Picture Archive: Fourth of July

Sewing the American Flag
Photograph by May Smith, National Geographic
In June 1776, representatives of the 13 American colonies fighting the Revolutionary War resolved to declare their independence from Great Britain. On July 2, the Continental Congress voted yes on the idea. Two days later, the Declaration of Independence was adopted, and the break from England was official.
It's that last date—the Fourth of July—which marks America's birthday, in large part because that's the date inscribed on the Declaration of Independence.
The first observance of the Fourth of July was a year later in Philadelphia. The Congress adjourned and locals celebrated with bonfires, bells, and fireworks, according to John Adams.
The custom of celebrating America's birthday spread slowly at first, but grew in fervor at the end of the War of 1812 with Great Britain. Even so, the holiday wasn't officially established by Congress until 1870. People didn't get the day off work until 1941.
In 1826, illness forced the Declaration's author, Thomas Jefferson, to decline an invitation to come to Washington, D.C., to mark the document's 50th anniversary—though Independence Day was still nearly half a century away from holiday status. A few days prior to the celebration, he wrote:
"May it be to the world, what I believe it will be ... the signal of arousing men to burst the chains ... All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. ... For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."
Jefferson died on that Fourth of July. John Adams, another signatory, died the same day.
The photo above by Mary L. Smith, published in the October 1917 issue of National Geographic, was accompanied by a poem that shared Jefferson's nationalistic sentiment:
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
—Johnna Rizzo
Published: July 4, 2013
Rapid City, South Dakota
Photograph by Wide World Photos
This 1927 photo, according to the notes on the back, "shows President Calvin Coolidge dressed in Western cowboy fashions as he celebrated the nation's 151st natal day, his fifty-fifth birthday and the fifth birthday that he has occupied the office of the President of the United States, at the Rapid City, S. D. Fourth of July celebration. The President is wearing a complete cowboy outfit, chaps, a red shirt, blue bandanna around the neck, 'Ten-gallon hat,' spurs and boots."
Mrs. Coolidge sits in the foreground.
Coolidge is the only U.S. president born on the Fourth of July.
Published: July 4, 2013
Big Sandy, Tennessee
Photograph by J. Baylor Roberts, National Geographic
Children, arriving on foot and by little red wagon, line up for a shaved-ice treat called a snowball in Big Sandy, Tennessee, in this 1947 photo by staff photographer J. Baylor Roberts.
Popular on a sultry summer day, such icy treats may have been around since the Roman Empire, when snow hauled from the mountains into sweltering cities was flavored with syrups.
Modern manufactured snowballs—and their coarser-textured cousins, snow cones—started much later. In 1920, Samuel Bert of Dallas invented a snow cone machine and personally sold them at the Texas State Fair until 1984. Ernest Henson of New Orleans created the finer snowball texture when he invented the ice shaver in 1934; his wife concocted several syrups.
Published: July 4, 2013
Washington, D.C.
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams, National Geogrpahic
The Tidal Basin, which began operating in the early 1900s, was intended to prevent pollution of Washington, D.C.'s waterways. Bathing beaches—such as the one here captured by staff photographer Maynard Owen Williams in 1922—were a happy byproduct that soon sprang up on the circular pool's shores.
The cool dips with monument views were short-lived, though. The Tidal Basin's bathing beaches were closed in 1924—due to pollution.
Published: July 4, 2013
Coeur D'Alene Lake, Idaho
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic
"A young girl acts as lifeguard at the bathing beach, with adhesive to protect her nose from the sun 2,124 feet above sea level," reads staff photographer Maynard Owen Williams's notes on the back of the image.
"Nothing phony about this," the notes continue. "The lifeguard could hardly stop her work long enough to pose, for fifty mammas watched her guard over fifty young hopefuls in the clear water of Lake Coeur d'Alene."
Lifeguarding as a profession began on the East Coast decades before this shot was taken. Atlantic City organized the country's first volunteer lifeguard service when its boardwalk opened in 1872; several years earlier, the town had appointed William S. Cazier the first "constable of the surf." In 1892 the lifesavers started getting paid for their services.
Published: July 4, 2013
Housatonic River, Connecticut
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
Connecticut firemen seem to have rigged up this ad hoc water park outside their firehouse—shot by Louis Marden in 1935—especially for sweltering days.
The 1930s brought American children ever more places to cool off in the water: WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps efforts included the construction of hundreds of public swimming pools across the U.S.
Published: July 4, 2013
Iowa State Fair, Des Moines
Photograph by J. Baylor Roberts, National Geographic
Staff photographer J. Baylor Roberts snapped this shot at the 1938 Iowa State Fair held in Des Moines. "The big days at the fair are those having auto races," read Baylor's notes on the back of the photo.
Since the first state fair in Syracuse, New York, in 1841, there have been similar summertime events in all 50 states. State fairs—often best known for livestock shows and bake-offs—have fallen on tough financial times in the last decade, though, with many filing for bankruptcy. Some have been reincarnated with other monikers. In Nevada, for example, the event formerly known as a state fair is now called the San Gennaro Feast.
Another anomaly in the set of 50 states: Pennsylvania has a collection of county fairs, but no state fair to speak of.
Published: July 4, 2013
Manchester, New Hampshire
Photograph by Harlan A. Marshall
Mill workers in Manchester, New Hampshire, created this 200-pound, 50-by-95-foot American flag—each star is a yard in diameter.
Harlan A. Marshall's photograph of it was published in an October 1917 National Geographic story titled "The Correct Display of the Stars and Stripes."
"Unquestionably one of the genuine 'war brides' of industrial America is flag manufacturing," reads the caption. "Never before in the history of this country has there been such a phenomenal demand for flags—not only Star Spangled Banners, but the flags of all the European nations with which the United States has joined forces in order to banish autocracy from the world."
It continues: "Formerly a star-maker employed the primitive tools of die and mallet, but, in the face of the recent enormous demands, the flag factories now use motor-driven machines to cut the 48 state emblems required for every national ensign."
Published: July 4, 2013