AA-2026-9A2501
On the image
A young girl stands beside a climbing allamanda in full yellow bloom at what appears to be a manicured public or estate garden in subtropical Florida, the palm canopy and immaculate St. Augustine grass lawn placing the scene somewhere along the Gulf or Atlantic coast with reasonable confidence. In the 1950s, a family outing to a botanical garden carried the mild educational duty of making children appreciate nature, which in practice meant stopping them in front of the most photogenic shrub and waiting for them to hold still. She is not holding still so much as leaning slightly toward the flowers with the distracted interest of someone who has been told this plant is remarkable and is giving it a fair chance. The small identification stakes at the base of the shrub confirm this is a planted, labeled specimen — the kind of garden that took the naming of things seriously, on the theory that a child who knew the Latin would retain something from the outing. She looks down at the bloom rather than at the camera, which means nobody told her to look up, and so the picture accidentally recorded what curiosity looks like instead of what it is supposed to look like.
Visually related — by likeness
Girl with Allamanda Shrub, Tropical Garden, 1950s Florida. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-9A2501. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girl-with-allamanda-shrub-tropical-garden-1950s-florida.
@misc{aaAA20269A2501,
title = {Girl with Allamanda Shrub, Tropical Garden, 1950s Florida},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-9A2501},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girl-with-allamanda-shrub-tropical-garden-1950s-florida}
}TY - ART TI - Girl with Allamanda Shrub, Tropical Garden, 1950s Florida PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-9A2501 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girl-with-allamanda-shrub-tropical-garden-1950s-florida ER -
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