Family Picnic, City Park, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Family Picnic, City Park, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Family Picnic, City Park, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-D1E553

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Two women sit at a dark wooden picnic table in a city park, laughing at something that has nothing to do with the toddler a few feet away who is fully occupied with a small metal ride-on toy and a yellow sand pail. A blue thermos stands on the table — the era's official signal that a family had planned ahead — and folding aluminum lawn chairs complete the domestic outpost they have assembled on the grass. Somewhere in the postwar American consensus, it had been decided that the proper way to enjoy public green space was to bring your own furniture and replicate, as faithfully as possible, the experience of sitting at home. The toddler, wedged into the seat of the ride-on toy with the focused calm of someone who has recently discovered that objects exist, is entirely unconcerned with the consensus. The women, for their part, are clearly having a better afternoon than anyone would have predicted from a park bench, which is exactly what the aluminum chairs were for.

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