Figure 1.--This is a detail of the school portrait at the Malroy École Professionnelle D'Agriculture in 1884. There was no school uniform. The boys wore suits with long pants. We note one boy with a military style jacket. He looks like a senior boy, perhaps the headboy. We are not sure why he is dressed differently than the other boys.

We have some limited information on French schools in the 19th century. Images from the 19th century of course are more lmited than the 20th century, especially early 19th century images before the deveklopmenbt of photography. We have, however, been able to find some information. Our archive is still to limited to draw any substantial assessmnents on school wear trends by decade, but we plan to do this as we acquire information on more schools.

The 1850s

(Le) Lycée Naval School (1850s)

HBC notes that Le Lycee Naval School operates today at Brest, a major French port and naval basse. HBC is unsure at this time when it was founded. The school has strong connections with the French Navy. Reports in 2001 indicate that the boys wear traditional uniforms, we are not sure, however, if this is the normal school or just worn for special occasions.

The 1860s

The 1870s

Alsatian School (1871)

A HBC reader has mentioned a lovely little short story by Alphonse Daudet, entitled "La Derniere Classe" ("The Last Class"). It was published as part of Daudet's Lettres de Mon Moulin ("Letters From My Mill"). The story is set in Alsace. It describes a French teacher telling his class that he was being replaced and this will be the last day that their class will be taught in the French language. An indifferent schoolboy comes to class on the last day that instruction will be given in French. It is 1870-71 and the Franco-Prussian War has ended with a overwealming German victory. German must now be used in the Alsatian schools. The schoolboy enters class a bit late (his custom!) and listens as the schoolmaster relates the sad news of the German victory to the class. The schoolmaster's praise of the French language and literature awaken a belated patriotism and love of French in this errant but goodhearted pupil.

The 1880s

State Primary School: Unknown (1880s)

A French painter provides a look inside a typical French provincial state elementary school in 1880.

Malroy École Professionnelle D'Agriculture (1880s)

Here we see the school portrait in the 1800s. The school was still relativeky small. There look to be about 60 boys. We also note the clerics on the staff. The particular image image we have is from 1894. There is no uniform, but all the boys wear dark suits. Notably the boys all wear sack suits with lapels. We do not see any boys with suits that button at the collar. We note a very wide range of neckwear, including Windsor ties and what look like bow ties. Some of the boys wear waistcoats, although it is not possible to know how common this was as most boys havwe buttonef their jackets. All of the boys wear long pants, at least as as far as we can tell from the school portrait. Notice how several boys are holding their hands in the image here, I'not sure what that was all about.

Unidentified school (1880s)

Here we have an unidentified French school thst we believe was taken in the 1880s. The source indicted the outdoor photograph was taken in the 1880s, The boys are arranged in friont of the school. It looks to be alarge urban school. The boys look like younger primary boyd, sime quite young. The building behind them is quite impressive, leaving us go believe that the boys are the younger boys at a large school, perhaps a college. As was common st the time, it was a single gender school. We suspect it may have been a private Catholic school. The boys wear aide range of clothing. All seen to be wearing knee pants suits, including sailor suits. Most of the boys have short hair. A few of the boys have long hair, including ringlet curls. And quite a few have their headwear. They are photigraphed with their teacher and perhaps the headmaster. A priest is also with them.

The 1890s

Malroy École Professionnelle D'Agriculture (1890s)

We do not have any good images of the school in the 1890s. One portrait from the 1890-91 school year shows the boys wearing suits, quite similat to the styles we saw in the 1880s. The boys are still wearing mostly sack suits with lapels and collars and neckwear. It is difficult to tell from the photograph, but most the boys look to be wearing long pants. Mosr boys seem to have worn a militar-style cap.

State l'Ecole Maternelle: Unknown (1899)

The Third Republic, as part of its educational reforms, created nursery schools for children from 2 to 6 years of age. HBC believes that these were the first nursery schools in Europe. They were coeducational and the children wore similar light-colored smocks.

Created: October 30, 1998
Last updated: 5:46 PM 11/19/2004