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The photographic record reflects the fact that a first day photograph was an important family tradition. By the 1920s not only do we see many studio portraits, but family snapshits as well. We note large numbers of boys wearing sailor suits or sailor caps, but there were other popular styles. Some boys wore cadet-style caps with their sailor suits. Boys wore other styles of suits. Norfolk suits were also popular. Most boys wore suits, usuallhy knee pants suits. Some boys had Schiller collars. Many boys wore long stockings. Here both the age of the boys and the seasin were factors. We suspect that when the weather warmed up in May and June that many of the boys would wear kneesocks rather than long stockings.
This German boy got a goodie cone for his first day at school. Most younger German boys like this wore long stockings to school, especially in old weather. Most images we have seen show the boys wearing flat-weave stockings. A reader writes, "The velvet of the outfit and the oversized buttons makes me think the child came from an affluent rural family, but I am only guessing." HBC isn't convinced that the boy came from a rural family, but the reader raises an interesting question about the boy's family and the outfit here. Unfortunately there is no information associate with the photograph.
This German boy with bangs in the 1920s wears a sailor blue sailor suit with contrasting long white stockings for his first day at school. Also note the goodie cone and book and lunch satchel. The boy's bangs ad sailor suit, and perhaps his white stockings as well, suggest to us that this boy came from a prosperous middle-class family. A reader writes, "Two questions: (1) Aren't these stockings ribbed rather than flat weave? They look ribbed to me, but perhaps this is just an imperfection in the scanning? (2) Couldn't these stockings be beige rather than white? They seem to be darker than the white trim on the sailor suit. You may be correct in calling them white. I'm just inquiring, since beige is so much more usual for schoolboys in Germany than white." Our writer may be correct, the stockings may well be ribbed, although it is a bit difficult to tell. About the color of te sockings. I thought at first that they were white, but they do seem to be a little off color. They may well be beige, but if so they are certainly as very light shade of beige. The fact that they appear to be ribbed suggests tht they may be beige because I don';t believe I hsve ever see white ribbed stckings. He is also correct that white stockings do nt seem to have been very common for boys, although for some reason we do see German boys wearing white kneesocks.
Here we have an unidentified German boy with his Zuckertute on the first day of school (figure 1). All we know about the portrait is that it was taken in 1927. The boy here wears a sailor cap with a little different suit than we generally noted by 1927. He wears a collar buttoning jaclet with an Eton-like colla and knee pants that do not match the jacket. He also wears white long stockings and rather unsusual buckle shoes. We are guessing here that his mother was very fashion conscious. We have also thought that it was a little mean to send these children to school with these cones, but not allow them to dig into them until they came home. We are not entirely sure wjhen these first day portraits were taken. Did mother drag them to the photographic studio after school? Or perhaps the nexst day or so. We are guessing that the cones had been cleared out by the time the portrait was taken.
Here we have a studio portrait of an unidentified boy on his first day of school (figure 1). We believe the portrait was taken in 1928, but we are not positive. There is no indication where he is from. The book bag tells us it is a school photograph and the goodie cone shows that it is his first day. He wears a Norfolk suit with a Schiller collar. The suit has knee pants which the boy is wearing with high-top shoes. His hair is cut in straight bangs.
I think this first day snapshot dates from the later 1920s. I think it was dated 1927 or 1928. Unfortunately the boy is unidentified and we do not know where in Germany the boy lived. It is interesting for a number of features illustrated. He wears a flatcap, a popular style in the 1920s. He wears a sailor suit. It is a short pants suits with dark short pants, a dark dickey, and anchor emblem on the sleeve. The boy appears (apparently in front of his own front door) with the cone of goodies for first day boys in primary school and a rather large book bag on his back and the leather lunch satchel slung over his shoulders
An unidentified image shows another German boy on his first day of school. It is a snapshot with a white border. We would guess the photograph was taken in the late 1920s, but that is only a guess. It is a wonderful image. The boy has the largest gift cone or "zuckertute" that I have ever seen. He wears a long pants sailor suit with a military peaked cap. The cap looks a bit unusual with the sailor suit, but I have noted quite a few boys wearing these caps.
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