This week's theme picture tries to steer us in the direction of boys, libraries and/or books. With a little fantasy subjects such as old buildings and central heatings come to mind. I can't connect any of these notions to any of the numerous photo's stored -literally- in my shoe box archive. Apparently I suffer from subconscious Sepia Saturday thoughts during nighttime. Because when I woke up this morning the word 'education' popped up and I had to think about a number of old school photo's I have. And old school photo's by definition have been taken in old buildings. With a sigh of relief I got out of bed and started this post. I have to be honest here, I had breakfast first. Just in case you would worry about that.
 |
| Nicolaas Orie (1897-1977) bottom row, third from the left |
This picture shows my wife's paternal grandfather Nicolaas Orie in grammar school. He was born in the village of Loosduinen near The Hague. We estimate that he is about 10 years old here. What strikes me most in this picture is his serious look. In fact many of his fellow pupils show a similar expression. There are only one or two faces where a smile can be detected. That is not very surprising if you realize that Nicolaas was the eldest of nine children. So I assume he had to earn his keep and probably more. Likely other boys had similar duties.
Seven boys are wearing the type of knotted tie that I have seen recently in someone else's blog post; I forgot who that was, sorry. Possibly that picture has been made in the same time frame.
No girls in this picture! A possible reason can be that Nicolaas was on a Roman Catholic school with separate classes for girls.
 |
| Johanna Huberta de Langen (*1917) second row, third from the right |
Possibly because of the lamp that hangs from the ceiling, I find this a typical 20s classroom. In it is my mother. I estimate she is 6 or 7 years old here so the photo can be dated around 1923/24. The school is the Herman Bavinckschool in the Cypresstraat, The Hague. Compared to the first picture this seems like a fairly large class, even by today's standards: 34 students of which 16 girls. (In Nicolaas' class I count 24 pupils.) In total there are 9 boys wearing a navy type blouse.
 |
| Lena Bakker (1880-1959), see arrow |
I had to put the pieces of this picture together, literally. It shows my paternal grandmother when she was approx 10 years old. So we are talking 1890 here. Lena was born in Heenvliet, a small village in the south of the province of South Holland. So I presume she went to school there as well. The thing that strikes me most is the resemblance to her grandchild Marijke. In total I see 35 pupils and one teacher. Possibly there are a few lady teachers in the middle of the photo. If that is so, this may be the complete population of this village school.
In case you wonder where the red arrow came from, my father put it there. He used this picture for a presentation when his parents had been married 25 years in 1938. He apparently felt the need to point out to his audience who his mother was.
Curious to see more kids or books or..., go to Sepia Saturday and enjoy yourself.
