AA-2026-CD0B25
On the image
A child of about six or seven stands alone on the ice of a frozen pond in what appears to be late fall or early winter, wearing a dark wool coat and brown boots, the bare trees along the shore behind her already losing their leaves to cold. This was an ordinary winter recreation then—a parent sent the child out to the ice the way another generation might send one to the park, confident in the thickness and the safety of a frozen surface and trusting that a child could manage alone for the duration of a photograph. The ice shows no footprints from others, and the child's stance—facing the camera with her hands at her sides—suggests she has been told to hold still, to be a subject, to stay right there on the unsafe water for as long as the shutter takes. No one had yet invented the particular modern anxiety about children being alone.
Visually related — by likeness
Child on Frozen Pond, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-CD0B25. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/child-on-frozen-pond-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026CD0B25,
title = {Child on Frozen Pond, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-CD0B25},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/child-on-frozen-pond-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Child on Frozen Pond, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-CD0B25 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/child-on-frozen-pond-1950s ER -
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