Figure 1.-- We only see these American first day images in the 20th century beginning after World War I in the 1920s. And they are almost entirely family snapshots like this one, taken in 1951. He lived in Agawam, Massachusetts. The town was named afterr a Native American village sited on the west bank of the Connecticut River. This is a very standard American first day photograph, a family snapshots taken outside the home, although dad seems to have mostly caught the neigbor's home. The boy wears a striped 't' shirt, logos did not become common until the 1960s. He also wears boxer short pants, ankle socks, and leather shoes. Sneakers were also not yet common at school.

There are a variety of celebrations and special days associated with American schools. This begins with the first day of school. This is especially important for the younger children beginning with 1st grade. As the children get older we see less and less attention bring given to first das. Thus we have mostly found image of children just beginning school oe in the early primary years. We only see these American first day images in the 20th century beginning after World War I in the 1920s. We have found quite a number of these first day portraits beginning with the 1920s. And they are almost entirely family snapshots. We see an unidentified Missouri farm boy in 1944, an iteresting image because lunch pails and overalls were about to disappear from American schools. We see the Massachusettes boy here in a small town taken during 1951 (figure 1). This is a very standard American first day photograph, a family snap shots taken outdide the home. The shadow in the background suggests the early morning just before school. We have found very few studio first day portraits in America. This is in sharp contrast to Germany where we see a lot of studio portraits and portrasits taken by street photographers. We think the difference is the large number of Americans who had cameras. Not only were Americans more affluent, but inexpensive cameras were widely available. Often the children are just standing there like the boy here, but in many cases they are holding lunch boxes or in rural areas and small towns at first lunch pails.

Created: 9:37 PM 2/6/2013
Last updated: 3:35 AM 1/16/2017