Forest Service and Civilian Workers, 1950s

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Forest Service and Civilian Workers, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Forest Service and Civilian Workers, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-7D1409

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Four men stand at ease in front of a rural compound, the kind of administrative outpost where the U.S. Forest Service stationed crews during the prosperous years after the war. Two wear the distinctive yellow uniform shirts that marked a federal employee, boots polished to the standard expected of men who worked for the government and understood that uniform meant something. The other two are in civilian clothes—a white shirt and khakis, the other in a printed cotton camp shirt—the uniform of the local hire or the visiting administrator who had driven out to see how things were running. Everyone is posed for the camera with the mild discomfort of men who have been rounded up for an official photograph and told to stand still, a ritual that happened regularly enough that no one bothered to smile. The buildings behind them are modest, functional structures painted institutional colors, the kind of place where a man could spend five years and never know the names of half the towns within fifty miles. The photograph has the color saturation of early Kodachrome, that particular golden cast that made everything look slightly more important than it was, which was exactly the point.

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