded the understanding of the psychological and physiological limits of human underwater exploration. Nearly 200 of the images are 8” x 10” and housed in two three-ring binders and with the remaining loose images, measuring between 3½” x 2½” and 5” x 4”. About 50 images are color prints and some of the large format images have backmarks from the U.S. Navy. Also included is an 11” x 14” framed oxygen atmosphere chart, 19 Sealab stickers measuring between 1”x 1¾” and 3” x 5¼”, and a blank 5½” x 3¼” Sealab II radio card. Overall fine but with about a dozen 8” x 10” images damaged by water or the emulsion sticking to the plastic sleeves.
The images come from Daniel Dewey Price, Jr. (1923-2014), a Navy Senior Master Diver who worked with the Office of Naval Research’s Man-in-the-Sea Project, better known as Sealab. The project, led by Naval Physician Captain George “Papa Topside” Bond, called the Father of Saturation Diving, engaged in a series of experiments to measure man’s ability to remain underwater for extended periods of time. They included a study on the effects of nitrogen narcosis on cognition, the development of new materials to insulate divers from the cold, and innovations in saturation diving which included better decompression procedures and tables. All of this helped with the Navy’s advancement in underwater operational capabilities and submarine rescue missions, particularly important during the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s.
The first Sealab base hosted four divers and was deployed 192 feet below the water in Bermuda on July 20, 1964 but operations were suspended after 11 days due to weather conditions. Price appears to have joined the program with Sealab II which relocated to La Jolla, California in the spring of 1965 with an improved base that included hot showers and refrigeration, among other amenities. Price directly supervised and was responsible for the safety and control of all divers and surface support personnel (civilian and military) that were assigned to the project, most notably the three teams of divers that lived in the base for extended periods. Among the images are a dozen or more that include original Mercury Seven Astronaut Scott Carpenter, who was the second man to orbit the Earth, and who set a record by remaining underwater in Sealab II for 30 days.
Aside from 60 earlier images of Price onboard the U.S.S. *Toledo* and diving at recovery sites, the archive is entirely focused on Sealab II with group shots of personnel, men training on shore and in the water, the final construction of the Sealab II’s access tower, interior views of the capsule, its towing to an offshore location and the deployment below the water, shots from inside Sealab II of men working and living, post-project shots of the flooded base being cleaned and repaired, as well as photographs from a gathering of personnel receiving awards and gifts for their service, including Price. Notable images include a color shot of the Sealab I being moved by crane, a press conference panel discussion, and a group photo of the divers that shows Price (who is often cropped out of the official press releases), and an Inscribed photo of Price with Captain Bond: “To the best master diver a program ever had. George S. Bond, Capt. ‘Papa Topside’.”
An amazing group of images capturing the overlooked but vitally important Sealab project that helped pioneer the study of undersea exploration and greatly improved Naval military capabilities in the latter half of the 20th Century.
Item #421222
