Groups of students with unsmiling faces? This Sepia Saturday was built for me, I’m sure of it! One of the things my great grandmother Olga (Powis) Kitko saved over the years were her school photos, and we’ll go through a few of them today. There are still plenty more though, so this hasn’t exhausted my collection in the least. She was born in 1900, and in the photo above, she appears to be about age 8 or 9 or so (third girl from the left in the front row, marked with an x on her sleeve). There’s no date or marking on the back, but it’s a real photo postcard with an AZO stamp box showing three triangles up and one down which Playle’s guide says is 1911. Pretty exact, though I would have put my guess a year or two prior. The school here is probably the Blain City school house across the street from where Olga grew up.
This one has no identifying information with it whatsoever – nothing on the back at all and it’s even mounted on a heavy cardboard mat with frame. Best guess on this one is probably 1912 or 1913. Olga is third in from the left, front row. It appears to be the same school steps again as well.
This one is labelled on the back, “8th Grade Kids,” in Olga’s shaky handwriting indicative of her later years. That would make the date of the photo about 1913-1914 or so depending on when it was taken. Here Olga is on the left in the front row, standing again on the same steps as the prior two photos.
This is Olga’s High School Graduation photo taken about four years after the prior photo to finish out the set. In the folder with the photo, she included a list of the students, but it appears to be incomplete. It’s titled, “BTHS Graduates, 1919,” for Beccaria Township High School and lists these students:
- Back Row: Covert Hegarty, Dean Gates, Dean Wagner, Hazel Mark, Violet Glass (missing 1 student)
- Middle Row: Ruth Westover, Don McGeehen, Jim Patterson, Ann Nevling, Stella Holingsworth, Ruth Stewart, Mildred Beaber (all accounted for)
- Front Row: Olga Powis, Blanch Ginter (all accounted for)
Not all the students have unsmiling faces – some have slight grins, but no full toothy smiles. It still gives me a smile to see Olga’s life documented out in school photos, and I’m glad these are still around to share!
Graduation caps and gowns seem to be unchanged through the years.
The photo titled “8th Grade Kids” made me smile. Those BIG bows some of the girls are wearing! It was the time period for that. We have several pictures of my husband’s mother and aunt in Canada, posing with huge bows on their heads around that same time.
The classes got smaller each year.
Most of those students have fairly deadpan expressions, and I imagine they were told that the photos were being taken primarily as records for the school and that they were not to be treated lightly. I wish I had some class photographs of my grandparents!
I’m not sure that the Playle date guides are that correct, to be honest. I normally just use them as a guideline to assist with other dating clues.
How wonderful to have such a collection of old school photos. It did strike me how serious everyone looked.