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We have just begun to assess the school photographs that we have collected from the 1900s. Most of the images we have collected show the children dressed up for schools. Mostly boys wear suits, commonly kneepants suits. Several younger boys wear sailor suits. Some of the younger boys also have ruffled collars added to their suits. Most of the suits seem to be kneepants suits worn with with black or other dark long stockings. The girls all wear dresses, some with pinafores. They also wear long stockings, although not all are black long stockings. What we are not sure about if the outfits shown were what the children wore to school normally or if they dressed up for the portrait. We note relatively few images of children wearing overalls to school in the 1900s, although we begin to see boys wearing overalls at some rural schools by the end of the decade. It was not until the 1910s, however, that they became common.
This is a unidentified urban school, we believe in the Northwest. We are not entirely sure about the date. We think it may have been taken anout 1900, but the late 1890s is a ral possibility. All we have to go on is the fashions the children are wearing. It is clearly an urban school. We see what must be a substantial brick building in the background. The photograph shows one class at the school. We think it may be the freshman vlass at a high school. The finishing 8th grade class at a primary school is possible, but some f the students look lije thet might be 14 years old. The boys all wear double-breasted suits. One reaso we think the photograph was taken in the very ears 1900s or late 1890s is the diversity of neckwear. As you get unto the 1900s you begin to more and more boys wearing standrd neckties. The girls where both dresses and white blouses and skirts.
The Urk School here is an example of a one-room school at the turn of the 20th century. We know that it was located in the Middle School District which we believe is located in upstate New York. A source identified the image here as being taken in 1900. This may, however, have been an estimate rather than a precise date. Here we have a photograph of both the inside and outside of the school.
We know very little about this school, but we believe it was located in upstate New York. Given the size of the class it was presumably a one-room country school house seen in the background. The photograph we have is undated, but we believe it was taken about 1900. It is especially interesting because the children are wearing headwear. Usually the children in these class photographs have taken off their caps and hats.
The Calvert School in Baltimore is probably the most famous elementary (primary) school in America. The school was a kindergarten through 8th grade coeducational school located in Baltimore, Maryland. Elementary schools for grades 1-8 were fairly standard t the turn of the 20th century in rural areas. Schools wih grades 1-6 were more standard in cities. The addotionl Kindergarten was a innovation. The school was founded in 1897. The school developed a homeschooling division which has made the curricvulum available to home schoolers around the country. Virgil Hillyer, a Harvard-trained scholar, became the Head Master of the School. He decided to sell the curriculum developed at the school through a Baltimore bookstore. The idea of home school was not as developed as it is now. People at the time had more confidence in the public schools. Many mothers, however, were interested in preparing their children for 1st grade. Kindergartens were just beginning to appear. Thus the Schools Kindergarden curriculum proved very popular. The popularity of the curriulum developed after advertising in the National Geographic magazine. The original cost of the curriulum was $5.00. This class portrait was taken at the Camvert School in Baltimore. It is indated, but from the clothing we can tell it was taken at the turn of the 20th century, probably around 1900-05. It has been colorized.
Here we see the Meredith village school house in 1901. The boys sitting in the front row would seem to be about 8th or 9th-graders, i.e., about 12 or 13 years old. The older boys standing at the back look like high school children, i.e., 16-17 years old. The boys are quite formally dressed for the photograph, probably more formally than they actually would have been for daily classes. They wear jackets and ties, and most seem to be wearing
suits. The younger boys all wear knee pants with long black stockings and
hightop shoes. At least one of the boys in the front row (the third from the right) seems to be wearing long underwear under his stockings (note the somewhat lumpy appearance). This was probably quite common at the time, especially in chilly New Hampshire. The children are grouped on the front steps of the local Meredith schoolhouse. Meredith is a still a fairly small town so the school house could have been only a one-room affair.
Here we sse a rural primary school. It is the Wood School in Bedford County, Tennessee. The schools usually taught children through grade 8. That would normally be children about 13 years old. Often at these schools there were older children because some of the boys took a little longer to get through the program because of demands on the farm. Some of the boys look like older teenagers. We have a portrait froim 1902. The boys came to school in shorts and pants. We only see a few blouses with with large collars, a popular style at the time. The boys wear long ants and knee pants. At a city school the children would have dressed more fashionably, most of the boys would have worn knee pants. Notice that none of the boys wear overalls.
One available photograph from the school in 1903 is composed mostly of girls, but there are a few younger boys. It may not have been a class group. It is marked a Christmas portrait, but HBC thinks this is highly unlikely as an outdoor portrait without coats woud have been a very chilly experience in Massachusetts. It looks to HBC more like a late spring portrait. The boys wear quite a variety of outfits including two sailor suits.
The Tumwater School was located in Thurston County, Washington. It was rural school. A 1904 school photograph shows the children sitting on the front porch of the wooden school building. The children wear a wide rabge of clothing. Most boys wear long pants. One boy wears kneepants. Several boys wear suits. One boy has a ruffled Fauntleroy collar. Anoyher boy wears kneepants overalls, a rather unusual style. Several boys are barefoot.
Here is the Emmerich Manual Technical High School Football Team, Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1905. The uniforms are quite different from modern football uniforms. Notice that there is no padding at all. The boys wear light-colored shorts (maybe white), and black sleeveless jerseys with the highschool initials on the chest, almost like basketball uniforms. Their coach stands in the back row wearing a white shirt, tie, and suit. Their captain is at the right wearing a long-sleeved black and white striped jersey. Black and white seem to be the school colors. I m not positive, but this appears to be the uniform that they used for football. Interestingly, for 1905, the team is racially integrated. Segregation at the time was not limited to the South. I'm not sure just what the system was in Indianapolis.
Here we have a photograph from the Scroggin School which looks to be a rural school located in Logan Co. Illinois. The source believes that the photograph was taken about 1905. This is possible, but we believe that it may have been taken a few years later. The children are wearing different style clothing. Some boys wear blouses and kneepants. Others wear overalls. We are trying to determine just when overalls became standard for school wear in rural aeres. Other images we have found show overalls being worn beginning about 1908-09 which is why we are unsure about the date here. If it rally was taken in 1905, it is the earliest image we have archived showing overalls being commonly worn. You can see from the clothing here that this was a transitional period. With some children wearing blouses and kneepants common in the 1900s and others wearing overalls common in the 1910s. Most of the boys are barefoot, but the girls wear long stocings and shoes. One boy seems to have hurt his foot and has wrapped it in a cloth.
The Protestant Episcopal Church established a college at Racine, Wisconsin in 1852--Racine College. There was a grammar school associated with the College and may have even preceeded it. Racine College functioned as a college in the sence of a small university for 40 years in the 19th century. It subsequently became a preparatory school with both secondary and older primary-age boys--the Racine College Grammar School. We are not sure about the nature of the original grammar school, but by the turn-of-the 20th century it was not a grammar school in the normal sence that the term is used in America--that of a primary school. The Racine school was more like a British grammar school in the sence of a secondary, but with entry at about 11-12 years of age. I am noyt sure what age the Racine College Grammar School accepted, but we see quite young boys as well as younger teenagers. ike the College, the Grammar School was a boarding school. We note boys wearing military uniforms in the early 1900s, but we also see them wearing suits so we are not sure what the dress code was. This prep school finally evolved into a military school. It closed in 19??. The buildings are now used as a community center.
This photo is dated 1906. The precise location of the school on
Martha's Vineyard is uncertain. It may be Vineyard Haven. The boys wear knee pants with black long stockings. Notice that several boys are wearing military-style naval jackets, double breasted with what look like brass buttons, with matching knee pants. This appears to have been a popular style for gradeschool-age boys. These children are probably in the second or third grade and would probably be about 8 years old. A girl (perhaps from the class) has used the photograph as a Christmas card at some later point in her life and has written on the photo, "Merry Xmas. To find the best girl in town."
This is a primary school class picture taken in 1907 at Vineyard Haven. The boys all wear knee pants with long stockings. Most of the stockings are the standard black color, but one boy wears lighter colored stockings (probably dark tan). Notice the Eton collars.
Unfortunately we do not know the name of this school or where it was located. We do know when this wonderful class portrait was taken--May 1907. It looks to have been taken right outside the school building, but facing down the street. It is a nice clear, but rather informal portrait of the boys and girls. For some reason they have hand held flags. We are not sure why. The children seem rather dressed up for the portrait, but this may be just normal schoolwear for the time. The boys all wear knee pants or knickers suits, its a little difficult to tell. The boys all look to be wearing ties. with ties. The girls wear a variety of dresses, most with high collars. All the children seem to be black long stockings. The hair is interesting. Many of the girls wear hair bows. Note that several bows have center parts and girls side parts, a reversal of the more common part conventions.
We are not sure about the name of the school here. We know the school was located in Lebanon, a small village in southeastern Red Willow County, Nebraska. We suspect that the school was called the Lebanon School. Here we have a school photo taken in Lebanon in 1907 or 1908. It is interesting because of the great hats the children are wearing. Another interesting observation is that only two boys are wearing overalls, and one has covered them with a jacket. By the 1910s we see many American children wearing overalls to school. It seems that this was about the time that overalls began to be worn to school in rural America.
Here we have an image from the Saltillo Primary School located in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. That is between Altoona and Harrisburg. The portrait is from the 1908-09 school year. The photograph is not as clear as we would like, but we can make out some of the clothing styles. The boys are dressed up as was common at the time. The boys wear a variety of jackets. A few of the younger boys wear tunic suits. At least one boy wears a sailor suit. One girl wears a sailor dress. Several girls wear pinafores. Hairbows wre popular with the children
Many public primary-level schools were known by their numbers. For many years they were not named. We know nothing about the school, but it was clearly a substantial school. Here we see a graduating class of 8th-graders. This is Public School 29 in Indianapolis (1908). At the time most American children finished school in the 8th grade. Only sme of the children went on to high school, although a larger proportion then in
Europe. Notice the ribbons that the students wear in their lapels, the sign that they are graduating. The boys wear dark suits with white shirts and ties, knee pants, and long black stockings. For some reason these 8th-graders look slightly older than the children in the 1907 class at a different school. We suspect that this schools was located
in a little better neighborhood.
We believe this is the Monticello School. We know it is an elementary school in Monticello, the county seat of Jasper County, Georgia. The community was named after Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia. The county was named for Revolutionary War officer, Sgt. William Jasper. An image from the school in 1908-09 shows the boys wearing knickers or kneepants. Almost all are coming to school barefoot. Here going barefoot does not seem to be a matter of poverty because the boys are otherwise quite well clothed (some even wear suits and ties). The photograph is the 4th grade class, in 1908-09. Notice how the boy boy wearing shoes hs been placed in the middle of the group. The girls are all in the back, most outfitted in white dresses.
This school was the Hearst Grammar school. We are not sure where it was located, but New York seems a possibility. The portrait is the 7th grade B class. Grammar school in America meant primary school. (They were also called elementary or grade schools. Most wre six grades, but a few had 7th and 8th grade as well. Many of these children would finish their education with the 8th grade. A minority went on to high school for the 9th-12th grades. There were no tests involved, it was entirely a matter of whether the child needed to bring in an income to help support the family. The boys mostly wear knee pants or knickers suits with black long stockings. Notice the one boy wearing long pants does not wear a suit. The girls mostly wear white or light-colored dresses. One girl wears a sailor dress.
This photo postcard shows the brass marching band from the Boy’s Industrial School. Unforttunately we dob't know where the school was located, but we would say the Mid-West. Posed in front of the brick schoolhouse are; the band leader, a young child and 3 rows of teen band members holding their instruments.
The AZO card is undated, but the stamp box indicated it was taken sonetime from 1904-17. We would guess some time in the 1900s. rather than the 10s. It is postally unused but does have writing on the backside. It states: “Another “smut” exhibition. Wouldn’t know me, would you!” I'm not too sure what the boy meant. Nor I am entirely sure what an industrial school was. This may have meant a school that focused on manual arts rather than academics. It may have meant a reform school, I'm not yet sure.
The Mount Zion School was a small one-room school in the Florida panhandle. It was attended mostly by Dominicker children. The Dominickers were one of several small multi-racial isolates in the Southeastern United states. We have a photograph from about 1905-10. Florida schools were segegrated at the time. So we assume that the school would have been part of the black system.
In addition to the information on individual schools presented above, HBC-SU has also developed information on 1900s schoolwear trends which offers addirinal information on fashion trends during the decade.
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