School Smock Country Trends: Unknown Countries


Figure 1.--This school portait is a bit of mystery to us. Most of the children are wearing smocks, although some look more like a robe than a tunic. The teachers look French to us, but we have never seen French boys dressed like this. We would guess that it might be French colonial Algeria, but we are not at all sure. We might guess Indo-China, but we do not see any Vietnamese boys. We are also unsure about the date. We would guess the 1910s, but the 'KLtd' stamp boxs on the back (1918-36) place in more in the 1920s. The boys seem dressed for a chilly day, but thehr officer at the top seems to be having hace a cool drink. A reader thinks it may be a Russian school.

We have found some images that we can not even identify the contient involved. Many of the imges we have archived have no accompanying information. Thus we often have to guess about dates, location, and other aspects of the photograph. Identifying the country can be a challenge, but the continent is usually obvious. It is unusual that we can not identify the continent. Usually the racial chracteristics of the children nd teachers usually allow us to at least identify continents. This is somewhat complicated by colonialism. Thus we see Europeans in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. We are sometimes able to suss out just where the photographs were taken. Smocks are European garments. Several of the colonial countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) were countries where children wore smock. Colonial coyntries did not found public school system. (The Americns in their short-lived empirre were a rare exception.) While the Europeans fid not find public school systems, there were schools for the chilrem of the colonial administrators and businessmen. And even with the European children smocks were not all that common. Climate was a factor here. At any rate, we hope our readers may have some insights.

Unidentified School (Algeria?, 1920s)

This school portait is a bit of mystery to us (figure 1). Most of the children are wearing smocks, although some look more like a robe than a tunic. The teachers look French to us, but we have never seen French boys dressed like this. We would guess that it might be French colonial Algeria, but we are not at all sure. We might guess Indo-China, but we do not see any Vietnamese boys. We are also unsure about the date. We would guess the 1910s, but the 'KLtd' stamp boxs on the back (1918-36) place in more in the 1920s. The boys seem dressed for a chilly day, but thehr officer at the top seems to be having a cool drink. A reader thinks it may be a Russian school. "I am wondering that if it is in the 1910s maybe this is a Russian school as the robes could be from some of the Russian ethnic areas that were mostly Muslim. There were many private schools in Imperial Russia so that may explain the differences and it would also explain the buzz haircuts of many of the boys." Thus is a possibolity, presumably in the provinces, Siberia, or Central Asia. Russian boys did have short hair cuts in the early-20th century, but so did many European boys (includung the French and Germans), although after the War buzz hair cuts like this went out of style. Some of the outfits the boys wear do look like the robes boys wore. We do not see, however, any Asian looking faces. Also the teacher looks exceptionlly well dressed, more French thn Russian. The date is also a problem. The KLtd. postcard stamp box appears to have first appeared in 1918. This Would be the Bolshevik Revolution-Civil War era and the ensuing early Soviet era. The fashionably dressed teacher does not fit in with Central Asia or the Soviets. He does look Fremch which would suggest Algeria.

Unidentified Boys (Italy?, 1950)

This snapshot shows two boys, preumably brothers, identically dressed for school. All we know for sure is that it was dated 12/10/50 which in Europe presumably means October 12, 1950. The boys wear identical berets and long dark smocks with Peter Pan collars and small bows. Our best guess is ht they are either French or Italian boys. The berets and smocks suggest France. The smock and white collars suggest Italy, although the bows are not what we usually see in Italy. We think Italy is the most likely country, but are not at all sure. Perhaps our European readers will have some insight here.








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Created: 4:27 AM 8/21/2015
Last updated: 5:47 AM 5/15/2017