This vintage photograph features a fourth grade class from a school in Berwick, Pennsylvania. I suggest to viewers that they put this photograph under magnification and be prepared for a trip back to a 1920 school classroom. I know that the students are in the fourth grade because it is written on the chalk board. The board also reveals that the teacher is named Miss Drake and that the date of the photograph was April 20th, 1920. There is a second teacher in the classroom. The class includes boys and girls. The kids dressed up for their portrait. The boys are wearing neck ties and the girls are also dressed up. Many of the girls have bows in their hair. Note the old style desks, the piled books, the American Flag, the Red Cross poster, and the old style calendar. It is particularly interesting to observe that all the seated children have their hands clasped and resting on their desk. Looks just like the discipline commonly seen in American schools today; or maybe not. The photographer of this image is the Lowry studio which was located in Berwick. The name of the studio is embossed on the bottom right hand corner of the mat. Mr. Lowry wrote an article in Abel’s Photography Weekly (1922) which attempts to answer the burning question “Is the Customer Always Right?”. Berwick is about 28 miles southwest of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Among the town’s claims to fame is that it is the place where the Wise Potato Chip Company was founded in 1921.This photograph is from the post cabinet card era and it measures 10″ x 8″. SOLD
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 