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The School of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen is a Catholic school located in Baltimore, Mary land. It cares for children frok kindergarden to 8th grade or from 5-14 years of age. Taking children through the 8th grade is common for Catholic schools as there were not normally any Catholic junior high schools. We know nothing about the history of the school. The school website, however, has an archive of First Communion and graduation portraits dating back to 1926. We do not know if this was when the school was actually founded. This archives provides some insights on dress and uniform policies at one specific parochial school. This is useful because we are only beginning to develop information on the parochial school system in America.
Public schools began to develop in the early 19th century. They were controlled by protetant officials who in many cases were hostile to Catholocism. As large numbers of Catholic immigrants (primarily Irish) began to arrive in the 1840s, the Church decided to create their own separate Catholic schools. Suceeding waves of immigration from Catholic countries (especially Italy) greatly expanded the U.S. Catholic population. The Catholic schools at one pont were education more than 20 percent of American children. The Catholic schools unlike the state public schools insisted on a school uniform. I'm not sure why the Church made this decision, but may be due to the Irish and Italian influence or the fact that immigrant Americans were generally low income families and would be sensitive to preceived differrences in the clothing that poorer children might be wearing. The uniforms worn by the boys are usually white shirts and ties, sweater, and solid color--often blue pants. Usually thevboys wore long pants, but many elementary schools now permit shorts.
The School of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen is a Catholic school located in Baltimore, Mary land. It cares for children from kindergarden to 8th grade or from 5-14 years of age. Taking children through the 8th grade is common for Catholic schools as there were not normally any Catholic junior high schools. We know nothing about the history of the school. Information about the school is useful because we are only beginning to develop information on the parochial school system in America.
The school website, however, has an archive of First Communion and graduation portraits dating back to 1926. We do not know if this was when the school was actually founded. This archives provides some insights on dress and uniform policies at one specific parochial school. The images do not necesarily provide details on how the children normally dressed at school, but the formal portraits are still useful. We are not sure about the dress code, but there does not seem to have been a unform until the 1960s. The boys appear to have worn short pants or knickers until the mid-1930s when long pants became more common. Graduation ouffits also varried over time. Graduation outfits were not what the children normally wore to school, but the children seem to have graduation portraits taken in their uniforms during the 1960s. TThis suggests uniforms were adopted in the 1960s, but it could have been earlier.
First Communion is a major milestone in the life of a Catholic child. It is also an important even at any Catholic school. The suits and dresses of the children varied over time. We are not sure what the children wore in the early 20th century, but we do have images available from the mid-20th century. Portraits are only available from the 1940s. Boys were wearing dark short pants suits with Eton collars in the early 40s. They began wearing white short pants suits in 1947. They were wearing white long pants suits in 1962.
The school has an interesting website with a very useful collection of historical portraits of First Communion and graduation portrairs.
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