Family Group at Modernist Exhibition Pavilions, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Family Group at Modernist Exhibition Pavilions, 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.

Family Group at Modernist Exhibition Pavilions, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1955–1959

AA-2026-DBB1DF

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

A family — two women, a man, a child in a blue neckerchief, and an older woman — has stopped to be photographed outside a row of flat-roofed exhibition pavilions whose design announces, with great confidence, that the future has arrived. The buildings are dressed in the visual vocabulary of the postwar world's fair circuit: stark white panels, a large decorative black oval, angled geometric fins in olive and yellow, and plate-glass storefronts. The woman in the foreground wears a pale blue coat and carries a small catalogue or programme, the standard equipment of the serious exposition visitor who intends to see everything and remember none of it. A sign on the right pavilion reads 'Dominion Laboratories' or something close to it, suggesting a trade or industrial fair where corporations were given their own houses to explain why the products they already sold you were actually the future. The child holds a souvenir pamphlet and wears a scout-style kerchief, which was the 1950s way of signalling that a small person was officially present and accounted for. Everyone is dressed as though they expected to be photographed at some point during the day, which is to say they are wearing their good coats on a Tuesday.

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

Women at the Giant Tractor Display, Trade Exposition, 1950s

1954–1959

Family at Douglas DC-7 Aircraft, 1950s

1950–1959

World's Fair Futuremobile Display, c. 1958

1955–1959

Stepping Down from the Dome Car, 1950s

1950–1958

Construction Equipment Display, 1950s Industrial Exhibition

1950–1959

Women's Church or Civic Group Portrait, Brick Parish Hall, 1950s

1950–1959

Three Generations at the Shopping Center Planter, 1950s

1953–1958

Midway Carnival Stand, 1950s

1950–1959

Family Poses on Euclid Scraper at Equipment Exposition, 1950s

1954–1959

GM Parade Float or Promotional Bus, 1950s Auto Show

1950–1959

Streamliner Train Station Platform, 1950s

1950–1959

General Motors Futurliner at 1950s Auto Show Pavilion

1950–1959