Role of Education

Accession Number P75-54-N574g, Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection,

Courtesy of the Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

I am drawn to this photo, perhaps because it shows students in the context of their physical environment.  Taken in May of 1923, this class photo shows students at the Curtis Bay School on a concrete retaining wall in front of a building that appears to be made of cinder block.  To my eye, this building could as easily be a factory as a school house.  The Strayer Report describes this school in the following terms: "Inadequate site--Playground 17 square feet--Inadequate fire protection--Impossible fire escape--Inadequate artificial light." (Strayer 368)