Midway Airport, Chicago, Illinois
AA-2026-D39567
On the image
A girl in her Sunday best — red puffed-sleeve blouse, striped full skirt, patent-leather belt, and a bow at the collar — stands at the chain-link perimeter fence of an American airport in the 1950s, which is exactly where a family would take a child to spend an afternoon watching propeller airliners taxi and park, because that was a legitimate leisure outing and nobody found it unusual. Behind her, twin-engine aircraft sit on an open ramp accessible to any ground vehicle that cared to wander past, airport security in this era being largely a theoretical concept. The observation deck or ramp-side fence was a standard feature of postwar American airports, built on the assumption that the public's relationship with commercial aviation was one of open civic wonder rather than managed threat. She has been positioned here by an adult who wanted the planes in the background, to prove the family had been somewhere modern and exciting, and she is wearing an expression that suggests she would rather be somewhere else entirely.
Visually related — by likeness
Girl at Airport Observation Fence, Propeller Aircraft on Ramp, 1950s USA. 1950–1958. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-D39567. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girl-at-airport-observation-fence-propeller-aircraft-on-ramp-1950s-usa.
@misc{aaAA2026D39567,
title = {Girl at Airport Observation Fence, Propeller Aircraft on Ramp, 1950s USA},
year = {1950–1958},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-D39567},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girl-at-airport-observation-fence-propeller-aircraft-on-ramp-1950s-usa}
}TY - ART TI - Girl at Airport Observation Fence, Propeller Aircraft on Ramp, 1950s USA PY - 1950–1958 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-D39567 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girl-at-airport-observation-fence-propeller-aircraft-on-ramp-1950s-usa ER -
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