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We see private school boys still wearing coats and ties, but this was no longer very common at public schools. Boys were dressing increasingly casually for school, especially by the end of the decade. Knickers were still quite common at the beginning of the decade, but much less so by the end. Some primary boys wore short pants, especially the younger boys. This varied a good bit regionally and by social class. Knee socks were becoming less common for boys. Overalls were still worn in fural areas. Almost all of the girls wear dresses, often will puffed sleeves. Some girls wears skirts with blouses that had puffed sleeves.. Some children still came to school barefoot.
This photograph shows Holderness boys playing ice hockey in 1930-31. The uniforms consist of rather tight jerseys, unusually short shorts, and long stockings.
Modern hockey shorts are knee-length pants, rather like basketball shorts. We are not sure what the earliest uniforms were like. We have noted these short-cut
shorts in the 1910s. In the case of one boy (second from the right), the shorts are not long enough to cover the tops of his long stockings. I'm not sure when the
longer-styled shorts were introduced.
At the Western Reserve Accademy, knickers were commonly worn in the 1930s, although by the late 30s they were increasinglty being worn by the younger boys as the popularity over the decade declined. The school archivist has supplied several photographs from various years during the 1930s. The pattern as to who wore long pants and who wore knickers seems quite varied and the overall pattern is not quite clear.
A group of younger children, probably second are third graders are seen recreating a passagener ship. Almost all the boys wear short pants. Several wear sailor suits. One boy wears button-on shorts and long stockings. Unfortunately the photograph is undated, but probably was taken about 1933.
We are not positive, but we believe that the children here are from the Cliff Side School. It appears to be a small school in Elliott County. Te photograph is undated. We would guess that it was taken sometime in the 1930s. The image is notable because it shows how common it was for boys to wear overalls in rural areas. Most but not all of the boys here wear overalls. Even one of the girls look to be wearing overalls. The photograph also shows that it by the 1930s despite the Depression, coming to school barefoot was becoming much less common. Only one girl here is barefoot.
Here we have a view of a West Virginia School. We are not sure that the name of the school is the Berwind School, but it was appararmtly located in Berwind, West Virginia. We have one image taken during 1930-31 school year. By the way the children are dressed, we would guess was taken in 1931 toward the end of the school year. It appears to be a town school. The school looks to be a substantial building. Many of the boys wear overalls--more common in rural areas. Perhaps Berwind was a small town. It also may have been a coal mining town. The children of miners like farm families were more likely to wear overalls, especially during the Depression. Other boys wear both knickers and long pants. We don't note any short pants. The girls mostly wear dresses. One girl wears a skirt. Several children both boys and girls are barefoot. Many of the girls wear Mary Jane strap shoes.
The Harris Middle School was located in San Antonio, Texas. Middle schools meant different age groups from state to state. They were similat, but not identical to junior highs. I'm not sure about the age group here, but would guess about age 12. The portrait may have been taken in the 1931-32 school year, although we can not be positive. Texas at the time had segregated schools with blacks and whites in different schools. I think in some school districts Hispanic childen were segregated, but I am not sure about this. The expense of operating separate school systems probably limited this. Notice boys wearing overalls, long pants, amd knickers. The boy in the front wear kickers with ankle socks. This began to be more common as knicker declined in popularity during the late 1930s. fewer boys had kneesocks. A factor here is that San Antonia is located in the south and it can be quite warm.
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.
We do not know rhe name of this primary school, but we know it was a school in the Chicago area. The photograph here shows a class of 5th graders having a dancing lesson in 1935. The knickers the boys wear and the dresses the girls wear were very common for the 1930s. The school apparently supplied sandals for the dancing.
A photograph from 1935 shows an upper Form (I'm not quite sure whether it's the Second or the Third)--boys of about 15 or 16 years of age--and maybe even 17 yearsin a few cases. Note that this slightly older age group has mostly changed to long trouser suits although one boy still wears a knicker suit. His hosiery seems to consist of patterned knee socks rather than the plain colored long stockings. Many of the boys wear vested suits, nearly all with
white shirts and ties although the middle boy in the front row is somewhat more sportily dressed with dark trousers, a contrasting lighter colored jacket, a V-necked sweater, and an open collared shirt which folds over his lapels. Some older boys still wore knickers in 1935 but most had shifted to long trousers by age 16 years.
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.
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. They wre probably called "dungareees". Wearing jeans to school would pobably not have been common in city schools at the time. The cuffed jeans are probably a movie cowboy influence.
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. I'm not sure just what is going on here, but I suspect that the boys wore shoes during the winter and their feet are still a little tender when they first began to go barefoot when the weather got warm.
We note a school in Georgias during 1937. It looks to be a primary school located in a rural setting. It had a rather modern looking building for a rural Georgia school. Unfortunately, we do not know much about the school.
Here we see a small school on the Aleutian Islands for Aleuts. It looks like a small one room school. I'm not sure which islnd this was, but there must have been a navy facility nearby. Some of the children wear navy caps.
The Cypress Creek School was a small primary school in rural Louisiana. It was located in Winn Parish, Louisiana. We note the children gathering around a bookmobile during 1938.
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
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