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We have little information on individual Canadian schools at this time. As our archive of Canadian schools grows, we will eventually archive them by name and year. A reader mentions the Reverend Woods's Church School in Montreal during 1885, although we do not know much about it at this time. We also note St. John's Anglican School in Montreal during 1899. While it is in Montreal, we assume it is an English-language school. A reader has sent us a photograph of an Anglo-Canadian schoolboy from the Crescent School in Toronto, Ontario during the 1930s. It is a boys' private school. Notice that his uniform is British in style with the short pants, kneesocks, blazer with piping and traditional school cap. Being a Dominion of the British Empire, the British influence in English Canada was very strong. British uniforms were worn by private school children in all of the British overseas Dominions. We also note the Loyola School in Montreal, it appears to be a Catholic boarding school. Most of the school photographs we have archived are from Ontario and Quebec, largely because these are such populous provinces. Hopefull more of our Canadian readers will provide some information about the schools they attended.
Here we see the Ecole Baril in 1912. We are sure about that as the photograph has a note identifying it. We assume it is a school in Montreal, probably Quebec, but we are not sure. Given the school in the background it must have been a city school. The Ecole of course means that it is a school teaching French speaking Canadians. We believe it is a state primary school. The boys mostly seem to be wearing suits. Some boys wear sweters instead of a suit jacket. One boys looks to be wearing a tunic or smock, it is a bit difficult to tell. The boys all wear kneepants or knickers and long black stockings. I'm not sure about the class, the boys look to be about 10-11 years old. A Canadian reader writes, "For sure, L'Ecole baril existed at montr�al. But it was not a "state" school. Because schools were under the juridiction of the clergy, they were catholic or protestant. The Government of Qu�bec supervised shools through a Department of Public Instruction" (D�partement de l'Instruction publique) for primary and secondary schools. But the control was in the hand of the Church. Classical colleges were also under the jurisdiction of the clergy but students had to pay. All this stuff changed in 1964 with the advent of the Ministry of Education."
A reader has sent us a photograph of an Anglo-Canadian schoolboy from the Crescent School in Toronto, Ontario during the 1930s. It is a boys' private school. Notice that his uniform is British in style with the short pants, kneesocks, blazer with piping and traditional school cap. Being a Dominion of the British Empire, the British influence in English Canada was very strong. British uniforms were worn by private school children in all of the British overseas Dominions.
The Dariusleut/Dariusleit, are a Hutterite group. The Huttrrites fled Austria and Germany. First to Romania, but finally found refuge in Ukraine (1770), at the time part of the Tsariust Empire. The Dariusleuty emerged from the wider Hutterite community in Ukraine (1860). Michael Waldner and Jakob Hofer (1830–1900) organized a separate group among the Hutterites in Hutterdorf, a villsage in Ukraine -- the Schmiedeleut. At about the same time another group of Hutterites did the same under the leadership of Darius Walter (1835–1903) also living in Hutterdorf. They were, however, on the opposite side of their village. They became known as the Dariusleut -- a play on the first name of the founder. Increasingly the Russian state was encroaching on the long standing autonomy y of minorities like the Poles, Jews, various German groups, and others. This meant that demeaning that the Hutterites learn Russian and most ominously serve in the military. The Dariusleut along with the Schmiedeleut left Ukraine and headed for America (1874). They began at Silver Lake, South Dakota. They founded their imitial American colony at Wolf Creek, South Dakota. It would be the mother colony of the Dariusleut. This worked out fine until World War I. The Germans were the most important immigrant group in America. World War I resulted in a wave of anti-German sentiment. And worse still for the Hutterites was the military draft. The U.S. Government left it up to the Army to assess all claims for conscious objector status to the draft. Two Hutterite conscientious objectors, brothers Joseph and Michael Hofer, died from abuse at the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth. The result was that all six Dariusleut colonies moved to Alberta, Canada. Now Canada also joined Britain to fight the Germans in World War I. But the anti-German wve was more constrained and the Government was more willing to recognize conscious objector status. This apparently boiled over and with mo expectation of another war, the Schmiedeleut started setting up new colonies in the United States (1930). This was in Montana, the American+ state south of Alberta. Which made since since the farming environment is similar in Alberta and Montana. Like all Hutterite children, the Dariusleit attend an on-colony school built by the community, but usually staffed by the local public school boards. Colony teachers are for the most part non-Hutterites and generally follow the provincial or state curricula. There is also a special German teacher (Teicha Schuellehrer). The children begin attending school at age 5 years meaning Kindergarten. There isa degree of separation, such as at meals, between the boys and girls, Until recently they rarely advanced beyond primary school, but in recent years they began achievung high school diplomas--usually though televised courses. And now many of the less conservative colonies, often meaning the Schmiedleut and Dariusleut colonies, there is in interest in higher education. There are now university graduates tat ome of the colonies to helpwith the high school level program,. This in part reflects the increasing technological innovations in farming and the move toward higher end agricultural crops.
This is a photo of the Ealing Public School in London, Ontario. It was taken in 1888. It looks more like a country school, perhaps Ealing was a village on the outskirts of town. Te boys wear blouses, some with jackets. The younger boys in front all wear knee pants. Some are barefoot, others wear long stockings. Note how most of the boys have rounded crown hats, a major hat style for boys inthe 219th century. The olders boys are at the basck abd we can't see much of what they are wearing. All of the girls wear dresses, many with pinafores.
We don't know the name of the school, but we know it was located in Gordon Township. The photograph is undated, but we would guess was taken about 1905. This is a wonderful image of the children at a rural Ontrio school. The school seems a rathervhappy place, although two of the younger boys re bit dubius about having their portrait taken. We think the building in the background is the school. We are not sure why there were two doors. The teacher poses with her bike that she used to come to school in the morning. One girl and four boys wear sailor outfits. The younger boys wear knee pants and long stockings. One boy wearing a plaid blouse is barefoot. Notice the pile of wood to help keep the school warm when the cold weather begins.
This photograph shows a rural primary school--Ives' Hill Country School. The school was located im eastern Quebec and was taken in 1939. Most of the children wear tan long stockings with either short trousers or knickers. The girls also wear tan stockings. The one-room schoolhouse stands behind the students. Rural Quebec tended of course to be mainly Roman Catholic, although this was a state school. One of the students from this school, Jean Farwell Monty, who became a teacher herself, recalls that the children made stuffed animals for packages sent to the Montreal Children's Hospital. We know one boy's name--the boy in the front row at the extreme left wearing dark shorts and tan long stockings. His name was John Cowan. He was 8 years old at the time.
We believe that the Lamson Street School was located in Esquimalt, British Colombia. Esquimalt was built as a primary school, but the bulding is currently being used by a secondary school. It is located at the southern tip of Vancouver Island between Vancouver and Seattle. the 1928 school portrait did not look quite right for America. We see a kind of woodland setting, suggesting a rural school, but this was a city school. There were trees on the school ground, but there was also a nearby park. The impressive red brick building was built in 1913 replacing a smaller school. It is one of the oldest school buildings in Esquimalt and is still in partial use. Other schools in Esquimalt, including Victoria High School (1914) and Camosun College (Young Building 1914) were all erected at about the same time and were done in the classical neo-classical design. We have archived what looks like a 1st or second grade class. Boys and girls were kept separate in the early-20th century, but by the 1920s were learning together.
The Loyola Catholic School was one of the best known schools of Montreal. We are not sure what the regular school wear consisted. Here we have a photograph of the school hockey team (1899). The uniform shown here gives us a good historical idea of what highschool hockey players wore just at the turn of the century. We have some other hockey images on HBC also to which this one should be linked. So there are two spheres of interest here--highschools and sports (hockey). Notice that the boys wear almost no padding under their uniforms, evidence that the game was much less violent and the school was less concerned about possible injuries. The game was played also without helmets. The boys wear only turtle-necked ribbed sweaters, knee-length pants, long black stockings and their skates. But of course the boys wear long underwear under their uniforms--probably long-sleeved union suits (or "combinations" as they would have been called in Canada).
The Martin Avenue Elementary School was a primary school in Kelowna, British Colombia. We are not sure if the term 'Elementary' was used or if that is added by the American dealer. Kelowna is a tourist-oriented city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia. Unless identified there would be no way of knowing that this was a Canadian and not an American school. We do not see any destinctive Canadian garments. The photograph we have is a 5th grade ckass in 1955. The children would have been 10-11 years old. Long pants dominated American schools at the time, although some of very younges boys especially in the South might wear short pants. This seems to have also been the case in Canada, as well, although here we see one boy wearing shorts.
The Colege Notre Dame was an all-boys Catholic College. In French Canada and most countries besides the United States, college means a secondary school, or a combined primary-secondary school, rather than a small university-level school. We are not sure where the Colege Notre Dame was located, but Quebec (posibly Montreal) is the modst likely location. The school was taught by Catholic priests. We are not sure about the current status of the school, but know it was operating in the early 20th century.
The Old Britannia Schoolhouse, was built as a Common School in 1852. There was not yet a public school system in Canada. Parents interested in educating their children paid a fee. The school replaced an earlier wooden school building originally put up in the 1830s which had fallen into poor repair. It was located in Mississauga, Ontario. The Canadian Government in 1871 designatd "Common Schools" as "Public Schools". The Government abolished fees and attendance was made compulsory for children aged 7 to 12 years of age during at least 4 months a year. At that time, however, the schools were usually open for 11 � months and many children attended for more than 4 months. The Government in 1919 raised the age for compulsory attendance to 16 years with certain exceptions. Here we have a photogrph of the children at Old Britannia School in 1917.
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Robert Knight in the middle of the Great Depression decided to open a private boys' boarding school in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Aubrey Muskett, former headmaster of the Collegiate School in Victoria, assisted Knight with the project. Knight named his school the Qualicum Beach School and began with nine students. Knight first used a rented house. He moved the school to a specially-designed building amid 17 acres of senic seaside property (1937). Knight's younger brother George, joined him as a partner. They renamed the school incorporated the school as a limited liability company. The school was a college in the European sence, more like a British public Private boarding) school meaning essentially a school merging primary and secondary school programs. These schools are often called colleges are academies in Europe. The Knight brothers had about 70 students, mostly boarders (early-1960s). The boys wore British-style uniforms. Costs increased and enrollment began to decline (1960s). The Knight brothers who were getting older decided to close the school (1970).
Here we see a class of boys from the Reverend Woods's Church School in Montreal during 1885. We don't know the name of the church, but I suspect that it is an Anglican school, possibly a choir school connected with one of the Anglican churches in Westmount, an English-speaking section of the city. The boys seem to be of choir-school age--from about 8 to 15. They are formally dressed for their school photograph. One boy in the front row wears a sailor suit with a white middy blouse, knee pants, and black stockings. The other boys seem to be in knee-pants suits. All of course wear long black stockings, standard wear for the period. Notice the variety of hats. One of the boys wears a rather citified black derby hat while others wear felt hats with small brims and encircling ribbons. A few boys wear small brimless hats. Some faculty members standing in the rear are wearing their academic gowns (typical of English-style church-connected schools) and mortarboards. We thought that this might be a Sunday school class because the portrait was taken in front of the Church. A reader writes, however, "I don't think a simple Sunday School would be only boys, do you? The priest, maybe Father Woods, is standing at the right rear with some other faculty members in their academic gowns and mortarboards. It might be a class preparing for confirmation, but the fact that only boys are present makes me think it is probably a day school connected with the parish church." Our reader is probably right. Most Subday schools with which we are familar were coeducational.
This photograph shows school children in the Hutterite colony of Pembrook colony, located in Edmunds County, South Dakota. As you can see, they have no problem using modern devices. The colony belongs to the Schmiedeleut branch, one of two branches. They are the branch more open to the use of modern technology. The Huttrites were founded in Austria early in the Reformstion (1527). They take thir name from their charismatic leader--Jakob Hutter. Th Schmiedeleut branch is much more recen (1859). They were founded in Hutterdorf, Ukraine -- right in the middle of the current fighting in eastern Ukraine. The founder was blacksmith Michael Waldner -- Schmied Michel. Ukraine at the time was part of the Tsarist Empire. Anabaptist groups were so oppressed in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe that they fled east. The Tsarist authorities tolerated them as a way of developing rural areas and allowed them a substantial degree of autonomy. They moved on to Bon Homme, South Dakota (1874). This is the mother colony of all Schmiedeleut Hutterite colonies in North America. It is also the oldest surviving Hutterite Colony in the world. The other Hutterites still in Ukraine would flee the Soviets after World War I (1914-18). The current division is recent. They divided into two subgroups (Schmiedeleut 1 and Schmiedeleut 2) over issues regarding leadership, modern education, and church governance. Today, the Hutterites have agricultural colonies in Alberta, Manitoba, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota. As in all Hutterite colonies, private property is strictly forbidden. This is one pf the major differences with other sects of the Anabaptist tradition. They engage in large-scale, mechanized farming, livestock ranching, and manufacturing. The Hutterites are a communal Christian group, part of the Anabaptist tradition that emerged from the Reformation in Germany (16th century). They share theological roots with the Amish and Mennonites. These groups were severely oppressed by secular governing and majority religious authorities, including other Protestants. Religious toleration would eventually be championed by Protestant churches. But his was not the case in he early tears. Thus they were constantly on the move, some even wound up in Russia/Soviet Union. It was in America and Canada, however, that they finally found religious toleration. There are now some 50,000 Hutterites living in self-sufficient farming colonies (Bruderhöfe) across upper/northern Great Plains of Western Canada and the United States.
Here we have a portrait from St. John's Anglican School in Montreal. While it is located in Montreal, we believe it was an English-language school. The photograph shows a group of boys from the Anglican School for boys during 1899. There were significant class connotations to the Anglican church in both Canada and Ameeica. Many of the well to do upper-class families were Anglicans. Much of the working class on the other hand were Catholic, from both French Canadian and immigrant families. . You can see a few of the faculty members at the rear right including a white-bearded priest in his black cassock (possibly the headmaster) plus another priest wearing a suit and clerical collar. There are quite a range of ages. Thius suggests that the school was quite small. This may be the entire school at the time. It is hard to know whether the young men standing at the back older students or young members of the faculty. We think they are students, but at least one may be a faculty member. The younger boys look to me like 7th or 8th graders, which would make them about 11 or 12 years old.
We do not have any historical information on Trinity College School t this time. A Canadian reader has provided us some informstion on the school uniform. He writes, "I visited another English Canadian private school in Ontario and they very kindly sent me a scanned picture from their archives for your HBC-SU web site. The first photo is the Junior School photo (the younger boys - Grades 5-8) at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, taken in 1915. Note the huge Eton collars worn as part of their uniforms. The second photo is the Junior School students (Grades 5 - 8) in 1951, meeting the Governor General of Canada, the representative of the British Crown in Canada. As a Dominion of the British Empire, there is obviously a heavy British influence in English-speaking Canada. Note the boys are wearing English-style peaked caps with their uniforms." The Trinity College School in 1991 became co-educational, admitting girls for the first time. The girls wear the same uniform as the boys, but with skirts. There is now no headwear worn at this school any more.
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