Figure 1.--We see some specialized styles worn by yonger children. We note one Catholic class of Kindergarten children. They all wear back-buttoning smocks. The girls wear smocks with wide pleted collars. The boys wear smocks with sailor collars. The portait is undated. We would guess the portrait is dated to the 1930s, but are not at all sure. The nuns were apparentky very strict about how the children dressed. Every child is perectly turned out. They seem to be smocks especially made for the school. An Argentime readers thinks the image may not be Argentine because of the flag which seems to have vertical rather than horizontal bars. The problem with this is that the Latin American countries with flags of vertical bars of the same color (Guatemala and Peru) have populations with Native Americans and Mestizos, and the children here all look European, rather Italian.

Here we see Kinfergarten or even younger pre-school children wearing school smocks. The girls wear plain back-buttoning smocks with huge pleated collars. The boys wear smocks with sailor collars. We at first assumed the children were Argentine. The flag, however, is not Argentine. We think that they are Latin Americam, but re not sure about the country.

Smock Styles

We see some specialized styles worn by yonger children. We note one Catholic class of Kindergarten children. They all wear back-buttoning smocks. The girls wear smocks with wide pleated collars. The boys wear smocks with sailor collars. The smocks are not white like Argentine nd Uruguyan school snocks, butva light color. There is no way of knowing what color, but light-blue seems the most likely. The portrait is undated. We would guess it was taken in the 1930s, but are not at all sure. The nuns were apparently very strict about how the children dressed. Every child is perectly turned out. They seem to be smocks specially made for the school.

Country

We believe that the school here is defintely in Latin America. The words on the banners are Spanish. And the flag is definitedly not Spanish. What we are mot sure about is what Latin American country. Argentina and Uruguay have a tradition of school smocks. And the children look like the basically European population of those two countrues. The flag, however, looks more like the Peruvian flag with red vertical bars, although none of the children look Peruvian. Peru has a large Mestizo population and in school photos you would expect to see at least some Mestizo children.

Argentina

We has assumed that the image was Argentine as the image came from an Argentine source and most of our Latin American smock images come fom Argentina. Outside of Argentina and Uruguay we rarely see school smocks in Latin America at least for school age children especially boys. Of course these are kundergarten children. Thus smocks could hve been used for them even if the older children children did not wear smocks. In addition the children look to us like Argentines and not children from the Andean countrues with large Mestizo popultions. The flag, however, is a problem. The bars look to be vertical and the color is clearly not the light-blue colors of the Argentine flag.

Peru

We have discussed this image with an Argentine reader who does not think this image is Argentine, basically because of the flag. He has consulted a friend and tells us, "My friend from Buenos Aires agrees it is not from Argentina. The position of the stripes, the fringes and the white cravat are not something that will identify the school as Argentine. It could be Perú since both stripes are vertical and very dark (red looks almost like black) and both stripes are of the same shade. The bars at the windows of what seems to be the school building is typical of Latin America. Since it is a Catholic school it could be the children of European descent families and/or diplomats. These families will affluent enough to send their kids to a private Catholic school. Never very cheap. Zooming the cravate I only could make out the word INFANTES or INFANTIL. If that is the case, the word before could very well be JARDIN DE or just JARDIN." We do not notice Perivian school children wearing smocks, although it is possible that there could have been schools that had smocks kindergartners like the children here.

Uruguay

Another possibility is Uruguay as school children there also wore smocks like Argentine school children. And the population there is also largely of European ancestry. The flag, however, looks nothing like the Uruguayan flag which has myltiple blue and white hirizontal stripes.

Navigate the HBC School Section:
[About Us]
[Activities] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Debate] [Economics] [Garment] [Gender] [Hair] [History] [Home trends] [Literary characters]
[School types] [Significance] [Transport and travel [Uniform regulations] [Year level] [Other topics]
[Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Return to the Historic Boys' School Home]

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web chronological pages:
[The 1890s] [The 1900s] [The 1910s] [The 1920s]
[The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s] [The 1960s]

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web style pages:
[Return to the Main school school smock page]
[Return to the Main smocks page]
[Return to the Main Argentine school uniform page]
[Dresses] [Bodice dresses] [Kilts] [Sailor suits] [Sailor hats]
[Ring bearer/page costumes] [Pinafores] [Shortalls]

Created: 2:35 AM 9/3/2017
Last updated: 7:02 PM 9/4/2017