Tag: rocking chair

The Sunday porch: dance floor

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notes of an old music pace the air. . .*

Woman and children dancing, 1935, Lomax Collection via Library of Congress
“Women and children on a porch,” in Georgia, Florida, or the Bahamas, 1935, from the Lomax Collection in the Library of Congress.

Woman and children dancing, 1935, Lomax Collection via Library of Congress

The snapshot photographs of the Collection document the expeditions by John Avery Lomax, Ruby Terrill Lomax, and Alan Lomax —  in the 1930s and 40s — to record and preserve the folk music and folklore of the southern United States and the Bahamas for the Library of Congress.

*From “A Poem Beginning with a Line by Pindar” by Robert Duncan.

The Sunday porch: ecchoing green

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Green, Oregon State University Archives
“J.D. Irvine Residence, Brownsville[, Oregon],” ca. 1918, via Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Commons on flickr.

What is green? the grass is green,
With small flowers between.

— Christina Rossetti, from “Color“

The Sunday porch: small house

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Wide enough for two rocking chairs, at least. . .

Small house, via LoCNew Bern, North Carolina, 1936, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Sunday porch: dogtrot in Texas

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The Sunday porch/enclos*ure: dogtrot in Texas, 1935, probably by Fanny Ratchford, via Texas State Archives Commons on flickr“Unidentified Dogtrot* House” in Texas (exact location unknown), 1935, probably** taken by Fanny Ratchford, via Texas State Archives Commons on flickr.

Fannie Elizabeth Ratchford was a librarian who worked in the rare books collection of the University of Texas at Austin from 1919 to 1957.  During the 1930s and 40s, she also began to put together a photographic and data survey of 19th c.  Texas architecture.

Unfortunately, she ran out of time and funding before the planned book could be assembled and published.  Her images, correspondence, questionnaires, and lists were donated to the Texas State Archives.  Only the photos are available online, but they are wonderful.  I’ll post some more in the coming weeks.

They sang Green, Green Grass of Home.
They sang Ne Me Quitte Pas beneath mesquite.

— Ange Mlinko, from “Escape Architecture“

*More about dogtrot houses in Texas here.

**According to an email from the Archives:  “Although the majority of the images within our Fannie Ratchford photograph collection were taken by Ratchford, she also acquired photographs from the Historic American Building Survey [HABS] as well as other photographers.”