Two Children at the Waterfront Gate, Autumn, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Two Children at the Waterfront Gate, Autumn, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Two Children at the Waterfront Gate, Autumn, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1953–1959

AA-2026-E5360C

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A girl of about ten and her younger brother — he in a newsboy cap and two-tone jacket, she in a wool coat buttoned to the collar — stand at a chain-link gate beside a lake or river dock, posed for someone behind the camera who believed this was a good place to stop. Getting children dressed up and then driving them somewhere waterside on a cold autumn afternoon was, in the 1950s, a reasonable Sunday activity, and the docked pier behind the fence suggests a marina or public park closed for the season. The boy holds what appears to be a toy pistol with the relaxed confidence of a child who has brought it everywhere all week and sees no reason to stop now. His sister's expression carries the specific patience of an older sibling who has been explaining things to adults for some time and expects this to continue. The gate they're posed against is locked, which captures something about the era's relationship to public waterfront space — close enough to look at, with no particular expectation of getting in.

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