These are photos I've picked up through the years, of school children posing with their classmates and teachers. I call them class photos, but it's obvious that for some of them at least, they show the entire school, probably a one-room school house. Only one of them has an identifying sign: Witt, Illinois, which is a small town of under 1,000 people in south central Illinois. Another has a sign which says 'Rainey School October 3, 1919' and 'W.A. Ellerman Teacher'. A little research indicates that this school was in St. Clair County, Wisconsin. One of the photos shows the kids in their classroom, formally dressed in middy suits or dresses, with their teacher bending down to help one clueless student. It looks like a science class, with butterflies and animal specimens in a cupboard.
These photos all look like they were taken in the late 'teens and 'twenties. I love looking at the cute solemn faces- some look full of mischief, others look bored, or shy, or innocent. A few look anything but! I love to try to imagine what their lives were like, growing up during the twenties and into the Depression and World War II. Probably many of these boys fought in that war, and probably some of them never came home.
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