MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE, The King Sits in State at the Ak-Sar-Ben Coronation Ball, Omaha, NE, c. 1938, 13.375x10" Gelatin silver print, Printed c. 1938, Titled in pencil on print verso; Time Inc. copyright stamp; Used in Life stamp dated October 24 1938; photographer's credit stamp; miscellaneous annotations in red, green, and black pencil.

Published in the October 24, 1938 issue of LIFE Magazine in an article titled Life Goes to the Ak- Sar-Ben Coronation Ball, The First Families of Nebraska Crown a King and Queen Amid Regal Magnificence. The article reads: Among the great civic festivals of the Mississippi-Missouri Valley -- The New Orleans Mardi gras, the Memphis cotton festival, the Veiled Prophets Ball of St. Louis -- none is more splendiferous than Omaha's Ak-Sar-Ben (Neb-ras-ka backwards). Started during the panic of 1896 as a frank gesture to attract people to depression-hit Omaha, it is the prime social event of the entire corn belt.

On Oct 7th, the 44th Ak-Sar-Ben Ball was photographed for LIFE by Margaret Bourke-White. Fifteen thousand people filled an arena to watch Nebraska's best families masquerade as courtiers, princesses, and countesses of the mythical Kingdom of Quivera. The new king was Otto Lijenstolpe Swanson, 47, treasurer of the Nebraska Clothing Co. and president of the Utica Clothing Co., who began his career as a newsboy, and is now one of Nebraska's leading merchants. Caption for this photograph: The King Sits in State.

CREDIT: LIFE Magazine October 24, 1938

Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) was a pioneering figure in 20th century documentary photography and is famous for her scenes of modern industry, the Great Depression, and political and social movements in the 1920s through 1950s. Born in New York in 1904, Bourke-White attended Columbia University to study under renowned photographer Clarence White. In 1927 she moved to Cleveland, the heartland of American industry, and opened her own studio. There she documented the effects of modern industry on the land and people. In 1929 Bourke-White became the first staff photographer employed by  Fortune magazine. In keeping with her groundbreaking work in the United States, Bourke-White obtained permission in 1930 to enter the Soviet Union to document industrialization under the Communist regime. When Bourke-White returned home to the United States she developed a greater sympathy for the suffering of the American worker. In 1934, on assignment for Fortune Magazine, she set off to document the effects of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma and other Great Plains states. She created a photographic essay of the migration from this region at the height of the Great Depression and in 1936 published these images in a volume entitled, You Have Seen Their Faces.

Good. Minor wear, handling marks. Edge wear.