The 1950s in the United States

What was life like in the 50s ? The best way is to illustrate it. Let's discover together photographs from this era that will transport you back in time. Was family life easier, more difficult or the same in the 1950s compared to today ?

Child games

“No one bangs the table!” In this 1950 image, a dedicated young architect completes an impressive card tower that must have taken hours to complete! His little brothers and sisters watch him stack the last cards.

Baseball

At a summer camp near Washington, DC, boys play baseball in the afternoon. A fun outdoor activity for all teammates.

New rims

In Detroit, this family of three smiles outside their home in their state-of-the-art 1951 Ford Custom Fordor Sedan .

Pin up

Photographers couldn't resist taking a photo of a woman in a swimsuit — the one here was probably in Miami's Orange Bowl parade, which ran from 1936 to 2001.

Saying goodbye to husbands who go to war

Women did not go into combat. Here we see a soldier saying goodbye to his son and wife before leaving for the Korean War, which lasted from mid-1950 to mid-1953.

Even stars have to be good mothers!

This photo, taken a year after I Love Lucy aired (the series ended in the fall of 1957), shows the very famous television star Lucille Ball in a more domestic setting. Covered by magazines and newspapers, Ball has appeared on the cover of TV Guide 45 times, more than any other celebrity.

Black children

A group of young girls have fun playing in the streets of Harlem in New York.

Protect children

The year before this photo was taken, a polio epidemic broke out in the United States, with 58,000 cases identified that year alone. In 1952, the polio vaccine was developed, and during its trial period, until its approval in 1955, women queued for hours trying to get the trial vaccine for their children (as seen here). The word miracle is overused, but this vaccine and a subsequent oral vaccine were just that, virtually eliminating the disease. In 2012, there were only 223 cases of polio worldwide.

Follow fashion

Dance fads were particularly popular in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Twist and the Mashed Potato . One of the first fantasies was the Bunny Hop , a caterpillar formation born in 1952 among students at Balboa High School in San Francisco.

Make do with what you have

Today in Park Forest, Illinois, you can find an aquatic center with a 1389246.12 liter pool and four slides. But back then, homeowners who were feeling hot relieved themselves in a much more modest way .

Swimsuit competition

Although the modern bikini was introduced eight years before this photo was taken at a beauty pageant in Park Forest, Illinois, it was still considered too racy for many American women. It took French bombshell Brigitte Bardot to wear a bikini in the film And God... Created Woman (1957) for the two-piece swimsuit to become widespread. Many little girls wear sporty outfits with modest frilly skirts .

Get on his high horse

A very happy little girl proudly rides her pony .

Scientific exhibition

Even a Nobel Prize-winning physicist needs a little fun sometimes! Here, Professor Felix Bloch , a Swedish-born physicist who spent much of his life teaching at Stanford University, blows up a balloon while his wife and four children watch. Some things never change: children cover their ears and prepare for the big "pop"! In 1952, three years before this photo was taken, Bloch received the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing a new method for measuring the magnetic field of atom nuclei. But, as this photo clearly shows, he never stopped being a family man .

The "Ike Girls"

The " Ike Girls " made their first appearance in 1952 as part of the "Ike Draft", the first successful grassroots effort in the 20th century to bring in a private citizen, General Dwight D. Eisenhower ("Ike" being Eisenhower's nickname) , hero of World War II, at the White House. Today, these "Ike" umbrellas and clothing are collectibles, but you can find several girls' school sports teams with the name "Ike Girls."

“Look, mom!”

The joy of traveling was alive and well for this mother and her granddaughter in 1957. The two passengers experienced the luxury of Greyhound's Scenicruiser, a double-decker bus that had debuted a few years earlier, in 1954.

A trip to the bowling alley

This woman from 1958 aims for a bowling strike. We must congratulate her for giving everything she had for her throw, even with this long old-fashioned skirt from the 50s!

Music, maestro!

Trumpeter Louis Armstrong plays a few high notes on his trumpet in 1950.

Camping is chic!

American families past and present are fortunate to be able to enjoy the splendor of America's national parks . This family chose a prime location to set up their tents in the middle of the Rocky Mountains in 1959.