AA-2026-D087A2
On the image
Someone on Oregon's parade committee decided that the best way to sell a state to Californians was to build its name out of seeds and dried flowers and haul it a thousand miles, and by the 1950s the Tournament of Roses had made this seem like a perfectly reasonable civic expenditure. The arch spells OREGON in what is almost certainly a coating of ground cereal or crushed seed, the coastline behind it rendered in pink and white petals arranged with the fierce precision of people who know judges will be scoring for botanical accuracy. A palm tree bristling with yellow blooms stands in for something more native to the state, because pageantry has never let geography get in the way of a good silhouette.
Off to the side, a line of spectators in white sailor caps waits with the patient boredom of people who have already seen forty floats and have forty more to go. New Year's morning in Pasadena ran on the premise that a flower-covered advertisement, held together with toothpicks and floral adhesive, could outlast a parade route and a coast-to-coast broadcast before it wilted into compost. It mostly did.
The float's builders knew the whole thing had maybe twelve hours of dignity in it before the petals started to brown, which is precisely why nobody in 1950s float construction ever signed their work in anything sturdier than flowers.
Visually related — by likeness
Oregon's Rose Parade Float, "The Beaver State," Pasadena, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-D087A2. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/oregon-s-rose-parade-float-the-beaver-state-pasadena-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026D087A2,
title = {Oregon's Rose Parade Float, "The Beaver State," Pasadena, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-D087A2},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/oregon-s-rose-parade-float-the-beaver-state-pasadena-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Oregon's Rose Parade Float, "The Beaver State," Pasadena, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-D087A2 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/oregon-s-rose-parade-float-the-beaver-state-pasadena-1950s ER -
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