Cub Scout in Blue and Gold Uniform, Front Hallway, 1960s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Cub Scout in Blue and Gold Uniform, Front Hallway, 1960s — Archive & Atlas

An interpretation of depth — not a measured reconstruction

Depth is precomputed and interpretive — the scene falls back to the flat image where a browser can't render it.

Cub Scout in Blue and Gold Uniform, Front Hallway, 1960s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1960–1969

AA-2026-D277DA

The Archivist

Ask about this image

Archivist

Step into the scene

Off by default. Turning it on lets the image respond to your cursor with a shallow sense of depth, rebuilt from a depth map computed when the image was catalogued. It is an interpretation for looking, not a measured 3D model — and it falls back to the flat image where the browser can't render it.

On the image

The uniform is doing a lot of work here. A boy stands at attention in a doorway that was clearly not built for ceremony, wearing the blue shirt, yellow neckerchief, and web belt that the Cub Scouts of America issued to boys who had not yet earned the right to be bored by meetings. Somewhere a den mother has just told him to stand up straight and stop fidgeting with the slide on his scarf, and he has complied for exactly as long as the picture required.

This is the fixed portrait that every Cub Scout family produced at least once a year, usually before an award ceremony or a pack meeting, the hallway or bedroom door serving as a makeshift studio because nobody was driving downtown for a formal sitting. The badge on his sleeve and the pin over his pocket are small proofs of merit in a system built entirely on small proofs of merit, the theory being that a boy who could tie a knot or build a birdhouse was one step closer to disciplined adulthood.

He is smiling with the particular confidence of a kid who has just been told he looks sharp, unaware that the uniform would end up in a cupboard within two years and the door behind him would outlast the organisation's hold on his attention by several decades.

From the community

Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.

No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.

Visually related — by likeness

Cub Scout Salute at the Bedroom Door, 1960s

1960–1969

Boy Scout in Full Dress Uniform, 1940s

1940–1949

Boy in Monogrammed Robe by Bedroom Door, 1960s

1960–1969

Two Servicemen at Barracks Door, Company C, 1950s

1950–1959

Little Leaguer at the Chain-Link Fence, Suburban Backyard, 1960s

1960–1969 · United States, suburban residential neighborhood

Boy in Red Choir Robe, Hallway Portrait, 1960s

1960–1969

Backyard Portrait with Folding Lawn Chairs, Suburban 1960s

1960–1969

Girl in Backyard, Jeans and Ruffled Blouse, 1950s

1950–1959

The Talker and the Listener, Home Party, 1950s

1952–1959

Two Sisters in Matching Blue Sweaters, Christmas, 1960s

1960–1969

Four men in work uniforms, 1950s

1950–1959

Girl Watering Lawn with Garden Hose, Suburban Backyard, 1950s

1950–1959