Tropical Garden Terrace, Striped Umbrella Tables, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Tropical Garden Terrace, Striped Umbrella Tables, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

An interpretation of depth — not a measured reconstruction

Depth is precomputed and interpretive — the scene falls back to the flat image where a browser can't render it.

Tropical Garden Terrace, Striped Umbrella Tables, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-27009D

The Archivist

Ask about this image

Archivist

Step into the scene

Off by default. Turning it on lets the image respond to your cursor with a shallow sense of depth, rebuilt from a depth map computed when the image was catalogued. It is an interpretation for looking, not a measured 3D model — and it falls back to the flat image where the browser can't render it.

On the image

Three people in their sixties sit at a lawn café table under a candy-striped umbrella at what reads as a warm-climate resort hotel — the palm trees, the manicured grass, and the rows of matching colored umbrellas stretching into the background are the unmistakable grammar of mid-century Caribbean or Hawaiian leisure. Both men are wearing suits. In the tropics. In the 1950s this was simply correct behavior for a person of standing, and the idea that a sport shirt might be acceptable was still a few years off.

The man on the right has made one concession to the latitude: a panama hat rests across his knee, ready to be deployed between the table and wherever the car is parked. It is the sole piece of evidence that any of the three acknowledged the temperature. The woman between them has brought a handbag substantial enough for a day at a London department store.

This is the 1950s package tour or cruise-stopover at its most characteristic — people who had earned enough to travel somewhere warm, doing so in the clothes they wore everywhere else, because the idea that a vacation required different clothes had not yet fully arrived for their generation. The resort put up cheerful umbrellas; the guests put on their good suit.

From the community

Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.

No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.

Visually related — by likeness

Backyard Pool Party, 1950s

1950–1959

Two Women at a Florida Motel Pool, 1950s

1950–1959 · Southeast Florida, USA

Children at a Summer Gathering, 1950s

1953–1959

Streamliner Train Station Platform, 1950s

1950–1959

Children on Terminal Wall, Port-au-Prince Airport, Haiti, 1950s

1950–1959

Port Paradise Hotel Paddleboat Dock, Crystal River, Florida, 1950s

1950–1959

Three Girls with New Bicycles, Suburban Backyard, 1950s

1950–1959

Backyard Cookout Under the Tent Pole, 1950s Family Reunion

1950–1959

Picnic Party at Subtropical Gardens, circa 1950s

1945–1960

Mid-Century Florida Shopping Center Courtyard, 1950s

1950–1959

Midway Carnival Stand, 1950s

1950–1959

Family Beach Outing, Overcast Day, 1950s

1950–1959