The most arresting—and for Muncie residents, most controversial—part of the “Middletown-Muncie” photo essay is the two-page spread showing four interiors in which families of different financial means pursue their everyday activities. (A copy of this issue of Life, open to this photo spread, can be found in the nearby case.) Beginning at upper left and proceeding counterclockwise, we see Mayor Rollin H. Bunch, still a practicing doctor, and Mrs. Bunch, a cook and farmer, both of whom are passionate about collecting glassware and other American artifacts; together “their hobbies give the home the appearance of a cozy little museum.” Living with his large family in a rented house, the one-legged William H. Hahn, a former Ball jar and steel worker receiving government assistance, spends his time reading Spencer, Darwin, Marx, and the Bible, as well as The Power of Will and Power for Success. More dramatic is the marked contrast between the exemplars of the “top” and “bottom” tiers of Muncie society. Unlike the family of William H. Ball (the son of one of the founders of “Muncie’s dominant glassworks”), who are depicted pursuing “certain leisure activities. . .as a symbol of status” in their elegant and spacious living room, Scott and Lizabelle Brandenberg live in a filthy shack covered with paper cartons, complete with a “homemade brooder” to raise “chickens ‘fer eatin.’” Taken together, these photographs offer a compelling taxonomy of Muncie’s upper, middle, and lower classes. Muncie’s residents, however, objected to being represented in this way.