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The formal 'front room' (living room kept for company)

CTL-E-1290 · Practice · other · 1940–1999

PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record

A front or formal living room kept pristine 'for company only' — plastic-covered upholstery, doilies, china cabinet, pressed carpet lines — as a curated presentation of family respectability and aspiration.

Notes

Merged into canonical KG 2026-10-03 from LIFE-001; source entity IDs: CTL-DR-LIFE-001:CTL-LIFE-E-024; source research type(s): practice.

Sources

Record CTL-E-1290 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 2 sources · CTL research: LIFE-001.
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Cite as: CultureTechLens, “The formal 'front room' (living room kept for company) (CTL-E-1290),” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, October 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1290/

Chicago: CultureTechLens. “The formal 'front room' (living room kept for company) (CTL-E-1290).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1290/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). The formal 'front room' (living room kept for company) (CTL-E-1290) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1290/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “The formal 'front room' (living room kept for company) (CTL-E-1290).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1290/

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From the Archive

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The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941
Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Children at the table in a kitchenette apartment, Chicago, 1941
Children at the table in a kitchenette apartment, Chicago, 1941Photo: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Children asleep in a kitchenette apartment, Chicago, 1941
Children asleep in a kitchenette apartment, Chicago, 1941Photo: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

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