A new Taschen book, National Geographic: The United States of America, compiles more than 700 images from the magazine's archives, charting a century of growth and change across the country, from Alabama to Wyoming, Alaska to Wisconsin.
A Century of American Life
Until the 1920s, National Geographic stories focused on American industry, agriculture and public works. Soon after, they began to give way to stories that emphasised images of Americans at leisure, enjoying the fruits of their labours. The images, increasingly shot and reproduced in colour, offered readers a temporary escape from the struggle and monotony of everyday life.
'There was an aspirational aspect to the way National Geographic viewed and covered America,' says Thomas Kennedy, the magazine's director of photography in the 1990s. For most of the 20th century, the editors portrayed America's best self-image, as seen through the lens of white middle-class and middle-American sensibilities. National Geographic photography reinforced these idealised narratives that were familiar to almost every schoolchild.
From Burlesque to Brass Bands
The collection includes images of tourists gazing down on the Chicago River from the roof of the Tribune Building, and local kids shovelling the hockey rink on the Whitefield common in New Hampshire so they can play. In Virginia, 1939, sailors get tattoos in Norfolk, back when they were the tattoo parlours' best, and virtually only, customers.
In Alabama, the Historic Alabama Theater in Birmingham, captured in 2014, was Paramount's showcase movie palace, beckoning patrons from across the southeast into its plush, gold-leafed interior when it opened in 1927. In New York, 1977, West 138th Street in Harlem on Memorial Day is closed to traffic but open to the neighbourhood's inhabitants.
Burlesque legend Blaze Starr reigns over Baltimore's bawdy 'block' of strip-clubs and grindhouses in a 1972 image. Characters like Starr, John Waters and Divine drew the attention of the world to their city, the quirky metropolis of Maryland.
Iconic Moments and Places
A reproduction of the Mayflower II sails into New York Harbour in 1957, escorted by boats and a blimp. The ship was constructed in England and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, now residing permanently in Plymouth, Massachusetts. In Chicago, 1967, the historic 'L' elevated rapid transit system encircles 35 blocks of shops, offices and hotels as it navigates downtown.
In Louisiana, 2007, trumpeter Kenneth Terry and the New Birth Brass Band play at Preservation Hall, two years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. 'What we do in New Orleans you can't find anyplace else,' Terry told Geographic writer Joel K Bourne Jr. 'The jazz we play comes from the soul'.
In New Mexico, 1957, picnickers gather at Great White Sands, where snowy-soft gypsum forms a 140,000-acre sandbox. Curving shields protect picnic tables from the blowing wind and glaring sun. In Kentucky, 1964, a National Parks Service guide addresses visitors to Mammoth Cave, the world's longest known cave system at 390 miles of passageway. Standing on the same rock in 1876, actor Edwin Booth delivered Hamlet's soliloquy, giving the chamber its name: Booth's Amphitheater.
