AA-2026-3E4DD0
On the image
A boy of about four stands in a public park with a baseball bat held ready, a ball on the ground before him, dressed in a plaid shirt and cap as if prepared for serious play. Behind him a picnic table laden with drinks and food sits under a canvas canopy, and in the distance other families occupy the park on what appears to be a summer afternoon. He has been positioned here by someone with a camera and a faith that a child with a bat and a ball constitutes a portrait of American leisure, the kind of thing worth documenting in color film. The bat is proportionally enormous relative to his arms, which hold it with the determined grip of a child who has been instructed to stand still and look like he means business. No one has yet told him that he is too small to swing it, or that the ball will never cooperate, or that this photograph will someday testify to an era when a family's afternoon in a park was an event worth staging and preserving.
Visually related — by likeness
Boy with Baseball Bat at Park Picnic, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-3E4DD0. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/boy-with-baseball-bat-at-park-picnic-1950s.
@misc{aaAA20263E4DD0,
title = {Boy with Baseball Bat at Park Picnic, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-3E4DD0},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/boy-with-baseball-bat-at-park-picnic-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Boy with Baseball Bat at Park Picnic, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-3E4DD0 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/boy-with-baseball-bat-at-park-picnic-1950s ER -
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