AA-2026-4A3986
On the image
A group of women and one man have stopped at a stone-walled roadside overlook somewhere in the conifer-forested mountain West — the kind of pull-off the National Park Service and Forest Service built in the postwar years specifically so that Americans could stand at the edge of something vast and feel they had experienced it. Every woman is dressed as though the wilderness were a Sunday social: floral shirtwaists, polka dots, white heels — the 1950s operating assumption being that nature was a destination you dressed up for, not something that required any concession in attire. One woman has perched on the stone wall itself and raised a camera to document the view, which is the moment the person standing behind her also raised a camera to document her documenting it. The group clustered around the interpretive sign is reading the official explanation of what they are looking at, which was the era's compromise between actually knowing a place and being able to say you had learned about it. They drove several hundred miles to stand here for eight minutes, and every one of them would report the trip as wonderful.
Visually related — by likeness
Tourists at a Rocky Mountain Overlook, Western U.S., 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-4A3986. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/tourists-at-a-rocky-mountain-overlook-western-u-s-1950s.
@misc{aaAA20264A3986,
title = {Tourists at a Rocky Mountain Overlook, Western U.S., 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-4A3986},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/tourists-at-a-rocky-mountain-overlook-western-u-s-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Tourists at a Rocky Mountain Overlook, Western U.S., 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-4A3986 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/tourists-at-a-rocky-mountain-overlook-western-u-s-1950s ER -
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