A Briton in America ca. 1950

Relocation can be a difficult time in a person’s life. Adapting to new surroundings can be a difficult and trying task: there are new cultural norms, new taboos, and new people. In 1946, Leonard McCombe moved from Liverpool, England, to New York City, at the age of 23. This is the age around which men are forced into the adult world, having to leave their childhood or young-adulthood behind.

This was not easy for McCombe, especially having to start a career in an entirely new country across an expansive “pond.” He recalls, “the summer light gave a continual headache…The heat was infernal. People got drenched without moving. Tension showed in twisted hands and peeled nail polish.” For him, dealing with the post-war temperament wasn’t easy either, McCombe writes “Something irritated me most of the time: the constant speed, the aggressive nasal whine, the wet heat, the bitter squint of the crowd, the assembly-line look of American life and the new crisis every hour…I’d stretch out on my bed and try to recall a friendly moment during the day. There wasn’t any.” Generally, he found America unreceptive, however he caught a glimpse of home that sparked his perseverance when he saw the Queen Mary in the Hudson River.

McCombe took up a job as a photographer for Life magazine, and the experiences of traveling across the country changed his outlook on this new world. He was amazed how easily he could photograph figures like “gangster czar” Frank Costello, or even President Truman. He was amazed by the American West, saying, “I like the natural life of the cowboys. It delighted me to see them working and to see horses running around unfettered.” A remarkable event he experienced was when he gave a single cigarette to a Navaho, and her reaction and their conversations revealed to him that “America’s history stretched away back beyond England’s.”

After 7 years of hard work and good moral standing, McCombe received a letter that acknowledged him as a citizen of the United States.