Pupils at Lake City School 28 March 1901. Mrs. Belle Heflur, Teacher. Lake City, Barber County, Kansas.
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Photo courtesy of Carol Lake Rogers
Pupils at Lake City School 28 March 1901. Mrs. Belle Heflur, Teacher. Lake City, Barber County, Kansas.
View a much larger image of this photograph in a new browser window.
Photo courtesy of Carol Lake Rogers
At right: Detail of a photo of pupils at Lake City School, Lake City, Barber County, Kansas.This detail from the photograph shows a young boy in "ethnic dress", which leads me to suspect that he and his family were immigrants and that he is dressed in a traditional "costume" from his native land - his "Sunday / Go-To-Meetings" wardrobe that a child from a respectable family in the "old country", whatever country that might have been, would have worn for formal occasions such as having a school photograph taken.
This boy, all decked out in what appears to be a lace shoulderpiece, doesn't look very happy in the photo. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he had been "picked on" by his "school chums" for his "different" attire both before and after the photo was taken.
I think it is probable that an erudite person familiar with national and ethnic clothing styles could identify the country this child's parents came from with a single glance at the clothing he is wearing in this photograph.
All in all, I think this apparently unhappy child would have much preferred wearing a pair of "good old American" overalls to school on the day this photograph was taken, but that his parents insisted on him "dressing up" for the photograph.
Also note, in this larger version of the photograph that some girls are wearing dresses which appear to be made from the same pattern and bolt of cloth, thus inferring that they are sisters, as girl children of this time and place ordinarily wore dresses made by their mothers, and it was common for girls from the same family to have dresses made from the same bolt of cloth.
For example, note the two girls in the left of the back row of this photo: note that not only do their facial features appear to be familiar, but their dresses appear to be made of identical patterned cloth, which was no doubt from the same bolt of cloth.
While I am not asserting that all girls dressed in clothing made of identical patterned cloth who appear in the same photograph are invariably sisters, which is not invariably true because mothers from different families may have purchased enough material for their daughter's dress from a bolt of cloth sold at a local store, identical dress cloth patterns are certainly worth considering as a possible clue to familial relationships, as some mothers would buy an entire bolt of cloth at once and, over the years, one can expect to see family members of both sexes wearing dresses or shirts made of that cloth in family photographs.
-- Comment by Jerry Ferrin, 11 January 2007.