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A good idea of fashion trends in America, as children at public schools did not wear uniforms, can be assessed by looking at what the children were wearing to school. Unfortunately many of the available images are not identified or are not dated, despite this, the images are very valuable views of children's fashion trends.
Here is a list of schools alphabetized by school name. Unfortunately for many images we have collected, we do not know the name of the school. We will add images of schools which are identified by name as well as schools about which we have obtained information. Readers are invited to contribute here information and images about their schools and school experiences. We certaonly hope if readers find their school listed here that they will provide us some information on it.
Here we see the McIntosh School. It was the only school near Cotton Mills, Winona, Mississippi. A photograph in May 1911 shows the teacher and the pupils. It was a private school taught by Miss McIntosh. It might be called an old fashioned dame school. Miss. McIntosh operated a school for several years. She charged each pupil only $1.00 a month. With about 10 pupils the job was not very lucrative. She said it was discouraging, but that many of the children seemed to appreciate her efforts. "What we need is compulsory education and a free school out here, which we may get before long." The children she taught ranged from 6 to 10 years. The Southern states did not have public schoo; systems before the Civil War and lagged behinfd the other states in establishing public schools after the War. In fact, one of the charges leved against Reconstruction government was reckless spending, especially for education. Mississppi well into the 20th century was commonly at the bottom of the lost of states for spending on education.
We are not sure where the Madison School is located. We would guess it might be in Virginia as President Madison was from Virginia. It looks to be an public elementary school. We have a photograph of the school safety patrol in 1935. Notice their badges abd white shoulder belts. The older boys were chosen to help the younger children across the street at corners around the school. Note only boys were chosen. The boys wear mostly long pants, but two wore knickers with patterened knee socks. The photograph is a good indication of how knickers were declineing in popularity by the mid-1930s. More and more boys were wearing long pants.
The Masonville school appears to be a small one-room school in upsate New York. Here we have two photographs, although the images look quite different even though they only are identified as being taken at about the same time. Note that many of the boys are wearing knickers. American school portraits taken in the 1900s show boys mostly wearing kneepants.
The McCaskill School was located in Susperior Wisconsin. It appears to be a standard American grammar (primary) school, problably with grades 1-6. We note a photograph of a 2nd grade class in 1926, The children would be 7-8 years old. Some of the boys are wearing sailor suits. The boy in front looks to be wearing a light-blue sailor suit. We do not see this so much in Europe. Other boys wear white shirts (one with a tie and one with a white shirt buttoned at the neck but without a tie). Nearly all the children wear long stockings. Most of the boys seem to have short pants rather than knickers. Some of the stockings are black, others seem to be of the popular new tan or light
brown shade.
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 see a great photograph of children playing a ring game at a one-room school on the Great Plains. It was taken in Milton, North Dakota during 1913. We are guessing the name of the school was the Milton School. American schools were often called "little red school houses". We're not sure what color the school here was painted. It does not look red. Nor do we know just what game the childre are playing. Perhaps one of our readers will recognize it. Notice that the teacher has joined the game.
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 almost all of the boys 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 ties).
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.
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.
Many Amrican schools did not have names, but rather numbers like PS 64 in the Bronx here. PS means "Public School". The Bronx of course is a borough of New York City. I am not sure why New York did not name its schools. The same conventions were followed in the other boroughs as well. We do not know much about PS 64, except that it was operating in the 1950s. The school was locate on Jerome Avene just off Fordham. We have a photograph from 1950. Here we see the children playing with blocks, I think in their classroom. Or perhaps there was a playroom. The girls wear dresses. Many of the boys wear sweaters, suggestng that the photograph was taken in the Winter.
Many Amrican schools did not have names, but rather numbers like PS 64 in the Bronx here. PS means "Public School". The Bronx of course is a borough of New York City. I am not sure why New York did not name its schools. The same conventions were followed in the other boroughs as well. We do not know much about PS 64, except that it was operating in the 1930s. A photograph from 1937 shows the graduating 8th grade class. The boys wear suits and the girls skirts and blouses. There were no middle schools/junior high schools at the time. The children continuing their education would have entered the 9th grade in a high school.
Many Amrican schools did not have names, but rather numbers like PS 70 in the Bronx here. PS means "Public School". The Bronx of course is a borough of New York City. I am not sure why New York did not name its schools. The same conventions were followed in the other boroughs as well. There are many available images from New York schools provide a wonderful insight into popular styles. We even begin to get color images during the 1960s. We note the boys wearing ties into the 1960s. We wonder if they wore them every day or just dressed up for the class portrait. Quite a few boys wear white shirts and ties. One boy wears a suit and another a British looking blazer. The girls mostly wear dresses. The boys have short hair into the mid-60s.
The town of Newhall was established in the summer of 1876 as a little flag stop along the brand-new Los Angeles-to-San Francisco line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was a time of drought, so in January, 1878, the whole town picked up and moved 2 miles south.
In 1878, fifty-three school-age children lived in or near Newhall. Teacher Kate A. Kaystile tutored six of them in the corner of Addi Lyon's bunkhouse on the Sanford Lyon Ranch. In the following year, they decided to construct a self-standing schoolhouse at the northeast corner of Ninth and Walnut Streets, two blocks back from Newhall's Main Street. This was the first "official" school.
We have some images from this Norfolk, Virginia primary school in 1937. Most of the boys appar to be wearing knickers and go barefoot. We assume this is probably near the end of the school year as temperatures are beginning to get warm. One boy came to school in a long pants suit and tie, but still went barefoot.
The Okeechobee School was a primary school in central Florida. We have some class photographs from 1948-1949. The images are a good reflection of how American children were dressing in the late 1940s. All of the girls wear dresses. Florida is the most southerly America state. The weather in central Florida can be stifeling hot. Yet all of the boiys wear long pants. We were not surprised to see this at the high school, but a little surprised to see it at a primary school. Most of the boys or barefoot which was becoming increasingly less common in America after World War II. Some of the boys have parched pants suggesting a level of poverty, but we suspect that many of the boys just preferred to go barefoot.
The Okeechobee High School was a secondary school in central Florida. We have some class photographs from the 1940s. An American high school has classes for grades 9 through 12. Sometimes the 9th graders are in the junior high. I think the junior and senior high may have been combined at this school. The images are a good reflection of how American children were dressing in the late 1940s. All of the girls wear dresses. Florida is the most southerly America state. The weather in central Florida can be stifeling hot. Yet all of the boys wear long pants. Most of the boys or barefoot which was becoming increasingly less common in America after World War II. It was less common for the high school students to go barefoot than the primary (elementary) children, but a few did so,
This school photograph was identified as "1st Intermediate" from Onarga, Illinois. 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. Note the black girl in the front row. This was clearly an integrated school. The boys mostly war suits. We are not sure if this was common or if the children dressed up for the photograph. Also notice the girl in the first row, third from the right, who appears to be wearing single bar strap shoes. This was not all that common in the 1880s. Most children wore hogh-top shoes. One reader thinks they may be t-strap shoes. This is difficult to tell, however, from the available image. If so, this would push the traditional English sandal type well back into the 1880s.
Our Lady of Angels was a Catholic School in the Bronx borough of New York City. We know little about the school except that it was a Catholic school.
American Catholic schools in the 1950s began introducing basic uniforms. The boys wore white shirts, ties, and dark trousers. The girls often wore gym-slip type unifoems, often done in plaid. Here we see a 2nd grade class in 1967.
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 1st grade class at the Peabody School in 1887. 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.
We do not yet know where the Penn School was located. It seems to have been a rural area. We have a school portrait from 1936. The boys wear overalls and knickers. One boy wears jeans with te cuffs tuned up. The girls all wear dresses. The photograph is interesting because the mid-30s were a time of change in boys' fashions. We still see farm boys wearing veralls. And many boys still wore knickes, although they were no longer universal. Note the boy wearing jeans, an up and coming style. This would pobably not have been common in city schools. The cuffed jeans are probably a movie cowboy influence.
Perkins is a very old and famous instituion, located now at 175 North Beacon Street, Watertown, Mass., on the Charles River, now a part of metropolitan Boston. The school is 175 years old and was the first school for the blind in the United States. Helen Keller is the most famous graduate. The school was incorporated in 1829 by John Fisher, the original founder, and opened to receive students in 1832. At first Fisher used the house of his father in Boston. But, having outgrown this residence quite quickly, the school moved in 1833 to the larger home of Thomas H. Perkins, the philanthropist for whom the school has ever since been named. Next the school occupied a converted hotel in South Boston, Perkins having sold his home and donated the proceeds to the school.
Phillips Exeter Academy is located in Exeter, New Hampshire. The small, quiet town is dominated by the school. The Academy was the setting for the novel, A Separate Peace, and the filming location for the 1972 film of the same title. A reader writes, "I count myself among those who enjoyed the novel as well as the apparent few who like the film.
The school consists of those idyllic red brick buildings, some suitably ivy covered. Of course, a pilgrimage to the river and the infamous tree was in order. The tree from which Finney (John Heyl) and Gene (Parker Stevenson) jumped in the film is in Gilman Park, adjacent to the Academy's athletic fields. That particular tree may no longer be standing, but quite a few other trees tower over the river bank."
Pierce Elementary School was located in West Pasco County, Florida. It ssems a typical souther elementary (primary) school in the rural South. An image from 1963 shows a first grade class. The boys all wears jeans which was very common at American elementary schools. The girls dresses. One boy is barefoot. That was unusual by the 1960s at American schools. The school was located in a rural area, but even in rural areas coming barefoot to school had declined sharply.
We don't know much about the Misses Porter's School. It was located in Middletown, New York, a town in Orange County in the southern part of the state not too far from New York City and close to the eastern border of Pennsylvania. It seems to be unrelated to the famous private girl's school, Miss Porter's School, of Farmington, Connecticut, although it is possible there was some family connection. The name suggests a private rather than a public school. It was not common to name a school attended by boys after an unmarried woman. Many private schools were single gender schools The children all seem to come from relatively affluent families because they are so well dressed.
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 orgiginal 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.
We note the Rice School in Van Buren Township (in west central Monroe County, southern Indiana) in the school year 1897-98. It was a one-room schoolhouse near the turn of the century. Notice the broken transom window over the door with one of the students framed in the opening. The teacher stands in the third row on the right. One of the boys (second row, second from the left) has included his dog in the picture. You can see the dog's front paws and head. Most of the boys seem to wear long pants and jackets but without ties. The older boys and girls stand at the back. The younger ones are sitting in the front row. A few boys wear knee pants with long stockings.
Here is a school photograph from 1939 in Houston, Texas. It must have been Scout day as most of the boys are wearing their Cub Scout uniforms. It was quite common for American schools at the time to have a Scout day each week. It is a little unusual to see American cub scouts wearing the shorts pants uniform. At the time most American Cubs wore a knickers uniform. I was not even sure that there was offical Cub shorts at the time. Two factors here is that the class is in Texas and the weather in Houston can be very hot. Another factor is that River Oaks was a planned upper class neighborhood (current average real estate values
are in excess of a million dollars). Among the alumni of the school is Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. The portrait was taken in Ictober 1939 at the beginning of the school year. The sign indicated that this was Miss Duff's class. The L4 on the board probably means the 4th grade. The children would have been about 9 years of age.
We know very little about this school other than the name, the Roaring Brook School. It is apparently a small rural school, presumably a one-room schoo, in upsate New York. We believe that the school would have taken children from grade 1-8. That would havevmean children from about age 6-13 or perhaps 14. After finishing here, if they continued their education they would hve ebntered a city high school.
We note the Rose Branch School located in the little town of Lamar, in Barton County, Missouri.
It was quite a small school. Many school systems after World War II began doing away with these small chools as more children were bussed. We have only one photograph from the school, taken in 1954. Almost all of the boys wear jeans, a few old-fashioned bib-overalls. About half of the boys are barefoot. We can't tell much about the girls because there are not very many of them and they are in the back row.
Here we see a typical American elementary school. The school was located in Cincinnati, Ohio. We do not have any detailed information about the school. We assume that it was a grade 1 through 6 shool, although we re not sure anout grade 6. There was also a kindergarden. As there was no uniform, the clothes worn by the children at schools like are a good reflection of how children dressed over time in the United States.
Here we have a picture of the 2nd and 3rd grade class taken in Rossville, Georgia. We suspect the name of the school was the Rossville school, but we are not sure. Rossville is a small town located in Walker County, Georgia. It is a largely rural area. The area is best known for the conflict between the Cherokee Indians and the state of Georgia in the early 19th century. This class portrait we have shows many children that look poor. That appear from their look, the old dirty clothing, the dirty feet. Most of the boys come to school barefoot. Several wear overalls.
This is a Catholic school where photographs were taken during World War I. There are of course quite a number of St. Anthony schools in America. It appears to be an all boys' school, at least the boys were photographed separately. This was not common at Catholic primary schools which were normally coed. Unfortunately we do not know when these photographs were taken. One photograph was taken in the Spring when the younger boys were doing their First Communion. The older boys may be doing their Confirmation. The second photograph shows the boys patriotically dressed in a variety of military uniforms. We assume that this was taken after America entered the War (April 1917).
On this page is a picture of St. James School in the 1940s--presumably a parochial school. The person standing at the left is probably a pupil and not the teacher. It is likely that a nun would have been teaching a parochial school in the 1940s. Nuns are much less common today and there is many more lay staff in modern parochial schools. The class room shows the standard arrangement, with the desks in straight rows facing the front. Of course there is a flag for the compulsory morning pledge of allegiance. (In British, New Zealand, Australian, and many other countries, a flag in the classroom is rare.) The children are separated with boys and girls on different sides. The girls do not wear a uniform, but all wear very proper dresses--no pants or shorts for girls in the 1940s. The boys all wear white or solid color shirts, ties, and dark pants. You can not tell if they wear knickers or slacks. Presumably they are not wearing dungarees. This looks very much like the basic uniform now commonly worn at parochial schools, white or solid color shirts, ties, and dark pants. A public school classroom would have looked very similarly, except the boys would have been less likely to wear white shirts and ties--unless they got dressed up for a photograph. Also flannel shirts and dungarees would have been standard boys' wear. Even the Scouts acknowledged changing fashion trends in the 1940s, first the Scouts and then even the Cubs.
The Saint James School for Boys was located on the main street of the small town of Berlin, Connecticut (some 10 miles south of Hartford). It operated from 1954-78, although its best years were past by the early 1960s. It founder and only headmaster, the late Leonard Francis (1918-1992) who also founded Camp Leo, near Laconia, New Hampshire, from 1946-87, had distinctive ideas on student attire.
We notice the the St. James Catholic School Catholic School in St. Louis, Missouri. Catholic schools in America are often called parochial schools. We do not know a great deal anout the school. One photograph shows the 5th grade, taken in 1919. The children are sitting at their desks in their classroom. The boys wear dark suits with white shirts and ties. These children are about 11 years old, some perhaps as young as 10 years. The boy at the extreme left front seems to be wearing knee pants with long black stockings. Another boy seems to wear above-the-knee knickers with black stockings. Both styles were common in 1919. The girls wear cotton dresses, some of which are white and some of which are of patterned material. We also notice a class doing their First Comunion in 1929.
This may be the same school as described above. It is also located in St. Louis. But there may be more than one St. James in St. Louis. This we do not know yet. Here we have a photo of a kindergarden class from St. James School. The scool is identified as being located in Dogtown, apparently a subburb or district of St. Louis. This photograph was taken in 1955. The children were all dressed in white. I think this might have been a graduarion photograph. It was taken in 1955.
We notice the St. Nicholas Greek School in Newark, New Jersey. The children are all wearing sailor suits and are pictured in some kind of school exercise, apparentkly as part of the end of the school year. It could be that the children are dressed up special for the event, but probably more likely is that the sailor suits are their school uniform. Parochial schools began to be organized in the mid-19th century after large numbers of Catholics (Irish) began emigrating to America. Greeks came in the later wave of immigration which began to reach large numbers in the 1880s. Children wore sailor suits toi school in the late-19th century, but the sailor suit as a school uniform was not very common. Most parochial schools did not adopt uniforms until after World War II. The children re standing outside Lyric Hall, Plane Street (University Place), where the church was located on the second floor. The photo was taken in 1906.
Here we have an image from the Saltillo Primary School located in Pennsylvania. 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.
Unfortunately we do not know the name of this school. We do know that it was a located in San Francisco. The children are very nicely dressed. It could be a private school, but many private schools at the time were single-gender schools. The one photograph we have was taken in 1929 and looks to be a 1st or perhaps 2nd grade class. There is quite a diversity of dress. Many of the boys wear open sports collars, often with suit jackets. A few boys wear ties. Several boys wear sweaters. The boys are probbly wearing short pants and knickets. The girls wear frocks and other dresses.
Here we have a portrait from a school theatrical at the San Pedro Street Grammar School in 1925. We are not positive where the school was located. We know it was in California. The photograph illustrates a popular theatrical activity--creating freezes. Here the children are doing Greek statues, but of course more modestly clothed than mny such statues. These freezes were done for both school and community theatrical events. The children are identified as Catherine Pandel Brotsis, Xenopon Vourns, and Alexadra Dolks Alexakis. These are all of course Greek names. Presumably the school was in a Greek neigborhood or the children were chosen because of their Greek ancestry.
The Sand Run School was a rural school in Boone County, Kentucky. Boone Country was of course named after Daniel Boone who helped found Kentucky. The portrait we have dates from 1893. The yonger boys are all barefoot. Several wear fancy blouses with large collars. They were very fashionable at the time. Notice that they were made with different colors and patterns ad not white. Mail order catalogs are full of these blouses. One boy wears his blouse with a floppy bow. Notice how the photographer has blaced the boys with fancy blouses front and center. Also notice the range of heawear the boys are wearing. The girls wear dresses, one girl with a checked pinafore. Several girls have fashionable ballon sleeves.
The School of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen is a Catholic school located in Baltimore, Mary land. It cares for children frok kindergarden to 8th grade or from 5-14 years of age. Taking children through the 8th grade is common for Catholic schools as there were not normally any Catholic junior high schools. We know nothing about the history of the school. The school website, however, has an archive of First Communion and graduation portraits dating back to 1926. We do not know if this was when the school was actually founded. This archives provides some insights on dress and uniform policies at one specific parochial school. This is useful because we are only beginning to develop information on the parochial school system in America.
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 areas. 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.
Shaw's Bend School was located in Colorado County. Texas. Many of the the pupils are barefoot, but it is dfficult tell how many. Many of the boys have come to school in overalls. Some boys have dressed up and one boy wears a bow tie. Some of the children have come to school on horseback. Many of the boys hold their hats. Notice the different styles, including a straw boater. The clothing is an indicator of family affluence. The barefoot boys in overalls probably came from poor families, perhaps share cropers.
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 tht the boys wear long pants. Boys in an urban school in the 1880s would have more likely worn kneepants.
Here we have a photograph of a small highschool, we believe in upsate New York. Now when high schools often have 1,000-2,000 students it is hard to imagine a scgool with only about 40 students. This could be one class, but we suspect that it is the enire school. Its a bit hard to tell what the boys are wearing as many are in the back row, but several are wearing knickers.
Shady Side Academy is a private boys' preparatory school in Fox Chapel,
Pennsylvania, an upper-class, fashionable suburb of Pittsburgh. A HBC reader writes, "My younger brother went to this boarding school, which is very similar to Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio which I attended. In fact the two schools traditionally compete against each other in football. Shady Side (like Western Reserve) was exclusively a boys' school until the 1960s when it became coeducational. The curriculum, standards of dress, and general strictness of decorum at Shady Side were all very much like those at its rival school, Western Reserve."
We are sure about the name of this school. We know where it was located, but not its name. We are guessing it might be called the Sumner Highway School. It is a wonderful photograph of a sod schoolhouse in Nebraska. The Frontier officially clsed in the 1890s. There were stiil, however, many in the Plains states still living in sod houses. This is a great example of a one-room sod house. It was located in Marquiss district, 5 miles southeast of Broken Bow, Custer County on the Sumner highway. The photograph was taken in 1892. The teacher was 16-year-old Hiva Miller. The school had 14 children and they provide a detailed view of how rural children dressed. The boys wear different types of caps. They wear suits, mostly with long pants. The girls wear dresses and skirts.
The Sunnyside School was an elemenarty (primary) school located in Carlinville (Macoupin County Illinois). We have a portrait of a 5th grade class taken in 1922. The photograph provides some interesting details about period dress. The boys are no longer wearing suits to school. A few boys wear shirts with ties. We no longer see floppy bows, but there may have been a few in the younbger grades. The absence of suits is a major change from before World War I and reflects the trend toward casual dress. Mote that, however, that most boys that wear shirts with collar buttons had buttoned them. The first boy in the second rows wears a shirt without collar. Its hard to tell, but this may be the beginning of the "T"-shirt fashion which became popular in America. Two boys wear overalls. We suspect they were farm familirs. A seated boy in the first row is barefoot (we cannot see if some boys in the other rows are barefoot too). The girls all wear dresses. icture has some strange detail. There is only one African American child in the class. All the other pupils are white. This was a time when many Black families in the South as part of the Great Migration were headed north.
We do not know very little about the Sutton School in Mapplewood, Missouri. It looks to be a primary school. They had a small school band in 1923. The children wore all-white uniforms with capes.
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