New Jersey - Island Heights. [View from front of] Band (men in uniform) marching with children watching

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Island Heights, a small borough on the Toms River in Ocean County, New Jersey, is the setting here, and the scene shows a uniformed band marching down a street while children look on from the side. The Wittemann Collection, named for the photographer and studio whose work is held by the Library of Congress, documents American towns and everyday public life in the early twentieth century, when community bands were a common feature of parades, holidays and civic occasions. The caption card gives no date, and some of its tracings are unverified, so the exact year is uncertain. Still, the picture is worth a look for the way it captures a small town turning out to watch its musicians pass.

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