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Children's Outdoor Pageant, Summer 1950s — Archive & Atlas
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Chicago, Illinois

Children's Outdoor Pageant, Summer 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1952–1959

AA-2026-F4B0E0

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A small girl in a straw hat trimmed with flowers stands at the edge of what is clearly a children's outdoor pageant or fête, the kind of warm-weather community event that in the 1950s required every child to be dressed as though attending a minor royal occasion. Behind her a older girl holds drumsticks over a snare drum, which places this in the capable-children-doing-civic-music tradition that schools and scout troops maintained with great seriousness, on the assumption that a child who could keep time through a parade would become a useful citizen. To the left, a large painted circular prop — green and yellow, mounted on a pole — announces that considerable adult effort went into the scenery, effort that will be completely invisible to any child watching. The whole gathering has the organized informality of an event that someone spent three months planning and that will be over in forty minutes. The girl in the hat is looking directly at whoever is holding the camera, with the expression of a child who has been told to enjoy herself.

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Archive & Atlas — The Archive AA-2026-F4B0E0 · jpg · Open