Unidentified Private School (United States, Early 1920s)

bowtie
Figure 1.-- This looks to us like a private school class, both because of the formality in dress and the small class size. Notice the two teachers, one with an old fashioned wing collar. Only one boy wears a bowtie, the rest except for the boy with a turtleneck all wear neckties. The portrait is undated, but was probably taken about 1920. The boys almost seem to be wearing school uniforms as the suits are so similar, but we believe that at the time dark (commonly navy blue) suits were so popular that it just looks like a uniform.

This looks to us like a private school class, both because of the formality in dress and the small class size. Notice the two teachers, one with an old fashioned wing collar. Only one boy wears a necktie. The portrait is undated, but was probably taken about 1920. The boys almost look to be wearing school uniforms as the suits are so similar, but we believe that at the time dark (commonly navy blue) suits were so popular that it just looks like a uniform. If you look carefully you can see thst there are different suits in both style and color. And notably there are different neck ties. Schools with uniforms of course has the same ties. Neckties were by far the most important neckwear in the 20th century. Boys commonly wore suits and ties to school in the early 20th century and we usually see at least one boy in class portraits wearing a bow tie, sometimes more in the 1900s and 10s. This became less common by the 1930s, both because bowties became less popular and suits began to be worn less to school. A reader writres, "This photo of American boys in dark suits is interesting for what it tells us about long trousers and knickers in the 1920s. Some of the boys obviously wear longies while others wear the more conservative above-the-knee knickers and long black stockings. The boys don't look very different in age, at least those in the two front rows. They seem to be about 13 or 14--I would say about 9th grade. Dark suits and white shirts were obviously required for this class photo, but some mothers apparently insisted on knickers and long stockings while other mothers allowed their sons to wear long trousers. The boy in the bow tie, kneeling, seems to be in long pants, and so does the boy who is half kneeling at the right in the first row. On the other hand, the boy (second from right, front row), who is squatting, is clearly wearing knickers and black stockings, and so is the boy at the extreme right in the second row. My guess is that this photo dates from about 1923-24." The dark suits and hosiery make it a little difficult to tell what kind of pants the boys are wearing. The kneeloing boy in the bowtie may be wearing long pnts, salthough we are not positive. The other boys it seems to us are wearing knickers.








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Created: 7:18 PM 7/2/2008
Last updated: 7:18 PM 7/2/2008