*** school uniform: United States -- individual schools Lowell School




U.S. School Clothes: Lovington School (Lovington, Illinois)

1908 school
Figure 1.-- This photograph is an AZO postcard-back class class portrait taken in 1908. It looks like an 8th or 7th-grade class posed on the front steps of the school with the teacher. The names of the children and teacher were written on the back. The boys mostly wear knee pants and long stockings, but unusually we see two of the boys with some kind of leggings. We are not sure what that was all about. It does not seem a particularly cold day. One or two boys wear knickers. This is precisely the time that knickers for some reason begin to replace knee pants in the Unitd States. One boy wears long pants. The girls wear a mix of dresses or blouses and skirts. Click on the oimage to see the names of the children and teacher. Click on the image to see the names. Notice tht they all seem English or Germam.

The mame of this school is not identified, but we know it was located in Lovington, Illimois. This is a town ib centrl Illinois, meaning that it was a farming community. Lovinmgton was a small town of only about a 1,000 residebnts. Lovington was still groeing t the time this photoigrapoh was taken, but was adversely affected by the farm depession of the 1920s that preceeded the Great Depression of the 1930s. Given that Lovingtom was such a mall town, the school was surely was called the Lovington School. It was am elementary (primary) school and substantial brick building. The photograph we have is a postcard-back class portrait taken in 1908. It looks like an 8th or 7th-grade class posed on the front steps of the school with the lady teacher (Bertha Lechner) is placed in the center of the class. The names of the children and teacher were written on the back of the card.. The boys mostly wear knee pants and black long stockings, but unusually we see two of the boys with some kind of leggings. We are not sure what that was all about. It does not seem a particularly cold day. A reader writes, "I think gaiters, leggings or puttees were what the two boys were wearing. suspect taking them on and off were such a chore that the two wearing them may have chosen to keep them on despite having their picture taken -- just a guess." One or two boys wear knickers. This is precisely the time that knickers for some reason began to replace knee pants in the Unitd States. One boy wears long pants. The girls wear a mix of dresses or blouses and skirts, also with black long stockings. Notice that hair bows are not nearly as common as they would become in the 1910s. Also interesting is that a high school (secondary school) was opened in Lovoimgton the yeraftr this potrait ws taken (1909). Such small high schools were not uncommon in America at the time. This is interesting because a town of 1,000 people would not have had a secondary school in Europe. America at the time was expanding its secondary school system far beyond the level of that in Europen countries. Only a fraction of American children went on to high school after elementary (primary) school, but far more than in Europe. And they did so on a non-selective basis meaning gender and academic ability. Unlike Europe, American girls did so in large numbers, often more so than the boys who in a community like Lovington were needed on the farm. (My dad had a hugh altercation with his father in a neraby community on this very matter only a few years after this photograph was taken.) This is factor in why the women's movement in America led the world. This is something we do not hear university professors teaching women's studies commonly telling young people. They tend to relate the difficulties American women faced, but virtually never mention that conditions in Europe, not to mention Asia and Latin America where conditions for women were even worse. We have trued to address this issue with several professors, but it is matter they do not wish to address.







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Created: 6:17 AM 5/14/2020
Last updated: 7:27 AM 5/15/2022