A Brief History Of: Camouflage

A soldier’s uniform denotes everything from allegiance and branch to title and rank, and when it comes to camouflage, it can mean the difference between life and death. So when Congress recently passed a $106 billion war-spending bill, lawmakers included orders for some 70,000 redesigned uniforms for troops in Afghanistan; the pattern used in the deserts of Iraq was deemed unsuitable for Afghanistan’s muddy, mountainous terrain.

Camouflage emerged during World War I, as total war blurred battle lines and made the regal dress of the Napoleonic era appear outdated and downright dangerous. France established the first corps dedicated to camouflage (from camoufler, “to disguise”) in 1915, and the rest of the world quickly followed suit. The new field prompted an unexpectedly fruitful collaboration among soldiers, artists and naturalists like Abbott Thayer, whose 1909 book, Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, was required reading for military planners. By World War II, painters, sculptors and even admen were clamoring for jobs at the Fort Belvoir, Va., headquarters of U.S. camouflage development.

But artists and illustrations soon gave way to scientists and algorithms. In 2001 the Marine Corps replaced the psychedelic swirls of earlier motifs with a pixelated pattern that experts say better reflects the mottled, irregular textures found in nature. Nowadays even electrical engineers have joined the cause. One defense contractor has patented a stealth poncho that obscures the infrared signature of a soldier’s body heat, while another is working on thin plastic sheets that can change color to adapt to their surroundings. It’s a long way from Thayer’s sketchbook.