The Sunday porch: Kentucky

Prosperous farmer 1, Kentucky, Library of CongressFarmhouse porch with plants in painted lard buckets, Morehead, Kentucky, 1940, by Marion Post Wolcott for U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

I wish we could see the colors of the painted* containers.

Prosperous farmer 2, Kentucky, Library of Congress
Two special supports were built along the front of the porch to display the plants. (There’s a third view of the house here.)


*Here, here, and here are examples of 1930s interior paint color combinations.

The Sunday porch: Usborne, Ontario

John Cottel's house, via Huron County Museum

John Cottel‘s Home, Usborne Township, Ontario, ca. 1910, via Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol Commons on flickr.

John Cottel, presumably to the right of the door, was born in England in 1836.  His wife was Margaret Turnbull, and they had four daughters, three of whom may be in the photo. There is a much wider view of the house and farm here.

Life in gardens: snake

Man with snake, Alabama, 1948, via Galt Museum“James Burness Senior holding a rattle snake outside the family’s home at Coste Station, six miles from Burdett, Alberta[, Canada]. ”

The photo, dated August 1948, is via the Galt Museum & Archives Commons on flickr.

I’m trying to figure out what plant is coming up in the narrow L-shaped — or does it go around to form a square with the sidewalk — bed behind him.  Sunflowers?

The approach

The approach, Chasley, Alabama, an infrared by C. Highsmith, 2010, Library of CongressAn old cabin on the plantation of Chasley, Monroe County, Alabama, May 2010, an infrared photo by Carol M. Highsmith, via The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.