AA-2026-6CFCCE
On the image
A boy of about four stands on a municipal park lawn holding a croquet mallet nearly as tall as he is, wearing a plaid shirt and a small cap — the complete outfit of a child whose parents believed that outdoor recreation required being properly turned out. His older sister, in red pants with her name stitched across them, faces the camera with the patience of someone who has been asked to stand still and is running out of it. Behind them two teenagers sprawl on a blanket in the modern style, already exempt from whatever the afternoon's organized activity was supposed to be. In the 1950s, croquet was still a game that families brought to the park with the sandwiches and the folding blanket, occupying the same category as badminton and horseshoes — wholesome, competitive, and requiring equipment you had to carry in from the car. Nobody had yet decided that a lawn and a Sunday afternoon were sufficient on their own, without a mallet in someone's hand to prove the outing had a point.
Visually related — by likeness
Croquet on the Grass, Municipal Park, 1950s. 1953–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-6CFCCE. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/croquet-on-the-grass-municipal-park-1950s.
@misc{aaAA20266CFCCE,
title = {Croquet on the Grass, Municipal Park, 1950s},
year = {1953–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-6CFCCE},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/croquet-on-the-grass-municipal-park-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Croquet on the Grass, Municipal Park, 1950s PY - 1953–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-6CFCCE UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/croquet-on-the-grass-municipal-park-1950s ER -
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