AA-2026-8D7166
On the image
Two girls dressed in their good coats — one in a tweed A-line with a straw hat trimmed in flowers, the other in a plaid sheath — stand beside a brightly painted totem pole at what appears to be a public fair or civic celebration, the kind of event that routinely featured 'Indian villages' as family entertainment. Behind them, tepees, American flags, and costumed figures fill a manicured lawn, while a rustic log fence marks the boundary between the audience and the exhibit. Someone had assembled this display with evident effort and complete confidence that it was an appropriate way to spend a Saturday, which in the 1950s it absolutely was. The totem pole is freshly painted in orange, black, and white, the kind of prop a local civic committee would have commissioned from a sign painter rather than a sculptor. The girls are dressed for a nice outing, not a history lesson, which is precisely what this was.
The historian's note
This scene documents a form of community pageant common across the United States in the 1950s, in which civic groups, churches, and youth organizations staged outdoor celebrations that freely combined patriotic symbols with imagery borrowed loosely from Native American cultures, most often stylized totem-pole and headdress motifs associated with Pacific Northwest Coast peoples. Such events were typically organized for Independence Day, school closing ceremonies, or summer camp exhibitions, and the decorative totem pole seen here, along with the flanking American flags and tent-like backdrops, is characteristic of that genre rather than any specific tribal practice.
The children's formal dress, coats and hats worn for the camera rather than for participation in any performance, reflects the period convention of treating even casual community gatherings as occasions for a proper family photograph. The event itself is undated and unnamed, consistent with countless small-town and neighborhood pageants staged nationwide during the decade, none individually famous but collectively representative of mid-century American civic culture and its casual borrowing of Indigenous imagery for decoration.
Subjects & keywords — each links to a search
Visually related — by likeness
Two Girls at a Native American Themed Fairground Display, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-8D7166. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/two-girls-at-a-native-american-themed-fairground-display-1950s.
@misc{aaAA20268D7166,
title = {Two Girls at a Native American Themed Fairground Display, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-8D7166},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/two-girls-at-a-native-american-themed-fairground-display-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Two Girls at a Native American Themed Fairground Display, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-8D7166 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/two-girls-at-a-native-american-themed-fairground-display-1950s ER -
From the community
Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.
Sign in to add an identification, correction, or comment.
No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.