On Easter morning in April 1941, two young men stood beside a sign that made their very presence a quiet act of defiance. The sign shouted in capital letters: “NO PEDDLERS ALLOWED.” Beneath it, boundaries were drawn — lines meant to keep certain people out. But they stood there anyway.
Photographer Russell Lee captured that moment on Garfield Boulevard in Chicago, at a time when the country was emerging from the Great Depression and inching toward war. Jobs were scarce. Laws were uneven. Rules — like the one on that sign — were often aimed at the people who could least afford to follow them.
In this reimagining, the scene is not simply recorded but interpreted. The painterly lens gives it dignity, warmth, and weight. The men wear the same coats, stand in the same pose. The lilies still bloom. The papers and peaches still wait to be sold. But the light has changed — soft, golden, almost reverent. They are not lawbreakers. They are part of the American story.
The sign still says what it says.
But now, we see who’s standing beside it.
Original Photograph Information:
- Original Title: Peddlers on Easter morning on Garfield Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois
- Photographer: Russell Lee (1903–1986)
- Date: April 1941
- Medium: 1 safety negative, 35mm
- Collection: Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information (FSA/OWI)
- Rights: Public domain; no known restrictions
- LOC Call Number: LC-USF33-013009-M5 [P&P]
- Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
- Permalink: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017743662/
This is The Past, Reimagined Like Rockwell #5.
