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Detroit, Michigan, circa 1905. "Bridge in the woods, Belle Isle Park." 8x10 dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
My first thought when seeing this was also of La Grande Jatte, and as our theater just produced "Sunday in the Park With George," I had a few images that seemed almost to fit:
I love the hats everyone is wearing, and they are all dressed to the nines! thanks for the opportunity to look in on this time out of time.
So they already had power poles and power lines running in the woods in 1905? Who knew?
[Believe it or not, people had telephones, telegraphs and electric power in 1905. Also in 1900, 1895, 1890 ... - Dave]
Are fun to look at but I'm amazed at how much clothing people had to wear back then, even in warm weather.
You assume that the editing was done for "racist" reasons. But if the kid had been left in, the result would have been a disembodied head at the bottom of the card -- certainly not appealing to any buyer no matter what the race. In addition, the two black kids on the opposite bank were not edited out.
The post card is from the very SAME photograph, but notice the little black boy, right front, has been retouched out! Too late to bring it to the attention of the folks back in the day!
Same thought, Dahlia. In fact, I had just mentioned that on Shorpy's Facebook Wall.
What stands out is the litter and here I thought society of the past was more respectful of their surroundings. Guess not!
Beautiful. This instantly reminded me of Seurat's Grande Jatte:
This picture just breaks my heart. The elms are gone, the canoes are gone but I do notice that the littering had already begun.
If you look closely, perhaps you can see little Norman on the bank perfecting the scene in his mind and then painting it as is.
A few trash barrels would help the scenery even more.
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