1959 Indiana

About this footage

Backyards and living rooms make up nearly all of this 1959 Indiana collection. In summer the yard fills up: adults play badminton across a net on the lawn, a woman unwraps presents on a picnic table, an older couple sits in folding chairs beside a white clapboard house, and a man waits at the grill. The backyard pool comes up again and again, with swimmers floating on black inner tubes and waving at the camera.

Indoors the camera turns to everyday routines. A woman reads the newspaper in a green armchair beside patterned drapes and a television set, men smoke and talk on the couch, and three people cook together in a small kitchen. There are long family dinners, a boy teaching a puppy tricks at Christmas, and children throwing snowballs in winter coats. A few car clips cross a white truss bridge and pass a water tower and downtown storefronts.

Good material for stories about 1950s home life, suburban summers, or family meals at the end of the decade.