U.S. School Clothes: Shoe Repair (Portland, Oregon)


Figure 1.--This illustrated 1916 article concerns the innovation in the Portland, Oregon, public schools of teaching boys to repair their own shoes. The program was very successful and appealing to boys from the 6th grade onwards--i.e., from about the age or 10 or 11. The illustrations that accompany the article show how school boys in Portland, Oregan, were dressed in 1916. They wear above-the-knee knicker suits with long black stockings and dress shirts and neckties.

This illustrated article from Good Housekeeping Magazine for October, 1916, p. 148. It concerns the innovation in the Portland, Oregon, public schools of teaching boys to repair their own shoes. The program was very successful and appealing to boys from the 6th grade onwards--i.e., from about the age or 10 or 11. In the manual training classes, the boys set up cobbler work benches and get instuctions in repairing their own shoes. They usually buy the leather at cost. Needy boys are given the leather gratis. The school supplies the necessary equipment. The boys repair their own shoes and sometimes those of the girls who are their friends. At Christmas time, they sometimes distribute repaired shoes to needy families as a good will gesture. The boys seem to take pleasure in this kind of work. Incidentally, the illustrations that accompany the article show how school boys in Portland, Oregan, were dressed in 1916. They wear above-the-knee knicker suits with long black stockings and dress shirts and neckties. The boy have dressed up for the photograph, here we are not sure. We don't know the name of the boy who is photographed here.






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Created: 3:40 AM 6/30/2005
Last updated: 3:40 AM 6/30/2005