Girl on Frozen River, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Girl on Frozen River, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Girl on Frozen River, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-84B4D7

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A girl of about seven stands on a frozen river in a maroon wool coat and white headscarf, holding what appears to be an ice skate or stick. Behind her, bare trees line the far bank under a winter sky. In the 1950s, frozen rivers were free public skating rinks; you dressed up, walked out onto the ice, and that was winter entertainment. She is posed for the camera with the confidence of a child who understood she was being documented doing something ordinary—something that required no permission, no ticket, no gate. By the 1970s most American children had never stood on an actual frozen surface. By then the rivers had warmed, the custom had moved indoors to air-conditioned rinks with admission fees, and the idea that a river could simply be traveled on had already become quaint.

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