For this week’s Sepia Saturday, our prompt image features a group of boys playing marbles. Well, no photos of marble playing in my collection, but I do have this really interesting photograph from my husband’s family. The back is a photo postcard back, and someone pencilled in, “D Jaarsma Tech High School,” in pen later on. That “D Jaarsma” would be my husband’s grandfather, Doede “Douglas” Jaarsma who apparently went to a technical high school as a kid. Best we can guess is that he’s the boy in the back row on the right side with a hammer slung over his shoulder.
It doesn’t quite look like a high school by our standards – the boys seem to range from maybe age 8 to 12 or so. Doede was born in 1911, so the photo date is probably about 1920 if we guess he’s just about 10, and the location is likely in Friesland, Netherlands. So, what school is this? I can’t say exactly, but we do have a report book from about 8 years later that indicates he attended a technical school (Vakteekenschool) in St. Nicolaasga. It’s possible this is his first year at that school which is why the photo was saved. I’ve put in scans of the report card below, and even found the school listed numerous times in the Delpher Newspaper Archive (link) advertising for teachers. There are a few other documents to support his work history that he brought with him from the Netherlands to the USA including certification of apprenticeship, a letter from a metalworkers’ union, and a trade certificate. I know that in later life, he shoed horses and did blacksmith type work in northern New Jersey, USA, so this all fits together very neatly with who he was after he came to the USA. It’s so great to have all these pieces of the puzzle to make a bigger picture of his employment and work history really come to life. The boys in my photo may not be playing with marbles, but they were learning skills and a trade.
It is the kind of image that just drips with history and you have done right to scan it and share it with the world. Interesting back story. I wonder whether, when class was done, they put their hammers down and got their marbles out?
I do wonder what they did with those hammer/mallet things many of them are holding?
Blacksmithing likely.. I know my husband’s grandfather made horseshoes.
This is all so fascinating. A wonderful image that should be viewed in detail to see all of these serious young men. And I wonder how heavy the hammers were.