Three Children Dressed for Easter Sunday, American Suburb, 1950s

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Three Children Dressed for Easter Sunday, American Suburb, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Three Children Dressed for Easter Sunday, American Suburb, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-22C04F

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Easter Sunday in the 1950s operated on the firm belief that children who were dressed identically to small adults would somehow enjoy the occasion more. The two boys are in matching navy suits with bow ties, their hair combed into the kind of severe side parts that required a mother's determined comb and probably some Brylcreem, and they are standing on the front lawn of a brick ranch house with the slightly stunned expressions of people who have been told not to get dirty.

The toddler girl between them, in white smocked cotton, is holding one brother's hand with the grip of someone who has not yet agreed to any of this. The smaller boy clutches what appears to be a single small flower, which he either picked on the way out or was given as a prize for tolerating the suit. The ranch house behind them, with its aluminum-frame picture window and sheer curtains, dates the scene as precisely as a newspaper.

Someone stood these three children in front of the house and asked them to stand still and smile, which is a request children have been failing to fulfill since cameras were invented. The older boy is smiling anyway, which means he already understood what photographs were for.

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