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We begin to see many more school portraits in the 1880s but the number sees still relatiely limited. We are not entirely sure why this did not occur earlier. We suspet that the tehhnology of operating outside studios was still fairly compliated This made the portraits still fairly expensive. Portraits seem more common at private schools than public schools. This presumably reflects the fact that the school portrait was still a fairly new feature and boys at private schools were more avle to pay for it. We see boys wearing a range of outfits, but mostly suits. Knee pants were becoming more common, but not yet commonly worn by older boys. Girls all wore dresses, often wih a pinafrore..
The Holderness School was founded in 1879. The photographs from the 1880s show the schools at an early point of its operations and the boys seen in the images were some of the first boys to attend the school. The photograph here shows shows an early group of Holderness teenage boys gathered in their dormitory before going to bed. They all wear white nightshirts that come down almost to their ankles. The date of the photograph is a bit uncertain but a history of the early years of the school places it about 1882. Notice that the nightshirts have openings in front down
to about waist level but are worn buttoned all the way up to the neck, probably because New Hampshire winters were cold and because there may have been only minimal heat in the sleeping quarters.
This school photograph was identified as "1st Intermediate" from Onarga, Illinois. We know nothing about the town at this time, but notice the substantial red brick school building in the background. We are not sure what the name of the school was, but as the photograph was taken in Onarga, we are guessing that the name of the school was the Onarga School. The photograph was taken about 1882. The photograph is of interest for several reasons.
The Skinner School was located in rural Illinois, perhaps rural Illinois. The photograph was taken in 1885. Unfortunately the image is not very high quality, but it does show the kind of small school many children atended in rural areas. Note that the boys wear long pants. Boys in an urban school in the 1880s would have more likely worn kneepants.
The Hygienic School was a historic Afro-American school in Pennsylvania. The photograph was taken in 1886-87. The school was located in Steelton, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg. Steelton was a the name suggests built around the rising iron and steel industry of the area. The steel mills at the center of the city rose to be a major industrial complex aftervthe Civil War. The mills attracted workers in large numbers, among which were blacks primarily from the South. Low wages over time resulted in industrial strife. One of the company's strategies for dealing with labor unrest was to hire blacks and went into the South to recruit black workers. They were thought to less likely to strike and white workers often did not want to bring them into the trade unions they were attempting to form. The primary company was the Pennsylvania Steel Company which in 191 became the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The recruiters they sent into the South were successful in finding willing black workers who had few prospects in the Jim Crow South. Once a black community was established they attracted family and friends. This began before the Great Migration beginning during CWorld War I, but increased during this period. The first blacks were housed in barracks built and operated by the company. The first recruits were mostly young men. As families formed, a black shantytown developed the old Pennsylvania Canal and along Adams Street. Other ethnic groups (Croats, Slavs, Germans, Italians, and others) attracted by the jobs gradually assimilated into multi-ethnic society, a pattern repeated elsewhere in the industrial Midwest. The prevailing racism of the day, however, kept Steeltown's blacks in their own separate community. And this included a separate school.
The Peabody School was a public elementary school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Little Rock is the capital and largest city in the state. We see a class at the Peabody School in 1887. Thecsource said it was a 1st grade class, but some of the boys look older. Some boys wear suit jackets and other boys just blouses. Some boys have bows. All the boys seem to wear knee pants, Some with long stockings, other boys hare barefoot. This was a public elementary (primary) school. Unlike the northern states, the Southern states did not have important public school systems before the Civil War. This was one of the complaints of white Southeners about Reconstruction--higher taxes to finabnce public schools. We do not have any history of the Peabody School. Being located in Little Rock, it might have been founded before the Civil War. Arkansas only entered the Union in 1836.
Here we have a cabinent card portrit of a school class. The school is unidentified, but we believe it is a private school. We know it was located in or near Colfax, Illinois. The photographer was J.L. Shawl. The portrait is undated, but the mount and boys' clothes suggest the late-1880s to us. The early-90s is possible, but the late-80s seems more likely. It looks like a class group pictured with their teacher. Rhey loook about 13 tears old. Several of the boys holds their hats--incuding a bowler. A few of the boys have wide collars. All of the boys wear suits, some with knee pants annd others with long pants.
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