Backyard Children's Party, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Backyard Children's Party, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Backyard Children's Party, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-E35561

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A suburban backyard gathering of the kind that in the 1950s required a woman to arrange folding chairs, set out cups and plates in careful rows, and supervise a cluster of neighbourhood children as though hosting a minor state function. A woman in a dark dress with a white collar stands at the centre, the appointed manager of this small domestic event, while children sit or stand around her in the concentrated posture of people who have been instructed to have fun and are taking the assignment seriously. The grass is mown, the fence is whitewashed, a garden plot visible behind suggests the kind of household that kept order in all visible things. Everything about the scene speaks to a time when a Saturday afternoon outdoor gathering of eight children and their supervising adult was considered an achievement requiring furniture, crockery, and the correct arrangement of bodies in space. The children regard the camera with the blank patience of subjects who understand they are part of someone else's plan.

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