Academic class at the Forest Grove Indian School

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Description

A posed photograph of Native American students sitting at desks outside of one of the dormitories at the Forest Grove Indian Training School. Various maps, drawings, Christian signs and objects such as a music organ, books, blocks, and a globe are arranged around the students, demonstrating the subjects that the students were being taught. The children are separated by gender and organized by age, with younger students at the front. The actual classroom spaces at the school were indoors. The caption notes that this was number 32 in a series of photographs by I.G. Davidson, a photography studio based in Portland. The back of the photograph reads: "Indian Training School, Forest Grove, Capt. M.C. Wilkinson USA, in charge ." I.G. Davidson photoThe series shows how the school taught the children to behave according to the norms of white society. The Pacific University Archives' copy of this photo is a black-and-white reproduction of the original, which would have been a sepia-toned albumen print.