Week 36: School #52Ancestors
In today’s post is a picture from my mother’s vast collection of family pictures. While many of her photos don’t identify the people in them, we’ve been able to sort most of them out by comparing the faces with known ancestors. This one, no such luck.
I’ve always been fascinated by this photo and want to know who is in it and where was it taken. One of the stars in the genealogical world is Maureen A. Taylor, known as the “Photo Detective.” I’ve seen her speak a couple of times and have one of her books that helps you find genealogy clues in old photos.[1] While you can send Maureen a photo for her to analyze, I thought I would give it a stab here.
I know that since this was in my mother’s photos, it likely belonged to her mother or father. If I can pinpoint the date of the photo, I might be able to find out who is in the picture. I know that her mom and dad grew up in Newark, New Jersey, so that might be a helpful clue.
It is clearly a class photo from a school. On the brick wall on the left you can see marks from chalkboard erasers [as a kid, I used to love getting the assignment to clean the erases by banging them against a wall or each other]. I suspect the gentleman in the three-piece suit is the principal/headmaster. The children appear to be six to seven years-old, although I confess I am not a good guesser of ages. I also feel that children back-in-the day appear older than their biological age.
In looking for clues on photos, Maureen advises you identify the “costumes” the people are wearing and her book provides resources for costume-dating. Focusing on the two women and using Maureen’s advice, I noted the following features for the women and dates[2]:
Costume Feature - Years popular
High collar to chin - 1901-1914
Full sleeves from to cuff - 1901-1904
Skirt smooth at hip front/sides - 1904-1907
Wider waistbands - 1904-1907
Hair soft around face - 1901-1907
Correlating these features and dates, it is my estimate this picture was taken from about 1904-1907.
I guess that these schoolteachers might not be in a position to buy their clothes, but would have made them. The woman on the left intrigues me the most with her dark colored blouse, off-set front closure, large buttons, and the fancy belt buckle. I needed more than Maureen’s book to figure out what is going on with her so I went to Ancestry.com which has Sears Roebuck catalogs from 1896 to 1993. What a treasure-trove! Sears carried nearly everything you can think of: horse-drawn carriages to fur coats; parlor rugs to “appendicitis trusses”; and, cast-iron gas ranges to a “Kit Carson” saddle. The early catalogs are over 1,000 pages brimming with everything your heart could desire and more.
Even though this teacher likely didn’t buy her clothes, the Sears, Roebuck catalog showed fashion trends and changes. I investigated 1900 to 1910 and noted that 1908 was the first time Sears showed a woman’s blouse with the front buttons off-set from center.[3] By the 1910 Sears catalog, you see several more versions of the off-set buttons.[4]
It will take much more investigation into this photograph before I can state for certain when it was taken, but I wanted to give you a taste of another genealogical tool used to find our ancestors. In the meantime, it will remain a mystery.
[1]Maureen A. Taylor, Family Photo Detective (Family Tree Books: Cincinnati, 2013).
[2]Ibid., p. 112.
[3]Sears, Roebuck and Co., Fall 1908, #118L, p. 1211; image, Ancestry, “Historic Catalogs of Sears, Roebuck and Co., 1896-1993,” image 1159. Can you get a load of these prices?
[4]Sears, Roebuck and Co., Fall 1908, #121V, p. 148; image, Ancestry, “Historic Catalogs of Sears, Roebuck and Co., 1896-1993,” image 154.
Class from unknown Newark, NJ, school. 1904-1907.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., Fall 1908, #118L, p. 1211; image, Ancestry, “Historic Catalogs of Sears, Roebuck and Co., 1896-1993,” image 1159.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., Fall 1908, #121V, p. 148; image, Ancestry, “Historic Catalogs of Sears, Roebuck and Co., 1896-1993,” image 154.