Skip to Main Content

Caught on Camera: The Material Fifties in 2002

August 19, 2016

Installation view of The Material Fifties. Photograph by Tom Loonan.​​​​​​​

The Material Fifties was a special installation devoted to 1950s mass culture presented in conjunction with the special exhibition The Tumultuous Fifties: A View from the New York Times Photo Archives from January to April 2002.

Objects featured included original recordings of the era; a rare cherry-red 1952 Harley; a Coke machine; posters advertising cigarettes and fast cars; highway signs; first editions of Beat fiction and poetry; Wonder Woman, Mad, and Atomic War comic books; U.S. government Cold War pamphlets; and pulp fiction.

This installation provides a tangible complement to the black-and-white world represented in the photographs from the New York Times Photo Archives.

Installation view of The Material Fifties. Photograph by Tom Loonan.

Installation view of The Material Fifties. Photograph by Tom Loonan.​​​​​​​