Memory Bank: Eating popsicles in the 1950s

This photograph of children eating popsicles in front of an old store was taken by James O. Fox at an unmarked location, but likely on the near-west side in the 1950s. Fox was born in 1914 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was raised in Lakewood, Ohio. He came to Indianapolis in 1945 as a volunteer with the American Friends Service Committee and was assigned to an urban work camp, part of Flanner House, a community center in the city’s near-west side that remains today. One of Fox’s jobs was to photograph a neighborhood along the Central Canal and West 16th Street that included Indiana Avenue, then a cultural and commercial center for the black community. Fox also wrote poetry associated with the photographs.

Source: Indiana Historical Society

Credit: The photo is courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society and is part of the James O. Fox collection. More images are available at images.indianahistory.org.