Siamese Cat in Suburban Backyard, USA, 1950s

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Siamese Cat in Suburban Backyard, USA, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Siamese Cat in Suburban Backyard, USA, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-73E7BB

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Siamese cats arrived in American living rooms in the postwar years riding a wave of enthusiasm for things that seemed exotic and slightly sophisticated, and by the mid-1950s owning one was a mild social statement — the cat equivalent of serving fondue. This particular Siamese has taken the statement outdoors and is doing what Siamese cats do with great conviction: crouching in the grass along the fence line with the focused intensity of an animal who has decided something important is about to happen, even if nothing is. The horizontal-slat fence and clapboard siding behind it are the grammar of the American suburban yard in its first generation — the same pattern repeating from New Jersey to California, built on the postwar assumption that a man's home came with a lawn that needed a defined edge. Someone thought the cat was worth a colour exposure, which in the 1950s was not a casual decision, and framed the shot carefully enough to include the pot of begonias visible through the fence slats, because the garden was also part of what one was proud of. The cat, for its part, has declined to perform.

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