Chicago, Illinois, USA
AA-2026-BDFF56
On the image
Two girls in matching light coats and novelty hats stand at the edge of a crowded outdoor fair, somewhere in the Chicago area, judging by the pennant banner visible on the left. Behind them, a yellow canvas teepee — the kind sold as a backyard plaything and deployed at fairs as instant atmosphere — anchors a midway of booths flying American flags and bright striped bunting. The adults in the background are dressed for a Sunday outing: belted slacks, shirtwaists, cardigans, the full postwar leisure uniform. This was the era when a church or civic organization could fill a park with roped-off vendor stalls and folding chairs and call it a cultural event, and nobody questioned the teepee as décor. The older girl has the look of someone who has been posed for a photograph before and has already decided she is finished with it. What the camera caught, without anyone noticing, is how completely ordinary all of this felt at the time — the appropriated imagery, the pennant merchandise, the proud civic lawn party — before any of it required an explanation.
Visually related — by likeness
Girls at the Midway, Chicago-Area Scout or Church Fair, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-BDFF56. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girls-at-the-midway-chicago-area-scout-or-church-fair-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026BDFF56,
title = {Girls at the Midway, Chicago-Area Scout or Church Fair, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-BDFF56},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girls-at-the-midway-chicago-area-scout-or-church-fair-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Girls at the Midway, Chicago-Area Scout or Church Fair, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-BDFF56 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/girls-at-the-midway-chicago-area-scout-or-church-fair-1950s ER -
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