The school year started this week in Vermont. When I saw a yellow school bus on the road for the first time in months, it occurred to me that I haven’t posted a school photo on the blog in a while. Class photos can be rather somber, but most of the kids in the photo above seem happy. The photo was taken sometime after 1947. As I explained in a recent post, I don’t normally post photos taken after 1940, but this one is too fun not to share. I found it several years ago at Windham Antique Center in Bellows Falls, Vermont. It was tucked into an album with some other unidentified photos from Denmark, which I didn’t buy. The next time I went into the shop, the album was gone.
On the wall behind the kids is a memorial plaque dedicated to members of the Danish Resistance who were killed during the Second World War. The plaque was dedicated in 1947 at Fuglevangsvejens School in Frederiksberg (one of four independent municipalities which make up the City of Copenhagen). At some point Fuglevangsvejens Skole was renamed Skolen ved Bülowsvej.
According to the book Krigens monumenter 1940-1945 (2021) by Anders Bjørnvad, the plaque reads:
Faldne i Danmarks Frihedskamp / Ejnar Grif / 27.11.1919 – 30.1.1945 / Poul Nielsen / 4.1.1906 – 1.5.1941 / Leif Dines Pedersen / 3.12.1921 – 13.3.1945 / Peter Bogstad Mandel / 9.5.1924 – 25.2.1945 / Elever og lærere satte dette minde / 1947
[Fallen in Denmark’s Fight for Freedom … This memorial dedicated by students and teachers / 1947]
I’d guess that the photo was taken within a few years of the installation of the plaque. I haven’t found any recent pictures of it. It may be visible in this photo of a group of teachers outside the school around 1956. Other historical photos of the school can be seen here and a few more here.
The kids have sweet expressions. If they were born around 1940, they’d be in their early eighties now.
Tokens of Companionship 
Lovely to have all this info on it. They all look very happy, well except two of the chaps on the right looking stern 🙂
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I’d love to know what the photographer said! He must have said or done something special to elicit so much delight.
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I figure they’re trying to look cool. 🙂
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Totally. 😉
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As you do!
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Yes, I remember the impulse to look cool in school photos very well!
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A great way to welcome September and a new year of learning!
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Thank you! I’m sure this year is very stressful for parents of young children. Let’s hope kids become eligible for vaccination soon, so they can focus on normal kid things such as learning.
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You are so right about that, Brad!
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I share your hope! This is a very difficult and complex time.
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What a great photo!
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Thank you!! Do you think this is late 1940s, or early 1950s?
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This one’s a clear winner! I’m glad you decided to post it. I just love the expressions on the kids’ faces.
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Thank you, Liz! Strangely, I don’t remember school ever being as fun as this.
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Living through World War II as a child must have been very stressful, but the kids look like they ended up alright!
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I wonder how much they understood. These kids were pretty young, and were probably sheltered from the worst of it.
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They are all adorable! I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like to grow up during WWII.
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Kids are pretty adaptable. Considering our current pandemic, many people worry about the long-term psychological effects it might have on kids. I tend to think most will be just fine, but we may not know for a while.
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I was wondering the same.
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Most of them are definitely having a grand time! Must have been a wonderful photographer 😁
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Some photographers specialized in portraits of kids. I always wonder if they really had a knack or just claimed to. This one clearly had a knack!
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Such a sweet and delightful picture. The children do indeed look so happy, and I love the girls with their arms around each other.
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It’s so nice to see kids expressing their affection for each other in such an uninhibited way. At least the girls are uninhibited.
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Absolutely delightful! I enjoy all their different poses and expressions. Nice that the photographer wasn’t looking for the typical staid uniformity. 🙂
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It’s as if the photographer’s goal was to capture childish joy and innocence, which would be harder if these kids were older and more guarded.
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Don’t see many school groups looking so cheerful! Interesting that there’s a Wikipedia page for one of those young men lost in the resistance.
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Yes, I wondered why there was a page for him but not the others. Interestingly, the book I quoted about war monuments questions whether all the memorials should be maintained in perpetuity. I suppose now, with the internet, there are other ways to memorialize those who were lost.
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Girls: holding hands, arms interlinked, or hugging. Boys: arms folded!
✨🙏🕉🌱🌿🌳🌻💚🕊☯🐉✨
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It makes you wonder if any of the boys were friends. At least they weren’t afraid to smile. I also wonder if young girls are more inhibited about showing affection for each other today than they were then.
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I was wondering if the boys had been instructed to fold their arms – it looks like they are (almost) all doing so. Maybe that was just the done thing for lads there and then.
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You must be right. I have nothing against folded arms, but to see them all doing it is rather strange.
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That is certainly a very cheery school photo – lovely!
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Thank you, Jane! School photos are always interesting, and this one is especially fun.
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What a great photo! So much joy in the expressions! I love the linked hands and arms (girls), and the posturing of the boys (crossed arms, attempts at serious countenances); perfect for their ages. The photographer did an awesome job. I think my favorite child, though, is the boy on the left, front row; so stylish (those pants, those socks!), coyly hiding behind the curls of the pretty girl next to him. I think he had a crush on her.
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Funny, I assumed that was a girl! Probably because of the center parting of the child’s hair (and arms not folded). The pants suggest a boy, but maybe a girl could have worn them, too. That would be interesting to know!
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I still have my class photo from first grade; that would have been 1951. It’s remarkable to see the similarities between this photo and mine. The clothing is different, of course, but our expressions were much the same, and I still remember the occasion as being quite a bit of fun. It’s interesting to see the personalities shining through, too. Some of these kids brought certain of my classmates to mind because of those expressions; I see the girl at the far left in the second row down and think, “Janet Miller.” And in the front row? The girl fifth from the right with her hands clasped in her lap? That’s Colleen, who had to be bribed to sit for the photo!
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I bet your first-grade photo is really cute, Linda! The girl who looks like Janet Miller is particularly adorable. If you ever feel inclined to share your photo on your blog, I’d love to see it. I don’t remember my class photos being much fun. Maybe I was the Colleen of the class, haha!
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Love the cheeky expression some of them have. I can also imagine one kid folding his arms and others deciding to follow.
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Yes, I can easily imagine one boy announcing “Boys fold their arms!” and the others going along with it because no one wanted to stand out. 😄
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This is a marvellous photo. It’s great to see all these personalities.
This one made my day. 🙂
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Thanks so much, Ruth! Such genuinely happy smiles are rare. I should probably create a “Smiles” tag for the blog. 😉
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Thank you!
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