*** religion American sunday school chronology 20th century








American Sunday School Chronology: 20th Century

American sunday school
Figure 1.--We note this photograph captioned as "Sunday school, Indians and white[s]." Indian Territory [Oklahoma], ca. 1900". Oklamoma became a state in 1907. We suspect that this not a Sunday School photograph, but the entire ruralchurch. The children in the front probably attended Sunday school, but we are left to wonder what he Sunday SChool was like. .

Sunday school was well established at the turn of the 20th century. And they were entirely focused on teaching children about Christianity. Sunday schools had become closely associated with their affiliated churches and were usually located within them. Sunday Schools moved from the afternoon to the morning to align with church service times. Sunday School Unions appeared to support teachers, but some say they became authoritarian and critical of teachers. Sunday schools at the beginning of the century were for children. Churches began to adopt All-Age or Family Services (1980s). The idea was to encourage families to worship together. Sunday School became increasingly important as the century unfolded. After World II in the post-War era religiosity began to decline in America. This affected Church and Sunday School attendance. A new development was Socialists organized Sunday Schools to compete with Christian Sunday Schools. We see this being organized.d by the Finnish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, and Lettish Socialist Federations, as well as the Socialist Party of America and the Workman's Circle. Formal dress continued to be de rigor for the early-20th century. Available images confirm that this was the case. We see school age boys wearing fancy blouses without suit jackets during the summer at the turn of the century. The photographic record is much more complete as we now have family snapshots. After World War I we begin to see greater informality. Church and Sunday school outfits followed general trends, although formal attire in here persisted longer than in other areas. Boys still mostly wore suits in the 1920s, but we begin to see less formal outfits by the 1930s. More comfortable two piece button-on outfits became common for younger boys. Here we see children at Sunday School in the 1940s (figure 1). After World War II we see boys appearing with perhaps a white shirt perhaps with a tie and dress pants rather than a suit. This varied greatly from family to family. Church was one of the few places where boys might wear suits by the 1970s. Generally speaking, dress for Sunday school became more informal than for actual church attendance.

The 1900s


The 1910s

Here we see an unientified Sunday School with no accompanying information. THe mount and clothing style date it to the 1910s, probably the early part of the decade. All the hair bows help confirm the 1910s date. It shows the children inside in a rather stark room given the age of the children. Four adults are involved. We suspect this was a Sunday chool while he aduktsattended the churcg service. The only decoration is a large portrit of turbaned figures. We arent sure just who is being depicted. The children look dressed up for Sunday School, but less so than the 1900s. The girlswear dresses and the boys mostly white blouses. althugh we see some tunc suits which one boy wears with white long stockings. After World War I in the 1920s, dress styles continued becoming informl, alhthough his varies from church to church.

The 1920s









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Created: 7:00 AM 12/29/2024
Last updated: 7:00 AM 12/29/2024