Outdoor Lecture on Rocky Outcrop, Group Field Trip, 1950s

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Outdoor Lecture on Rocky Outcrop, Group Field Trip, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Outdoor Lecture on Rocky Outcrop, Group Field Trip, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-AC23D8

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One man has climbed to the highest point on the rock formation and is addressing the group below him, which is the 1950s version of having good slides. He holds what appears to be a small camera or instrument, standing in khakis and a cap with the settled authority of someone who has given this talk before and expects the rock to cooperate as a visual aid. Behind and below him a dozen men spread across the ledge in sun hats, white t-shirts, and one dark suit jacket — the suit being worn by the man who had not been informed this was that kind of outing.

This has the look of a geological or natural-history field excursion, the kind universities and amateur science societies ran throughout the postwar decade on the theory that the American landscape was a classroom and that men who had survived the war could certainly manage a rocky slope in sensible shoes. The mix of dress — some prepared, some emphatically not — is the permanent signature of any group activity where the itinerary said 'casual' and half the attendees interpreted that differently.

The speaker's elevated position gives him a clear view of everyone not paying attention, which is the one advantage of standing on a rock that no podium can replicate.

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