Jack Delano (American, 1914-1994) “Pumpkin Pies and Thanksgiving Dinner at the Home of Mr. Timothy Levy Crouch, a Rogerine Quaker Living in Ledyard, Connecticut,” 1940. B&W film. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection LC-USF34-T01-042712-D. 

Eating Pumpkin Pie 

The photographer Jack Delano captured an image of the Crouch family sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner in a mirror that hangs above a sideboard of desserts, including two pumpkin pies.  Placing the portrait above the pies, the photographer inculcates the family with a sense of well-being and old-fashioned goodness.  The pumpkin pies in particular cast this as a distinctly American scene.