Children at Carnival or County Fair, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Children at Carnival or County Fair, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Children at Carnival or County Fair, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-B4B1F1

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Two girls stand before a red and yellow tent at an outdoor carnival or county fair, the younger one dressed as what appears to be a royal figure in a blue dress and gold crown, the older girl beside her in a floral print dress with white socks. Behind them the fairground spreads across a manicured lawn: more tents in primary colors, a small Ferris wheel, scattered crowds in their Sunday clothes, power lines strung across the field, and a massive shade tree that has probably watched county fairs for fifty years. This was the American pastoral ritual of the 1950s—a day trip to a municipal fairground where children were dressed up and paraded through midway attractions as if the whole enterprise were a formal occasion rather than the predictable cycle of small-town entertainment it actually was. The girl in the crown appears to have won or been assigned a title—Junior Queen, perhaps, or Princess for an afternoon—a distinction that mattered greatly to her and would be forgotten by Labor Day. What survives is the record of two children who took their roles at the county fair with the solemnity of diplomats, because in 1950s America, a child's participation in a local pageant was the kind of thing a parent brought a camera to document.

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