Children on Terminal Wall, Port-au-Prince Airport, Haiti, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Children on Terminal Wall, Port-au-Prince Airport, Haiti, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

An interpretation of depth — not a measured reconstruction

Depth is precomputed and interpretive — the scene falls back to the flat image where a browser can't render it.

Children on Terminal Wall, Port-au-Prince Airport, Haiti, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-06FEAC

The Archivist

Ask about this image

Archivist

Step into the scene

Off by default. Turning it on lets the image respond to your cursor with a shallow sense of depth, rebuilt from a depth map computed when the image was catalogued. It is an interpretation for looking, not a measured 3D model — and it falls back to the flat image where the browser can't render it.

On the image

At Port-au-Prince's modest mid-century terminal, a row of children has claimed the low parapet wall as the best seat in the house, dangling legs over a trimmed hedge to watch whatever was happening on the other side — arrivals, departures, or simply the rare spectacle of aircraft moving on the ground. In the 1950s, air travel in Haiti was an event worth witnessing rather than enduring, and a terminal building with open-air covered galleries and corrugated roofing was considered perfectly adequate infrastructure for a capital city that saw a handful of flights a day. The children have arranged themselves with the unselfconscious confidence of people who have found a good perch and intend to keep it, unbothered by the fact that they are essentially sitting on the building. What the sign above them advertising the airline's connection to Port-au-Prince cannot know is that within a generation this kind of open, unhurried relationship between a city's children and its airport would be made impossible by security fencing, check-in queues, and the sheer volume of people who decided they also wanted to go somewhere.

From the community

Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.

No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.

Visually related — by likeness

Pool-Side Sentries, Public Swimming Pool, 1950s

1950–1959

Trade Show Hostess in Blue Cape, 1950s Exposition

1952–1959

Wreath-Laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington, 1958

1958

Tropical Garden Terrace, Striped Umbrella Tables, 1950s

1950–1959

Men Examining Limestone Outcrop, Latin America, 1950s

1950–1959

Family Backyard Gathering with Twin Prams, 1950s

1952–1959

Industrial estate with schoolchildren, 1950s Britain

1950–1959

Wedding Procession from the Choir Loft, 1950s

1950–1959 · Catholic church, United States

Lakeside Pavilion Interior, Summer c. 1950s

1945–1960

Midway Carnival Stand, 1950s

1950–1959

Colonnaded Courtyard Garden with Visitors, 1950s

1950–1959

Two Women Posed Beside an Earthmover, Trade Fair, 1950s

1954–1959