Margaret Bourke-White Quiz: Chrysler Building and Life Covers

This margaret bourke-white quiz climbs out onto a steel eagle high above Manhattan. Play 10 interactive questions on her industrial photography, a studio inside the Chrysler Building, perching on its gargoyles, Fortune magazine, the first Life cover in 1936, Soviet factories, being an accredited war correspondent, the liberation of Buchenwald and Gandhi at his spinning wheel.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Build
Which New York skyscraper did Bourke-White famously photograph?
Studio
Where did she have a studio?
Perch
Where did she famously pose with her camera?
Fortune
Which magazine hired her early as a photographer?
Life
What did she shoot for Life magazine's first issue?
Dam
What did the first Life cover show?
Soviet
Which country's industry did she photograph early in the 1930s?
War
What role did she hold in the Second World War?
Camp
Which camp's liberation did she photograph in 1945?
Gandhi
Whom did she photograph at a spinning wheel?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which New York skyscraper did Bourke-White famously photograph?
Answer: Chrysler Building
An Art Deco icon.
Q2: Where did she have a studio?
Answer: Inside the Chrysler Building
High up.
Q3: Where did she famously pose with her camera?
Answer: On a steel eagle gargoyle
Far above the street.
Q4: Which magazine hired her early as a photographer?
Answer: Fortune
Business magazine.
Q5: What did she shoot for Life magazine's first issue?
Answer: The cover
In 1936.
Q6: What did the first Life cover show?
Answer: Fort Peck Dam
In Montana.
Q7: Which country's industry did she photograph early in the 1930s?
Answer: The Soviet Union
A rare access.
Q8: What role did she hold in the Second World War?
Answer: Accredited war correspondent
A pioneering woman.
Q9: Which camp's liberation did she photograph in 1945?
Answer: Buchenwald
Powerful images.
Q10: Whom did she photograph at a spinning wheel?
Answer: Mahatma Gandhi
In 1946.

Steel Eagles and Magazine Covers

Margaret Bourke-White began with industrial photography, finding beauty in factories and machines. Fortune magazine hired her early, and she had a studio inside New York's Chrysler Building, where she famously posed with her camera on a steel eagle gargoyle far above the street.

She photographed the cover of Life magazine's first issue in 1936, showing Fort Peck Dam in Montana. Early in the 1930s she was among the first Western photographers allowed to document Soviet industry.

During the Second World War she became an accredited war correspondent, a pioneering role for a woman, and photographed the liberation of Buchenwald in 1945. In 1946 she photographed Mahatma Gandhi at his spinning wheel, one of the century's best-known portraits.

What This Quiz Teaches

Photography fans will enjoy these questions.

Which building she photographed
Which magazines she worked for
What her first cover showed
What she did in wartime
Which portraits are famous

Did You Know?

She was one of Life's first staff photographers.
She photographed a Louisville flood breadline in 1937.
She worked in the Korean War too.
She later wrote an autobiography.
She faced Parkinson's disease later.