Ship Launch or Christening, Chicago Park District, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Ship Launch or Christening, Chicago Park District, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Ship Launch or Christening, Chicago Park District, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-4327E2

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A man and woman in dress clothes stand on a sandy beach beside the hull of a large vessel, which rises above them like a building. Yellow and black striped wooden barriers block the view, and a sign reading "DANGER" hangs from the hull. The ship's superstructure and bridge sit exposed in a dry dock or on supports, waiting for whatever ceremony came next. The couple has dressed for an important occasion in a town where the important occasions still happened down by the water, and they have positioned themselves exactly where they were permitted to stand. In the 1950s, a ship launch was still a public event in cities with shipping industries, and the barriers were not there to protect anyone from the ship—they were there to keep the public on the correct side of an activity that mattered. The man wears a suit. The woman wears a hat. Neither of them appears to believe they are in the way.

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