Back in the 1950s the vision of the future was a wee bit different from what we have now.   I was born in '55 and so by the time I was seven and reading science fiction voraciously much of the early stuff had passed away.  However, I recall one book put out by Random House in its "Picture Book" series for children, entitled By Space to the Moon.  Copywrited in 1952 and then again in 1958, it was filled with illustrations which dazzled my young imagination.  The book is by Jack Coggins and Fletcher Pratt with an introduction by Willy Ley.  I have not been able to find out who was the illustrator.  It was NOT meant to be a science fiction work but a hard science work of speculation.  Not long ago in some book sale I found a now moldy copy and snatched it up.  Most of the text is now utterly outdated.  And yet these images still haunt me.  Look below at this water color of a mountain side space launch: