EMPLOYEES OF THE UNIVERSAL SHIPYARD. HOUSTON. TEXAS. PHOTO BY FRANK G. ALLEN. HOUSTON TEXAS

Panoramic Photograph. WWI shipbuilding for the US government. Employees of the Universal Shipbuilding Company, Houston, Texas. Original gelatin silver print, 10" x 72" photographed by Frank G. Allen, circa 1919. VERY GOOD CONDITION: some edgewear, a few tiny stains, and some age toning and finger smudges to the verso, rolled, overall bright, and clean. Unrecorded. Frank G. Allen has a few images in the National Archives, none document the Texas men employed as shipbuilders. A stunning photographic record.

Photographer Frank G. Allen (American, active 1910s-1920s) early Texas commercial photographer active in the Houston area producing some stunning panoramic photographs of the oilfields and WWI shipbuilding.

During World War One Houston Texas was tasked with becoming emergency shipbuilders for the war effort. The United States Shipping Board's Emergency Fleet Corporation contracted two Houston plants, the Universal Shipbuilding Company and the Midland Bridge Company to construct wooden cargo ships which were to be built along the Houston Channel, a waterway that only a few years prior could not accommodate an ocean going vessel. George A Carden was principal owner of the Universal Shipbuilding Company, which had a contract for the construction of twelve wooden ships at $300,000 each, these vessels were made at the company's shipbuilding yard on Buffalo Bayou near Houston, Texas. Universal launched 9 of the 12 commissioned ships before the War ended. Most of the shipyards involved in this program existed only for the emergency.