** school uniform: United States -- individual schools Agassiz School




Individual U.S. School: Agassiz School / Agassiz Grammar School (Massachusetts)


Figure 1.--This portrait was take at the Agassiz School in Boston during 1914. This may be the same school as the Agassiz Grammar School. The boys are named on the back of the portrait. They boys look to be about 12-14 years of age. Almost all of the boys wear suits. The boys at the front all wear knicker suits with black or other dark long stockings. Most of the boys in the rear probably wore similar suits. Notice the number of Norfolk suit and how most of the boys have pulled their knickers down over their knees. Click on the image for an enlrged view.

We note the Agassiz School in Boston, we believe in Cambridge. Our information about the school is somewhat confused. There is no doubt about the man the school is named after--Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1807–73). Agassiz was a notable Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a major academic theorizing modern concepts of the Earth's natural history. He was the first naturalist to conceive of ice ages and use the term. He was a professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel. He emigrated to the Unitrd States to accepte a professorship at Harvard University. Agassiz was a strong critic of Darwin's evolutionary theories. Agassiz despite is rather non-Biblical geological theories was a creationist and in America became a major figure in what became known as scientific racism. He advocated polygenism. This is the now discredited theory that human races had separate origins and were endowed with varrying attributes and capabilities. It is interesting that he was so right about natural history and so wrong about evolution. Because of his respected scientific stature, schools were named after him, although we do not have much details on them. W e note references to the Agassiz Grammar School in the late-19th and early-20th century. We believe that it was grammar in the English sence of an academically strong school. We notice reference to the school as being bi-racial having a primary and seconday section ans having a black female principal, Mary Baldwin, for the primary section. This is a portrait of the Agassiz School in 1914 (figure 1). We think this may be the Grammar School, but the portrait refers to only the Agassiz School. It shows all white students and only boys. The boys wear knicker suits with black long stockings. There are quite a few Norfo lk suits. We have been unable to find a history of the School. In more recent years we notice the Agassiz School Elementary School also in Boston which may have originated as the Grammar School. It was described as an undeperforming school with a largely black student body. It has since been closed.









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Created: 11:23 PM 3/20/2011
Last updated: 4:02 PM 2/13/2022