culture and history – Page 73

The Sunday porch: Rockaway, N.Y.

July 6, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure1 Comment

“Porches and front lawns of row of bungalows, Rockaway, N.Y.,” between 1908 and 1911, by Bain News Service, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Rockaway (or The Rockaways) is a peninsula of Long Island within the New York City borough of Queens. It became a popular beach resort in the 1880s, when a commuter rail line from Manhattan opened a stop there.

Small summer bungalows were prolific in Rockaway during the first half of the 20th century — there were over 7,000 in the area by 1933. Most were torn down, however, during 1960s urban development. The preservation of those that remain is the subject of a 2010 documentary, The Bungalows of Rockaway. You can see the trailer here — and more pictures of Rockaway bungalow life here.

Vintage landscape: green roof

July 5, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

Man and woman work in front of a joint sod hut covered in grass and flowers, near the village of Vestre Jakobeselv, Norway. Taken 1900 by Ellisif Rannveig Wessell, via Preus Museum Commons on flickr.

Living in Finnmark, in the far northeastern part of Norway, Wessel photographed the hard lives of its rural poor. The Preus Museum — Norway’s national museum of photography — compares her to Jacob A. Riis and Lewis Hine.

She developed her own glass plates and used sunlight to make her prints.

Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.

— Mark Twain, “Warm Summer Sun“

Life in gardens: Little Duck Key

July 3, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking. . .

“American dreams at Little Duck Key [– part of the Florida Keys]. Commercial camping sites and travel trailer courts have sprung up throughout the Keys. Even on the smaller Keys like Little Duck, where no facilities have yet been constructed, camping is permitted by local authorities,” ca. 1975.

“Campers on Little Duck Key sleep in their own hammocks,” ca. 1975.

“Beach at Little Duck Key. Little Duck, in the lower Florida Keys, is a tiny island which has not been commercially developed[;] the beach is open to visitors, who are not always careful to preserve its unspoiled appearance,” ca. 1975.

All three photos here were taken by Flip Schulke for DOCUMERICA, a 1970’s photography program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They are shown with the original captions.

The EPA hired over 100 photographers to “document subjects of environmental concern.” The work continued until 1977 and left behind an archive of about 20,000 images.

In addition to recording damage to the nation’s landscapes, the project captured “the era’s trends, fashions, problems, and achievements,” according to the U.S. National Archives, which held an exhibit of the photos, “Searching for the Seventies,” in 2013.

There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.

Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot . . . .

Borne hither, ere all eludes me, hurriedly,
A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,
I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,
Taking all hints to use them, but swiftly leaping beyond them,
A reminiscence sing.

— Walt Whitman, from “Out of the Cradle. . .“

Vintage landscape: Bay St. Louis

June 28, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

“Gate to the Hamilton residence. Bay St. Louis, Mississippi,” c. 1901, Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.*

The beach town of Bay St. Louis is located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on the Bay of Saint Louis.

“Harry’s villa.”

The structure around the tree was known as a shoo fly. The elevated platforms were popular along the Gulf Coast as breezy places to avoid deer flies.

“Shoo-fly at Madame Boyle’s.” (“Harry’s villa” and “Madame Boyles” seem to be the same cottage.)

There’s another version of a shoo fly here.

“Along the bay,” a photochrom print.

Bay St. Louis was devasted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Almost nine years later, it has made a good comeback and is listed among Coastal Living‘s “Dream Towns in the Gulf Coast.”

You can scroll through larger versions of these photos by clicking on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any of the thumbnails in the gallery.

*All photos here were taken in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, c. 1901, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.