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1921. Edwards boy at inaugural stand in Washington (East Portico of the Capitol). View full size. 5x7 glass negative, National Photo Company Collection.
I was gonna say, it looks like they just sort of haphazardly nailed some 2x4s to the legs without any real regard for engineering.
Here's an image of the Harding inauguration that I'm assuming was after this picture. Interesting to see how much work was done to the place. It appears that the columns to the right of the boy are the same ones the soldiers are in front of in the image.
And my goodness is that some scary looking scaffolding!
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