AA-2026-481119
On the image
A New England coast in its mid-century glory: granite boulders studded with kelp and mussel beds, a rope or cable disappearing off frame suggesting someone's dock or mooring setup, and the kind of water so deeply blue it looks artificial even in color film. Across the bay, houses sit on a rocky promontory exactly where wealthy people of the 1950s believed they belonged—far enough away to feel exclusive, close enough to the water to matter. The casual industrial detail of that rope says someone from this era understood you could leave valuable infrastructure exposed to salt and weather and it would simply hold because people maintained things then, rope by rope, season by season. The scene reads as a tourist photograph taken by someone who owned or rented one of those distant houses and wanted proof they had found the place before the place got crowded, which of course it would.
Visually related — by likeness
Rocky Coastline with Distant Houses, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-481119. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/rocky-coastline-with-distant-houses-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026481119,
title = {Rocky Coastline with Distant Houses, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-481119},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/rocky-coastline-with-distant-houses-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Rocky Coastline with Distant Houses, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-481119 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/rocky-coastline-with-distant-houses-1950s ER -
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