The summer Olympics were last held in the United Kingdom in 1948, when these happy New Zealand athletes arrived by ship.
The wonderful photo is from The Picture Post Historical Archive, a “complete, fully text searchable facsimile archive of the Picture Post, the iconic newspaper published in Britain between 1938-1957 that defined the style of photojournalism in the 20th century.”
A digitized resource licensed by UBC Library, The Picture Post Historical Archive provides researchers with online access to “a remarkable visual record of the 1930s to 1950s from the humorous and light-hearted snapshots of daily life in Britain to the serious and history-defining moments of domestic and international affairs.”
Photo credit: “Our Welcome to Olympic Athletes.” Picture Post [London, England] 3 July 1948: 9+. Picture Post Historical Archive. Web. 24 July 2012. Document URL http://find.galegroup.com/pipo/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=PIPO&userGroupName=ubcolumbia&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=EL1800043054&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0