AA-2026-E77BD5
On the image
She has come to the beach in a sleeveless pink shirtwaist dress, cat-eye glasses, red lipstick, and a wristwatch, which is to say she has come to the beach the way a 1950s woman came to the beach when the point was to be seen at the beach rather than to be in it. Behind her, the actual swimmers are doing the undignified work of getting wet while she leans against the boardwalk railing with the composed ease of someone who has made a better decision. The wristwatch is the detail that gives the era away most cleanly — not the swimsuit era but the dressed-for-an-outing era, when a day trip required the same presentation as a Tuesday at the office, because a camera might appear at any moment and you would have to look back at this photograph for the rest of your life. She is smiling at whoever is holding the camera with the specific warmth of a woman who knows this is going well.
Visually related — by likeness
Woman at the Boardwalk Railing, Atlantic Coast Beach, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-E77BD5. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/woman-at-the-boardwalk-railing-atlantic-coast-beach-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026E77BD5,
title = {Woman at the Boardwalk Railing, Atlantic Coast Beach, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-E77BD5},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/woman-at-the-boardwalk-railing-atlantic-coast-beach-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Woman at the Boardwalk Railing, Atlantic Coast Beach, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-E77BD5 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/woman-at-the-boardwalk-railing-atlantic-coast-beach-1950s ER -
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