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A good idea of fashion trends in America, as children at public schools did not wear uniforms, can be assessed by looking at what the children were wearing to school. Unfortunately many of the available images are not identified or are not dated, despite this, the images are very valuable views of children's fashion trends.
Here is a list of schools alphabetized by school name. Unfortunately for many images we have collected, we do not know the name of the school. We will add images of schools which are identified by name as well as schools about which we have obtained information. Readers are invited to contribute here information and images about their schools and school experiences. We certainly hope if readers find their school listed here that they will provide us some information on it.
With World War I raging in Europe, the U.S. Government began to give some thought to defense. The United States at the time was virtually without an army or a sizeable arms industry. One of the first responses was the National Defense Act signed by President Wilson (1916). One of the projects authorized was nitrate-manufacturing plants and a dam to provide needed hydropower. Nitrates could be used for either ammunition or fertilizer. President Wilson selected Muscle Shoals, Alabama as the site of the dam and nitrate plants. The factory which beame known as Factoy No. 1 was designed to produce ammonium nitrate using the Haber process. In addition to the dam and factories, the plan included an industrial village to house the construction and than the factory workforce. Construction of the village began (late-1918). Noted architect Harold Caparn designed the village in the shape of a handbell. Houses surrounded the handle, body, and clapper. A school was situated at the base. The completed village included 112 homes, 2 school buildings, and one large apartment complex to housed unmarried officers. Maud Lindsay, an author of children's books, was chosen to be the first kindergarten teacher. Events in Europe proceeded more raidly than the dam construction. Germany asked for an armistice (November 11, 1918). This ended the War and meant that the United States would not need an expanded supply of ammounium nitrate. The Government closed the plant. And all the newly built houses and schools stood unoccupied. The project languished for a decade and for the most parts the houses remained unoccupied. A few were used by the Alabama Power Company workers at the dam. This change with the election of President Roosevelt and the New Deal (1933). Soon after his inaguration, President Roosevelt created the Tennessee Valley Authority (May 1933). Although based on the Tennessee River, much of the project was developed in northern Alabama through which the Tenessee River flowed. Senator Norris championed the project. The Mussle Shoals industrial complex would be used for fertilizer production and as a development center and the forerunner of additional dams and projects further up the Tennessee River as TVA became a New Deal show case. Here we see the 4th grade class in TVA School-Village No. 1 in 1937. TVA would privide the enormous power needed by the Oak Ridge atomic project during World War II. After the war, the streets, playgrounds, and school were deeded to the city of Sheffield by TVA. The houses were auctioned to the public.
I think the name of the school is the Tahoe School. It is a little difficult to read the placard. It looks to be an elementary (primary school). Presumably this is a school located in Nevadaa near Lake Tahoe. Elementary schools were normally for grades 1-6, but there was some variation among states. The building in the background seems to be a fairly modrn suburban school. The placard in front suggests that the school was operating during the 1960s. The placard wethink reads 4th grade which woul mean chilren 9-10 years old. The girls all wear dresses. The boys wear casual shirts and blue jeans or other long pants.
This cabinet card portrait shows younger children at the Temple Street School. Unfortunately we do not know wjere the School was located, no photographer or location is shown. It is clearly a northern school. The brick building shows a substantil, probblybig-city school. And are these are all younger children, we know that there are several classes at the school. There are three black girls in the pportrait. We do know the name of the teacher -- Ella Robinson. There is also no date, but the clothes and mount style suggests he 1900s. The early-10s is possible, but the 00s seems the most likely. It is diificult to tell, but the children look to be about 5-6 years olds, except for a few slightly older children at the back. We are not sure why they are here, perhps they did not pass the 1st grade. Our best guess s tht this is a mix of Kindergarners and 1st graders. There are some 40 children, rather large for a single class, but we see only one teacher. We are guessing tht she had her hands full. The girls wear dresses, some with white pinafores. The boys wear mostly blouses, quite a number with floppy bows. We see quit a few sailor blouses and a few of the youngest boys wear tunic suits. Most of the boys wear knee pants and as far as we can tell, everyone is wearing black long stockings.
This photograph is a class at Tisbury School on Martha's Vineyard, an island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts. It seems to date from about 1919 or 1920. Some of the boys still wear knee pants with long stockings while others wear knickers (also with long stockings). One boy and only one boy seems to be wearing knee socks and bare knees with his above-the-knee knickers. The adult clothing looks a bit more modern too. Note the shorter length of the teacher's skirt on the left. A few of the boys wear tiny bow ties with their white shirts. Quite a variety of styles is represented here.
Here we see particularly happy 2nd grade primary class in Titusville, Florida. For some reason, more than half of the class was girls. Tutusville was about half way down the Florida Peninsula, east of Orlando along the coast. So we are taklking about a clmate approaching semi-tropical. The children would be about 7 years old. The portrait was taken in 1945. The class is notable for a variety of reasons. First of all, despite being in Florida, a southern state with a warm climate, almost all the boys are wearing long pants. Only one boy is wearing short pants. Shorts were not all that uncommon in the 1930s and even the early-40s, esoecilly in the early-40s, especially for this age group. But for some reason this began to change after World War II. Second, We see a lot of jeans and one boy wearing overalls. Something that was disappearing with more boys wearing jeans which would become standard in American primary schools. Third, most boys wear collared shirts. Two boys wear striped T-shirts, something that was alsom becoming increasingly popular. Fourth, As was standard at the time, most of the girls wear dresses. One girl wears shorts, something that was not common schoolwear at the time.
The Tod School appears to be an elementary (primary) school in Cleveland Ohio. We note the school in the ealy 20th century. We are not sure if it is still functioning. The 1st Grade portrait here is undated, but we believe was taken in the early 1920s. The girls wear dresses, a few with pinafores. The boys wear shirts and knickers. A few boys wear sailor suits.
The Todd School is one of the better known private school in Woodstock, Illinois. The Todd Seminary for Boys was founded by Reverend Richard K. Todd from Vermont, He came to Illinois embued with the New England philosophy of "plain living and high thinking, and in harmony with Puritan traditions". Reverend Todd arrived in Woodstock at a time that Illinois still ws little removed from the Frontier (1847). Illinois only became a state a few decades warlier. (1818). He was the young new pastor of a new Presbyterian Church. He had an ubterest in education and opened a small day school in the parsonage for children of parishioners (1848). Therte were only a handful of students, but it continued to operate for several years (until 1859). Todd with his advanced education also served as the School Superintendent for McHenry County from (1849-55). Todd wanted to create a larger school. He established the Parsonage Institute as a boarding school (1858). It proved a suceess and expanded and the state approved a charter for Woodstock University (1861). The name was changed to Woodstock Collegiate Institute (1864). The number of children in the 1860s varied from about 80-150 boys from the McHenry County area. More changes were made (1867). The school became a seminary for boys and renamed the Woodstock Institute. A few years later it became the became known as the Todd Seminary for Boys (1873). Rev. Todd hired Noble Hill (1888). The two did not get along and Hill resigned (1889). Todd was, however, getting older and needed an energetic younger man to assist him. As a result, Todd reconsidered and not only rehired Hill, but promised to support him (1890). Rev. Todd's wife died the next winter (1891). Without his wife, Rev. Todd did not feel he had the strength to continue running the school. He went to live with his son who was a university professor in California. Hill purchased the Seminary from Todd for $20,000 (1892) and would run it as headmaster for nearly 40 years until his death. The same year Hill died, the school became known as the Todd School for Boys (1930). The school remained privately owned, leaving the itto his children. The school was associated with Camp Tosebo at Manistee, Michigan. We note boys at sending postcards home from camp (1950s).
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This large format (8x10 in) cabinet card shows Toughkenamon School about 1892. That was the date on the back, but was estimted some time after the photograph was taken. It may have been taken a couple of years later, but was definitely taken in the 1890s. You can tell by the shoulder puff sleeves on the dresses. Toughkenamon was a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania. It was founded in the late-17th century and conflict with the Lenape native people was a foretaste of what was to come. The town never was very large and we suspect this was a portrait of the entire school. We don't get to see the school, but it would have been a one or two room building. There seem to be more girls thn boys which was no unusual in farming ciommunities, the boys were neeed on the farm. On the right side of the photograph, you can see a little black boy. We are not sure he was a student as he looks quite young. The girls all wear fshinable dresses, some wiyh pinafores. We don't see hairbows. We do see a few what looks like tams. The boys all wear knee pants suits with long stockings.
We have found some images from the Tower Country Day School Wilmington. We assume that would be Deleware. We have heard the term "country day school" used before. This would have been a private school. The day school means that it was not a boarding schoiol. We are not positive, but we believe that the country mean that it was located outside of the city center and meant to convey that it had spacious grounds. Many exclsuive boarding schools were located in the country. The name "country day school" seems toi have been designed to have captured the image of a private school in bucolic settings, but without boaarding.
Here we see the Tuder Schoolm although the plaque is a little difficult to read. Unlike many schools, the name does not seem to come from the name of a town, but rather the Tuder family which was prominant in the county. That was rather unusual to name a school after a family, but Texas like other southern stastes was slow to develop a public school system. The school was located in northeastern Eastland County, Texas. This is a rural county with both ranches and oil fields. There is no town with that name, but this is a rural school so it might have been a very small place. We notice a Tudor Cemetary. While a rural school, it was not a real small school. We notice about 75 children. The photograph was taken on April 29, 1901. A reader thinks the children were dressed up for the occasion. Apparently they are their parents were old in advance that a photographer was coming. We see a few little boys wearing Fauntleroy ruffeled collars. It is a little difficult to tellm but it looks like only the younger boys were wearing knee pants. It is likely that some of the older boys would be wearing knee pants in a city school. A few of the youngeest children are barefoot. Quite a few boys have hsts, some of the boys in front are wearing them. There is mo longer a Tuder School in the county.
This class is identified as from the Tully School. America is, however, a big country. And thus the names of schools are oftem used in muiltiple locations. Thus unless we have the lication, e can not be sure just which school it was. We think this is achool in Tully, Mew York--located near the states center west of Albany. It was an area developed by land grants to men who served in the Revolutionary War. The children are posed in front of the school which is very substantial brick building. We think it may be an elementary (primary) school (6th grade), but the class could be the first year of a juniior high school (7th grade). The photograph was taken in 1920. The boys we can see are wearing arange of suits, sweaters, and shirts and ties. This was a major shift frommthepre-World War I period, when boys attending city schools generally wore suits. Thev girls all wear dresses or blouses and skirtsd , including middy blouses. Long stockings were virtually iniversal in vity schools in thevb1910s, but here we eee some children beginning to wear knee socks.
The Tumwater School was located in Thurston County, Washington. A 1904 school photograph shows the children sitting on the front porch of the wooden school building. The children wear a wide rabge of clothing. Most boys wear long pants. One boy wears kneepants. Several boys wear suits. One boy has a ruffled Fauntleroy collar. Anoyher boy wears kneepants overalls, a rather unusual style. Several boys are barefoot.
The Turkey Creek School appears to have been a small, one-room school, althouh we do not have a photograph of the actual school building. A portrait of the children of different ages in 1913, however, suggests that the school was quite small. The school was located in Montgomery Country, Texas. We have one portrait from 1913. Many of the children wear hats, givung us a good idea of hat styles at the time. The boys wear knickers. Several of the younger children are barefoot. The teacher pictured with the children looks to have been very strict.
The names of American primary schools are coindusing they are called elemenatary, grade, and gramamr schools, but they all mean the same thing--primary schools. This usually means the first 6 years, but this varied a little from state to state. Tustin is not a well-known California city. It is located in Orange County, California, within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The portrait we have found is from 1896. At the time, Los Angeles is not the mega city it has become. The 1896 class looks to be 1st Graders. Most of the boys wear fancy, coloful blouses with knee pants. One noy wears a short, but most wear blouses. A few boys wear suit jackets. The girls wear dresses, a few with pinafores. White dresses seem popular. Only a few boys wear white blouses. A few of the girls wear hair bows, but they are not nearly as popular as they will become in the 20th cdentury. All the children wear dark long stockings and most wear sturdy high-top shoes.
The Tyrrel Elementary School was located in Port Arthur, Texas. We have an image of what we would guess to be a 3rd grade class in 1951. It looks like a typical American primary school in the 1950s. All the girls wear dresses and the boys all wear long pants. A few boys were barefoot which by the 1950s was becoming uncommon in American schools.
This school is a mystery to us. It appears to be a school named the U.S. Scout School. It was located in Paris, France. The boys appear to be American boys wearing Scout uniforms. The pgotoigraph appears to have been taken in a shop of some kind, perhaps a carpentry class. They are wearing protective shop aprons. The photograph is not dated, but we would guess it was taken in the early 1910s before World War I (1914). Surely it was taken after the U.S. Boy Scout movement was founded which would men after 1909. We have no idea why there would be a U.S. Scout school in Paris or just what a scout school involved. Hopefully we will eventually find out more.
We have found a school named the Union Free School. We have since learned that a union free school was a school in a Union Free school district, a feature of the New York public school system. It has nothing to do with trade union. A common school district in New York was a school district created by legislation authorized to open elementary (primary) schools (1812). At the time, they did not have the authority to operate a high school. A union free school district is a school district that was formed from one or more common school districts to operate a high school program which common school districts were initially not authorized to do. The first Union Free ditrict was authorized (1853). Not all union free school districts operate a secondary programs, and some of these schools have been established to operate specified childcare institutions. The imahe we have found does not identify whre in New York it was, but does indicate Dustric 2. Th photogrph ;ooksto have neen takn in the late-1930s.
The Urk School here is an example of a one-room school at the turn of the 20th century. We know that it was located in the Middle School District which we believe is located in upstate New York. A source identified the image here as being taken in 1900. This may, however, have been an estimate rather than a precise date. Here we have a photograph of both the inside and outside of the school.
Utica's original public high school was the Utica Free Academy which was founded in 1814. This was in the middle of a war. It was before the term 'public school' and 'high school' was in vogue. Academy convey the idea of a ecomndry school. At the time the idea of free public education was being wellestablished through the systm of public lan grants creted by the Northwest Ordinance (1787), Northwest at the times meaning the Mid-West east of the Misissippi. This was rimrily aimed a primary schools. The idea of free secondary educatioin was ot well established. Thus the Utica Free School was one of the earlier free secondary schools in America. As such it must have an importn history. Thevnumber of students were very small. A search of internet, unfortunately offers many alumni siyes, but virtually nothing about the schools history. We have found a fe notable tidbits. George C. Sawyer (1835- ) played an especially important role in the school. He graduated from Harvard (1855) became Principal of the (1858-96)m serving in that position 38 years. During the Civil War, the Academy was desrtoyed by a fire (1865). A new building was opened (1868). There were only 143 students with 7 teachers. Utica school authoritie made manual training (for the boys) and domestic science (for the girls) part of the educationl program obligatory in the middle grades (1896). This was optional in the Academy. The number of students gradually grew and a new builfing on Kemble Street was opened (1899). The schhool authorities bragged that "It is believed that in many respects this is superior to any other High School building in the State." The school was closed and secondary education consolidated in a more moder school building (1990).
Here we have a snapshot of a group of boys from the Vernon School in 1922. It looks to be a class group ot at least some of the boys from a class. They look to be about 13 years old. A few boys wear suits, but more wear sweaters. Notice the roll collars. Two boys have flat caps. We suspect that several of the boys left theuir caps in their classroom. All seem to be wearing knickers and long black stockings with high top shoes. This was fairly standard for the 1920s, especially the early-20s. We know they were from the Vernon School, but we are not sure what the school was located. Portland, Oregon is a possibility, but we are not sure. Notice it is an all boys' group. This may mean that it was a private school, aklthough private school boys comminly dressed a little smarter.
The Vienna Elementary School looks to be a standard American elementary (primary) school with a 6-year, grade 1-6 program. It was located in Vienna, the county Seat of Dooly County, Georgia. Dooly County was one of the original landlot counties which were created from land ceded from the Creeks after the Creek War. It is locted in south-central Georgia. We have some class portraits from the 1950s. The girls wear a variety of dresses. The boys mostly wear striped T-shirts and coloful collared shirts with jeans. These garments were very common at American schools at the time. Going barefoot at school was common in southern States before World War II, but that began to decline after the War. It became much less common by the early 1950s. Many of the younger boys were barefoot in 1953. Vienna was the county seat and thus not a rural school, but Dooly was a rural county without any large towns.
We have a school photograph dated 1906. The precise location of the school on Martha's Vineyard is uncertain. It may be Vineyard Haven. The boys wear knee pants with black long stockings. Notice that several boys are wearing military-style naval jackets, double breasted with what look like brass buttons, with matching knee pants. This appears to have been a popular style for gradeschool-age boys. These children are probably in the second or third
grade and would probably be about 8 years old. A girl (perhaps from the class) has used the photograph as a Christmas card at some later point in her life and has written on the photo, "Merry Xmas. To find the best girl in town."
This photograph of a primary school class was taken in 1907 at Vineyard Haven. The boys all wear knee pants with long stockings. Most of the stockings are the standard black color, but one boy wears lighter colored stockings (probably dark tan). Notice the Eton collars.
We are not sure about the name of the school here. We presume that it was the Visalia School as it was located in Visalia, California. Most early schools like this were simply named after the name of the town where they were located. It looks like an early public school. It is dated 1860, but we would take this as more of an assessment than a precise date. We might gues it was taken a little later, but the 1860s is a distinct possibility. Almost all th boys wear long pants. Only one boy wears kneepants. Several boys look to be wearing dresses. This is not impossible, but we suspect that these may be girls with short hair cuts.
Here we have a great image of the Volga School in eastern South Dakota. Volga is a small town city in Brookings County, South Dakota. Volga was founded by the Western Town Lot Company by Col. Arthur Jacoby (1879). It was originally named 'Bandy Town' after the Bandy family, early settlers there. The railroad the next year assigned the name 'Volga', after the Volga River in Russia (1880). We thoght it might be due to Volga Germans settling in the area, but that apparently was not the case. The town is mentioned in the Laura Ingalls Wilder novel The Long Winter, the chapter was 'Pa Goes to Volga'. (This was part of The Little House on the Prarie series.) We have found a great image of the school, we think in the 1910s. You get a sence of how flat the prarie was. The school was larger than the one room school described in the books. Volga was a small town, but it was a town. Unfortunately we get only a limited idea of schoolwear becase the focus is on the school building.
Wahiawa Elementary School was founded to educate the children of farmers who were brought in from California (September 1896). We don't have much informatioin about this, but apparently many were Japanese-Americans. We have a class portrait of the 6th grade in 1956. This would have been the oldest children at the school. The pupils don't wear a uniform. Many boys wear Hawaiian style shirts and go barefoot. We note boys going barefoot on the mainland during the early 50s, but it becoming quite rare by the mid-50s. Note that even in Hawaii that the boys are wearing long pants.
Washington was a popular name for a school, named after the first president. This school was located in Nemaha County, Nebraska. Like many early schools, it was a wood frame building painted white. We are not sure when it was built, but we suspect around the 1870s. The school has displayed their large American flag--note the star arrangement. There is wire protection for the windows. In these rural schools, the only lightening would come from the windows. We have a school portrait from 1899. There is one male teacher, although a female teacher may be sitting with the children. A smaller school would have more likely had a young female teacher. There are about 50 children. The boys all wear jackets and all the children wear shoes. We suspect this meant that it was a little chilly. The youner boys wear knee pants anf long stockings. The older boys wear long pants, to the extent we can tell. The girls all wear dresses, but without pinafores which were common at the time. Note than none of the boys wear overalls.
Here we have another Washington School, this one located in Sulpher, Oklahoma. Washinton was one of the most popular names for American grade schools. Grade, grammar, and elemnebtary school means primary school, usually with the first six grades of education. Oklahoma was located on the Southern Plains, originally designated as Indian Territory. It was a basically rural state. Oil was discovered in the 1910s which resilted in an oil boom. Many school portraits until after World War II show the boys in rural schools wearing overalls. We note a Depression era image. Oklahoma was one of the states especially hard hit in the 1930s, both by the Depression and the Dust Bowl. Many farmers lost their land. Many of the boys wear overalls. This was sonething we did not see until the late-1900s, but then became very common as we see here. It was especially common at rural schools or at schools like this one with some farm chilftrn attending the school. One boys wears short pants overalls, something that was not very common. The girls all wear dresses. Pinafores are no longer in style.
We have found a cabinet card portrait of a class at the Wesley Boys' School. Unfortunately the cabinet card has been trimmed, presumably to fit into a photographic album. Thus we do not know where the school was located. Given the name of the school, we would guess the school is a private school supported by the Methodist Church. It was likely located somewhere in the northest. We do know that the portrait was taken June 15, 1893 at the end of the school year. The black board indicates that it was Group IV. If that meant grade 4, the boys woukd hve been bout 10-11 years old. The photographer's name and location have been cropped off, probably to fit into the old photo album. Most of the boys wear Eton collars, knee pants suits, and long stockings. Many boys also wear sailor suits. One boy wears a long pants suit, but we are not entirely sure that he is a member of the class.
West University Place (West University or West U) is a community located in norther Houston, Harris Country. Houston is a large city in poulation, but even larger in area. It is one of the largest cities in area, if not the largest, in the United States. It is a Houston bedroom community for affluent families. It has one of Texas' highest concentration of high-income households.
Almost all street names in West University Place are variations of universities, colleges, and poets. And the elementary school is named West University. The city was developed in 1917 by Ben Hooper, a former Tennessee governor. The name West University Place came from the location near Rice Institute, now named Rice University. We note a class portrait from 1934. The class is not identified, but we would guess they are second or third graders. The girls wear summer dresses. Most of the boys wear white shirts, a few with ties. Almost all of the boys wear short pants with ankle socks. One boy wears knickers. Shorts ar the time were most commion in southern states.
Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, was a rather prestigious boarding school for boys. It was founded to run much like a British private school. A HBC reader was a student in the 1940s. He recalls, "Latin was required as was algebra and geometry. We had to write 4-5-page essays every week. No radios were allowed and we had to be in bed by 10 PM. We always addressed the masters as 'Sir'. Sports were also de rigeur, especially soccer, football, and baseball." Like most such schools, WRA has since become coeducational.
Here we see a portrait of the children in their classroom with the children sitting smarly at their desks. It is a photo of Miss Grieser's 4th grade class of 1916-17 at Westwood School Elementary Shool in Cincinnati, Ohio. Not only do you get to see each of the children from this class but every single student's name is written on back of the mat board in ink! Also written on back is the year, teacher's name and grade number. Many of the boys wear ties, although not jackets. We suspect that the photo was taken during the end of the school year whe the weather began to warm up. The photo contains a lot of fashionably dressed children. Check out the sizes of the bows on the heads of the girls on the far left.
A HBC reader has sent us a photograph from his elementary (primary) school in 1949. It is the 5th grade class at Westwood View Elemenary School. It was located in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. It is a good example of how elementary school children dressed at the time. The boys wear a variety of shirts and sweaters. Note the long-sleeved "T"-shirt. The boys wear long pants, including jeans. The girls all wear dresses or blouses and skirts. Some girls wear cardigan sweaters. Two girls wear saddle shoes. It must have been Scout day as some of the girls wear Girl Scout uniforms. I;m not sure why none of the boys wear Scout uniforms. At my school the Boy and Girl scouts (Cubs and Briwnies) wore their uniforms on the same day, always Thursday.
The Episcopal City Mission Society (ECMS) opened the Wiltwyck School for African American juvenile delinquents (1936). The boys were not yet involved in major criminal activity. The school was located in Esopus, New York. This was a beautiful location in the Hudson River Valley. It was on the opposite side of the River from the Roosevelt's family home at Hyde Park. There was no connection with the President or Mrs. Roosevelt at the time. The school reportedly had some success working with often troubled boys. They had grown up in poor slim neigborhoods of New York City. The ECMS had difficulty fully funding the school and during World War II was having to consider closing the school (1942). It is at this time that the First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt got involved. Mr. Roosevelt took an intereste in a wide range of charitable activities. She was especially interested in efforts to help Afro-Americans. She helped reorganize the school and obtained needed funding. One major change was that the exclusive operation for Afro-Americans was ended. Mrs. Roosevelt was appointed to the board of directors. The ECMS ended its assiciation with the school. And the school becme an interracial treatment center for pre-teen boys between the ages of 8-12 years of age. Because of the age of the boys, the schhol did not have to be run bas a striuct reformitory. The school was financed through chritable contributions and Mrs. Rooseveklt's assistance was thus very valuable. Mrs. Roosevelt continued her association for the rest of her life. She not only helped with the funding, but was involved in other ways. we note picnics for the boys at Val-Kill, the home the President built for her on the Hyde Park estate. Just before she died she was involved in fund raising activities (1962). The school finally had to close because of funding problems (1981).
Here we sse a rural primary school. It is the Wood School in Bedford County, Tennessee. The schools usually taught children through grade 8. That would normally be children about 13 years old. Often at these schools there were older children because some of the boys took a little longer to get through the program because of demands on the farm. Some of the boys look like older teenagers. We have a portrait froim 1902. The boys came to school in shorts and pants. We only see a few blouses with with large collars, a popular style at the time. The boys wear long pants and knee pants. At a city school the children would have dressed more fashionably, most of the boys would have worn knee pants. Notice that none of the boys wear overalls.
This was the 1978-79 school portrait for Mrs. Gronski's 4th grade class at the Woodmere, New York School No. 6 (figure 1). Woodmere is in Nassau County on Long Island close to New York City. New York City had a tradition of nuumbering rather than naming schools. A 4th grade class in the winter would be mostly 9-year old, but some would turn 10 years by spring. The most notable aspect of the portrait is that all of the girls in the front row are wearing pants, including jeans. Many of these outfits could have been worn by boys as well as girls. This probably over states the importance of pants. And pants were not only seasonal, but also regional. We see more girls weating pants in the northern than southrn sttes. We suspect the portrait was taken on a cold winter day. We also see a lot of sweaters. All of the seaters we see are gender neutral. Only one boy and girl wear short-sleeved shirts. Two boys have shirts with contrasting collar/yoke and body. We see a lot of vibrant colors and stripes were common. Notice that shirts with sports logos were not yet common. A lot of boys wear collar-less shirts. We see both V-fronts and crew-collars. Those with collars have long pointed collars. A lot of the children are wearing jeans, but w also see some corduroy. One girl seems to have a bib-front long denim skirt. None of the boys have short hair. Most have hair over their ears, but only a few have really long hair. Quite a few girls have long hair.
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