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This is a facinating school portrait and we are not entirely sure how to interpret here. All we know for sure is that it was located in Souderton, Pennsylvania. We don't know if the school had a proper name, but Souderton was a small town, so it was probably known as the Souderton School. We thought at first it was a rural school, in part because of all the trees in the background and small group of children. Most of the children look very young, perhaps 1st and 2nd graders, but then we notice older children and perhaps the teacher in the background. The distribution of ages is unusual for an American elementary (primary) school. The age groups would have been more evenly distributed. And the building in the background has two stories--unusual for a rural school. Notice the prominent home-made flag pole. It was so high that supports were needed. We don't get to see the flag that was undoubtedly flying. Souderton is located in south eastern Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. Today it is esentially a Phildelphia suburb. This was not the case in the 1900s decade, but it was close, eventually acquiring a trolly line. We see several African-American children. One is affectionatly embracing two other students, rather rare in school images. At the time, African Americans were primarily a rural southern population, but driven by the brutality of Jim Crow, the Great Migration was beginning. The boys wear suits, although we don't see many ties. One boy wears a sailor suit. The girls wear dresses. All the children we can see wear black long stockings and high-top shoes. The portait is undated, but can be easily dated with a fair degree of accuracy. The portrait is a cabinet card and the color is a greyish green that becamne popular after the turn-of-the 20th century. And we see both knee pants and knickers. This was common for a short period, beginning about 1908. The portrait woukd have been taken then or possibly the early-1910s. Also notice the girls' hair bows. The 1910s were the peak year for hair bows.
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