Figure 1.--In this classroom the desks bolted to the floor. Each desk accomodated two children. The top folded up to reach a storage area fgor books and other supplies. Notice there is no place for ink wells, Americn desks tended to have inkwells. I'm not sdure what the children wrote with. Surly there must have been writing exercises. Chalk board were used in the 19th century. We re not sure bout the 20th century. THe teacher had 50 chikdren to deal with, but she has tem all folloeing the rules. Note they all have their hnds behind their back. Notice the open book. Apparently theteacher taught by having the children dollowalong with the text book during class.
We mostly see school portraits with the children posed outdoors in the 19th century. This was because of technology, both slow emulsion speeds and the problem of lighting up the classroom for the portrait. Avances in photohgraphy provide more and more images imnnside the classroom. In the early 20th century this meant stopping the class and srring uip the classroom portsait. Sometimes desks nd cjildren had to ne moved so everyone was in the portrait. At first arrnging the classroom for the portrait was necessary, but as the century progeesses were begin to see less intrusive imafes of actual insyruction taking place. With the turn-of the 20th century we see more and more indoor classroom images. This provides all kinds of interesting information beyond just lining the children up outdoors. Both provide information on how they were dressed, although the indoor prtraits generally provide less because of the furniture. The classroomn portraits, however provide all kinds of interesting information. We see detaols as to class size, furniture, student arrangement, classroom rquioment, wall decoration, lighting, books, class size, gender dustribution, discipline, interctions among the children, and a variety of other details useful in assessing period instruction and the resources available to the teacher.
