Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Ainsworth School circa 1913

From the Lester Harms collection.

2014-7-23 lh001
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of E.H.


Handwritten on the back of the original:
Les
old school picture
Ainsworth school
Bliss Shearer and Mr. Sietz teachers
"Les" would be Lester Harms, but I can't tell which of these children is Les.

Based on Bliss Shearer's 1912 high-school portrait, I believe she is in the back row, standing against the clapboards between the two doors.

The photo is undated. I'm not sure what training was required to teach elementary school circa 1912, but it's possible that Bliss spent the 1912/1913 academic year in training. The earliest we know she was teaching was the 1913/1914 year. And it's likely she retired from teaching upon her marriage to Paul Emery in the summer of 1915. So we can date this photo roughly between autumn 1913 and spring 1915.

I have not been able to find out anything about the other teacher, "Mr. Sietz."

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