Figure 1.--Here ee have a nursery school image with all the children wearing identical smocks. Other photographs showing children of all ages, both boys and girls, wearing the same plain smocks wth no collars. Thre is no associated information, but there are photograpic notations indicating the same photogrpher was involved. We at first thought this was a Catholic school, because there is a a lady who may be a nun in the images with the nursery school children. But a recent widow is another possibility which would be an indication of the World War I era. Another photograph shows older children wering the same plain smocks. Which leads us to believe that what we have here is an orphanage foe World War I chioldren who have lost their parents.

Here we have unidentified photographs showing children of all ages, both boys and girls wearing plain smocks wth no collars. Thre is no associated information, but there are photograpic notations indicating the same photogrpher was involved. We at first thought this was a Catholic school, because there is a a lady who may be a nun in the images with the nursery school children. But a recent widow is another possibility which would be an indication of the World War I era. Another image shows two identically dressed women with the children. Could they be nuns? But there were not just nursery-level children wearing smocks. We have no idea how to date the photographs. The dealer suggested 1917-20 which would suggest possible World War I refugee children. We think it may be a little later. prhaps the early-1920s. Smocks of course were primarily a European school garmernt. Coed school enviroments were more of an American approach, but we think World War I refugee children are the most likely. The dealer suggested they were American, but we think European are the most likely--perhaps Belgian. French or Italian children are other possibilites. We just are not sure. We can usually identify the nationality of school smock images by the characteistics of the smocks and the ethnicity of the children, but here we just do not know. The smocks are unlike thiose worn in the countries where smocks wee required school wear. Then we noted a photograph of older children perhapos 12-14 years old wearing the same p;ain smocks as the nursery-age childrem. This suggest to us that it may have been a Catholic orphange with all the children dressed alike. There are no clues as to what the children are wearing under their smocks.

Created: 9:19 PM 7/3/2026
Last updated: 9:19 PM 7/3/2026