Vintage High School Photos From The 1950s Show How Different Life Was Then Compared To Now

Here’s that staple of 1950s high schools: the drum majorette troupe. These ones are representing the Oak Ridge High School. Oak Ridge and its school have a particular, and secretive, back-story. Both city and school were founded during WWII by the Army Corps of Engineers. Its scientists were working on the Manhattan Project — the massive confidential research effort that went into the manufacture of atomic bombs.

It’s 1950, and we’re at the Monterey Union High School in the Californian city of that name. The occasion is a dance held in the school gym, and it looks like it was time for a slow number. The stylish outfits and smart hairstyles resolutely scream 1950s. We wonder how many of the dancing couples ended up as long-term items?

When we first uncovered this bizarre shot from 1953, we thought we’d stumbled across an old image of a fun fair. But we were entirely wrong. In fact, this is a deadly serious driver’s ed class. Sat in the weird immobile cars, these students of New York’s Brooklyn High School are looking at a screen showing a highway with traffic. The stationary vehicles were Aetna Drivotrainers. How effective this method of learning to drive was remains on open question.

These beautifully scrubbed and fastidiously dressed students hang out in front of their unidentified alma mater. A white blazer, Argyle socks, a bow-tie, and a plaid dress make for a flawless picture. We have to ask: was this photograph posed for the school prospectus? That’d explain the almost painful perfection of the image.

The nun sitting at the bureau rather gives the game away — this is a Catholic high school. She’s Sister Marcia Louise, the school is Mount St. Mary College, and the year is 1952. As the instruments hint, the school’s the venue for a two-day Catholic music festival. We can only hope that young Arthur Ruiz doesn’t have to wield that tuba for the entire 48 hours.

Looking notably casual, this bunch of students is engaged in that great old tradition: lunch in the school cafeteria. It's difficult to see exactly what’s on the menu, though fresh fruit appears to figure prominently. An apple, an orange, and a banana are all clearly visible. And this was decades before we were all told to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. So kudos for the healthy diet.

It’s graduation day at Horace Greeley High School in New York in 1954. To our eyes, there’s something strangely sinister about all the male students being garbed head-to-toe in black while the females wear all-white. Maybe it’s just us. In any case, there’s probably an entirely innocent explanation, perhaps related to some venerable tradition.

Two dapper-looking students stroll through their high school campus sometime in the 1950s. Others in the background concentrate on mingling. And how cute is the young woman’s lunch box? Her male companion can only look on in admiration. But we’ve got our eyes on his penny loafers. Probably Bass Weejuns, we’d warrant.

It’s the keenly contested Pasadena High Schools Badminton Tournament, 1952 vintage. Carlene Hester has just thrashed the shuttlecock over the net as her partner in this doubles match, Gwen Garsey, looks on. Both 15, the two girls from Eliot Junior High School took this match to win the female doubles’ title.

Here’s a 1951 scene from Oak Ridge High School in Tennessee. Whether it’s the end of the school day or the students are transferring from one class to another, we don’t know. Photographer Ed Westcott of the Army Corps of Engineers captured this shot. He was an official snapper for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge and he also took images of everyday life in the city.

From the left, we’re looking at Dave Breidenthal, John Lasalandra, and George Adams blasting away on their bassoons. They were playing at the annual All-City Orchestra concert at LA’s Hollywood High School Auditorium in 1957. The orchestra, comprised of more than 100 musicians, was drawn from junior and senior highs throughout the city. Breidenthal went on to become the LA Philharmonic’s lead bassoonist.

Here we have five young women with their proud parents as they graduate from Villa Notre Dame in the Canadian city of Callandar, Ontario, during 1952. But for one thing, this would perhaps be a fairly humdrum snap. That one thing? These five students — Marie, Cecile, Annette, Emilie and Yvonne — were the famed Dionne quintuplets. According to Time magazine, in the days before fertility treatment, the chance of a successful identical quintuplets birth was one in 57 million.

Yes, it’s the dawn of the space age. “They’ll whirl off into space,” as the original caption from 1954 had it. But they aren’t really astronauts, as you might have guessed. In fact, they were dancers with the San Pedro Community Ballet of LA posing in a promo shot for a ballet called Dark Star. This work apparently portrayed what a space flight to Mars would be like.

Brandishing her racquet, student Joan Gilliam of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, looks at a trophy with apparent skepticism. But she had every right to be thoroughly proud, since she’d won the East Tennessee High School Women’s Tennis Singles Championship. Perhaps she couldn’t believe that she’d managed to achieve that monumental feat.

Bobby Cain and JoAnn Allen, seen here in 1956 after attending school, were both members of a group of African-American kids known as the Clinton 12. They hit the headlines because they attended the first school to be desegregated in the southern states. That was Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee.

It has to be said that the styles these students were wearing back in 1950 do rather make them look as if they’re dressed up as their parents. But they aren’t, and, despite the evident lack of glee on their faces, they’re on a night out at a high school dance at California’s Monterey Union High School. Let’s just hope that the fun kicked off later.

It’s that staple of just about all team sports: the huddle. The sport here is basketball, and the coach is imparting words of wisdom to his team. There's one thing we’ve always wondered, though: do these pep talks actually have any influence on sporting performance? Difficult to prove one way or another. But we wouldn’t want to put the coaches out of a job.

These students at an unnamed high school look commendably engrossed in their studies. Perhaps they were simply on their best behavior because of the camera pointing at them. It’s certainly great to see all those bright colors. As most photos from the 1950s were shot in black and white, it’s all too easy to believe that it was a gloomy, grey-toned world.

It’s 1958, and these are teachers and students at the Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, Maryland. The school was founded for the education of African-American students and could trace its roots back to 1885. Right up until 1920, Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington Junior were the only two schools offering anything above elementary level teaching for Baltimore’s African-Americans.

This athletic young woman spins her baton and performs an impressive leap, framing the big bass drum with her outstretched legs. The shot’s from 1954 and it shows the school band musicians of Hempstead High School. Unfortunately, the surviving documentation for this shot is sadly lacking, so we don’t know if we’re looking at the Hempstead High in Texas, Iowa, or New York.

These 1950s fashions are simply extraordinary. The three students are modeling high school cheerleader outfits with real panache. Difficult to say which is our favorite. The one in the middle with the stylized cowgirl outfit certainly catches the eye. The right-hand model also offers much to admire. But the one on the left with the musical motifs is the winner for us.

Now we’re in Australia for this dramatic tableau, at the Hyde Park War Memorial in North Sydney to be precise. These students from the boys and girls high schools of North Sydney were performing Shakespeare’s Richard II before an audience of some 2,000. Apparently, the production even included live horses, or “richly caparisoned steeds” as the original 1959 caption had it.

Here’s a fine parade of high school students in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the Independence Day celebrations of 1954. The marching band, led by a baton-twirling majorette, presents a fine spectacle at this well-attended July 4th festival. The musicians’ extravagant headgear and immaculate uniforms complete the colorful display.

All aboard! These exuberant students in celebratory mood in 1958 are from LA’s Pasadena High School. They’re traveling by railroad to San Bernardino to celebrate a momentous milestone: their graduation day. Tom Polansky would seem to have been the class clown, as he leans out of the carriage window and makes a grab for his buddy’s ticket.

This image of an integrated classroom scene was taken in 1955 at Oak Ridge High School in Tennessee. The order for integrated tuition came from an unusual authority: the Atomic Energy Commission. That was because Oak Ridge was the location of an important nuclear weapons research facility, and so its affairs were governed by the Commission.

What could be more romantic than a couple spooning ice cream soda into each other’s mouths? Not much, we’d say. It’s round about 1955, and these two unidentified students from Chester, Pennsylvania, are at a high school dance. We can’t help but wonder: what did the future hold for the pair? A poignant thought.

So there’s some background to the event we see here. It’s a dance at the Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York, in 1956. Apparently, though, this event was preceded a by a lengthy debate on a thorny question. That was: should alcoholic beverages be served at the hop? Ultimately, the answer was “no.” Which is why these two are drinking Cokes.

This is probably just about as high-tech as it got back in 1958. It’s a course in “mechanical and theoretical aspects of television,” as the original caption put it. Organizers selected high-achieving students from all over the U.S. and Canada to take part. Northwestern University’s National High School Institute hosted the instructional. Presumably, this was an early precursor to what we’d today call media studies.

This image appeared in the Los Angeles Examiner in 1952 and it shows a group of high school kids lounging atop of what looks like a heap of trash. But, in fact, it’s the result of a paper drive by students from LA’s Westchester High School. Collecting old newspapers, comics, and magazines to sell on was a popular fundraising technique in the 1950s. But modern recycling practices have more or less made the paper drive redundant.

This impressive synchronized leap was captured in 1959. The students are taking part in the fourth yearly cheerleading competition at Fordham University’s gymnasium in the Bronx, New York. We wonder if this dynamic performance was enough to win the competition for this troupe. Sadly, the answer to that question’s lost in the mists of time.

All we know about this shot for sure is that it was taken at a school in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during the 1950s. But we can say with confidence that this is a class in what was once known as domestic science. Unreformed attitudes towards girls and women were rife in the 1950s, so teaching female students how to be housewives seemed perfectly normal back then. Thank heavens things have changed over the decades.

What a splendid collection of vintage automobiles! The year’s 1952, and these Los Angeles students of Santa Monica City College’s Alpha Sigma Honor Society are cleaning cars to raise money. The proceeds, from a bi-annual car wash and cake sale, went towards supporting a young Native American from the Navajo people through high school.

Looks like these two football coaches, Messrs Chaney and Orlando, have some crucial information for the team. These students from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, were members of the Jefferson High School Football Squad. As you can see, helmet technology’s come a long way in the past 70 years or so. Thank goodness for that.

So what could be making these students so jubilant? School closures in the San Pedro district of LA, that’s what. Richard Dahl, in the letterman jacket, has just told his two buddies Martin Mezin and Paul Lookinland the good news, which is why the pair are jumping for joy. Why the closures? Apparently because roads were “travel blocked,” meaning teachers couldn’t make it into school.

The glowering sky above her is having no dampening effect whatsoever on this flag waver’s enthusiasm. She’s Gilda Casella, a student at Warren Easton High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. The year’s 1954, and Gilda’s brandishing that flag with what can only be described as the merry abandon of youth.

These three intimidating guys from the Oak Ridge High School Boxing Team look ready for a rumble. Of course, nowadays we’re a lot more conscious of the potential dangers of boxing, particularly with regard to concussions and potential brain damage. Which means that far fewer parents want to see their children fighting in the ring.

It’s breakfast time for these happy campers, seniors from Littleton High School in Colorado. And it looks like one of the students has got the bacon and sausage cooking nicely on a portable grill. Another serenades the party with his guitar. According to The Denver Post, which published this snap, even though the site was near the school, the guys still managed to be late for class.

The Los Angeles Examiner published this photo of a hot rod jamboree at LA’s Hamilton High School in 1951. So the uniformed officer, instead of giving the driver a ticket, is presenting him with a trophy. What exactly the student was honored for, we don’t know. But his car looks pretty cool, so perhaps that was the reason.

We’re at the Northwestern University’s National High School Institute in Evanston, Illinois, and these students are in a journalism course. But there isn’t a smartphone or a laptop to be seen. Any modern journalist would be at a complete loss. Professor Floyd G. Tarpan’s the man checking the world-be reporters’ work.

It’s 1952, and these students at LA’s Roosevelt High School aren’t hunched up on the floor because they’ve been traumatized by the mathematical horrors of calculus. Actually, they’re practicing their disaster drill. Since it’s the height of the Cold War, the catastrophe might be a Soviet nuclear attack. On the other hand, as they’re in Los Angeles, it could be a major quake. How much this pose would protect them from either is a moot point.

Along with attending high school, shopping in the 1950s would seem almost alien to most people today. We’re in the millinery department of a branch of chain store Marks & Spencer in 1955 and some discerning customers are considering hats. Marks & Spencer was a British staple for mid-market but high-quality clothing — and it’s still going strong today. It can trace its origins back to 1884 when Michael Marks opened a penny bazaar in the northern English city of Leeds.

It seems that puppies were very affordable back in 1957, at least in this particular pet shop. For just $3, you could take home your very own young hound. The two youngsters look like they’re more than keen to take ownership of one of those pooches. Naturally, they won’t be footing the dog-food bills. 

The cars in the foreground rather steal the show in this shot of the Pasadena, CA, branch of the J.W. Robinson chain. The uncompromisingly modernist building has an unfortunate concrete-bunker look to it. Joseph Winchester Robinson founded the business in 1883 with his Boston Dry Goods Store. Sadly, Robinsons-May — as it later became known — was wiped off the retail map in 2006. 

This smartly dressed lady pushing her trolley is clearly on a mission to buy some cleaning products. She’s reaching out for some Twinkle copper cleaner, a brand that’s still on the market today. Other names in the shot that have stood the test of time include Palmolive, Drano, and Lifebuoy. All of this just goes to prove that there’s a persistent demand for sanitizing merchandise. 

Fins, fins, and more fins! Yes, cars had the sharpest of tails back in the 1950s. This superb collection of automobiles is sitting on the front lot of Ralph Pool’s flamboyant showroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There, you could buy used and new models of these splendid examples of mid-century automotive styling. Although they may be more advanced technically, today’s cars just can’t match these for sheer panache.

This formidable cash register really reminds us that things have moved on a bit in the world of shopping over the last seven decades or so. This 1950s cashier had to read the price of each item and enter it into the till — no convenient scanning of barcodes here. At least things had progressed from having to add up with pencil and paper.

Here’s a selection of the finest domestic technology available to prosperous Americans in 1957. A couple looks on in awe, presumably trying to decide which home comfort to buy next. A TV set or a four-ring electric stove? Perhaps a washing machine’s more their thing. This display is in a well-stocked store in Denver, CO.

This shot of a bustling fruit market on a street in the Irish capital is from 1955. Looks like the Dubliners had little difficulty in finding their five-a-day back then. The image was originally published in the long-defunct British weekly magazine Picture Post. It shut up shop in 1957 after nearly 20 years of publication.

We’re in Liverpool, England, it’s 1955, and this kind woman is helping Tommy de Souza pick gifts for his family, residents of the far-flung Pakistani city of Karachi. De Souza is a mariner and he’s staying at a seaman’s hostel in the English port city. The Roman Catholic-run hostel offered an unusual service: women titled hostesses helped the residents to navigate Liverpool’s streets and shops. 

The location is Wangfujing Street in the Chinese capital — then known to us as Peking — and the year is 1955. It’s a state-owned shop, just like all stores were back in the days of Communist supremo Chairman Mao. At least there didn’t appear to be any shortage of socks in the department store. Of course, in modern China, commercial enterprise has been given a much freer rein. Today, Wangfujing Street is one of Beijing’s busiest shopping destinations.

Wooden clogs. Surely we must be in the Netherlands? Nope. But we are in Holland, although this one happens to be in Michigan. The city got its name because it was founded by Dutch immigrants in 1847. Back in the 1950s, homeland traditions including clog dancing were still observed. In fact, the dancing goes on to this day at the annual Tulip Time Festival. 

People forget that wearing a headscarf was common in 1950s Britain and America. These two women are in an HMV record shop in England’s capital city, perusing the vinyl albums. Of course, there was no music streaming or downloads back then. You bought your plastic disc and took it home to play on your record player, or even your old-school gramophone. It all sounds a bit quaint now, even though vinyl is today enjoying a niche revival. 

Two cheerful ladies smile for the camera in a sumptuously stocked bakery store in Minneapolis, MN. They’re Lenore Richards and the incredibly appropriately named Nola Treat. Customers, we’d venture, may have made a quip or two about her name since she sold, well, treats. And the business was actually named the Richards Treat Cafeteria. Of course Lenore and Nola, both previously home economics professors, were the proprietors. 

There were no electronic scales back in the early 1950s. Or, at least, there weren’t in this West German shop where an assistant is measuring out what looks like sugar using a mechanical scale. Let’s hope the boss isn’t watching, or there might be complaints about the sugar that’s spilling over the mouth of the bag. 

A shop assistant changes a price tag in Macy’s famous store in the Big Apple. She’s doing that because her employer is engaged in a price war with the rival Gimbel Brothers. Macy’s cut price tags on almost 6,000 lines to undersell its competitor, but Gimbels retaliated with a price reduction of its own. This in turn forced Macy’s to lower its asking prices yet again. Retail — it’s a dog-eat-dog world.

Star of stage and screen, Doris Day seems to be in the market for some brightly colored flowerpots. She’s perhaps not quite the household name today that she was back in the 1950s and ‘60s when she was one of Hollywood’s hottest tickets. Ask your grandparents, they should be able to tell you all about her.

We’re in Scotland’s second city, Glasgow, and this woman has decided to buy some flowers. Judging by the drifts of bright-yellow daffodils, it must be springtime. The florist is in the city’s Victorian downtown on the corner of St. Vincent Street and Renfield Street. Sadly, there are no flowers for sale at this site now. 

Looks like it was a serious business for this British woman choosing a washing machine back in 1955. The location is the flagship Selfridges department store in central London’s premier shopping location, Oxford Street. The renowned store opened in 1909 but it would be the 1920s before building work was completed. Still in business today, it occupies an entire city block. 

This hole-in-the-wall shop is in the English town of Southend-on-Sea, on the north coast of the Thames estuary about 35 miles downriver from London. The Essex town was a popular seaside resort in the 1950s, as you can see from the beach paraphernalia, sunhats, and cotton candy on sale here. That last item was better known to locals as candy floss, of course. Southend is perhaps not as popular as it once was, but Londoners seeking sea air still visit in numbers today. 

Two women in fur stoles gaze admiringly at a frock proudly displayed by a third. It’s 1958, and the threesome are on a shopping trip at the Daniel Freeman Auxiliary store in Los Angeles. The original caption tells us that the gown was an “apricot-colored strapless evening dress.” The price tag was $450, a wallet-busting sum back in the 1950s. 

Here we are in a grand store in 1958 in the Italian city of Milan. We’re in the children’s music department and the miniaturized instruments, including an array of tiny pianos, are unbearably cute. Although given the choice, we probably wouldn’t buy the drum kit for junior. Unless it comes with free ear plugs, that is... 

It’s sale time at Ohrbach's department store in L.A. in 1953. Judging by the unruly crowd mobbing the sales counter, things are beginning to get just a little bit out of hand. We can only imagine that the bargains must have been absolutely irresistible to provoke this unseemly scuffle. In any case, you won’t see scenes like this at Ohrbach’s today. The business went belly-up in 1987. 

Skeptical-looking Londoners examine the produce on a street stall at the city center’s Covent Garden Market in 1950. This fruit and vegetable market got going in the 17th century, not long after the 1666 Great Fire of London. The market was relocated in 1974 to a south London site, but the buildings were preserved and today it’s one of the British capital’s premier tourist and shopping destinations.

Presumably, the photographer had full permission to shoot in the women’s fitting room at this department store in the Italian city of Venice. The four women are living exemplars of the understated but incomparably chic Italian style of the 1950s. And of course, over the years few countries have influenced international fashion more than Italy.

This elegant-looking emporium is the F.W. Nissen jewelry store in the Australian city of Brisbane. You can just about spot some Christmas decorations suspended from the ceiling. Given the season, no doubt the shop owners were eagerly anticipating some brisk business. The Queensland store was a family-owned concern, and it designed and made pieces of jewelry as well as sold them. 

This dramatically lit clothing store in Berlin — the side overseen by the Allied powers, that is — is seen in a photo from 1956. Bernward Leineweber, a master tailor, and his wife Mary founded the business back in 1888, offering off-the-peg men’s apparel. But you won’t find any branches of the store today — they were all closed by 1993. 

That’s a lot of skis. We’re in the Gart Brothers Sporting Goods emporium on Denver’s Larimer Street in 1954, and the man on the left is ski department manager Bill Gart. Nathan Gart founded the sports goods business in 1928. Hamming it up for the camera with the heap of skis is Robert W. “Red” Fenwick of The Denver Post newspaper flanked by another of the Garts, Nate.

This is Ted Hustead’s drugstore in Wall, South Dakota, pictured in 1950. Well-known as Wall Drug, Hustead bought the business in 1931 and it thrived under his ownership, becoming especially famous for its freshly baked doughnuts and free ice water. It also specialized in memorabilia celebrating the adjacent Badlands.

These coaches are not for transporting the good citizens of Burford in the English county of Oxfordshire. That’s where this image of the three buses was captured in the summer of 1956. No, these are in fact mobile shops. In the days when there were no superstores and car ownership was much rarer, the British grocery shop went to the customers, especially in rural districts. 

Here’s a charming snap of two women window shopping in Hollywood. No, not that Hollywood. This is Hollywood in Broward County, FL. It’s a charming seaside town but has never, as far as we know, been an important center for the moving picture industry. But apparently, it was a hotspot for window-shopping back in 1955 when this image was captured.

It’s sometime in the mid-1950s, and we’re visiting the Flash Records store in L.A., undoubtedly one of the city’s hippest locations. African-American businessman Charlie Reynolds founded the store at 623 East Vernon Avenue. He even dabbled in the production side, releasing R&B, soul, and doo-wop tracks. Sadly, the store is long gone, but you can still find an album titled The Flash Records Story.

Look at all those hams! Not to mention the abundance of salamis of all kinds hanging from this butcher’s stand. The setting is an indoor market in the Italian city of Parma, famous, of course, for its specialty ham, cut paper-thin for preference. The delicacy is said to date back more than 2,000 years to Roman times. 

When this shot was taken in May 1955, this latest branch of the Republic Drug Company had just opened. The chain of stores traded in Denver, CO, and this latest outlet had opened in the city’s Chaffee Park mall. Speaking to The Denver Post, Republic Drug president Tom Doke said that about 18,000 customers had thronged the new store on its first day of business.

There was a choice selection of used goods for sale at the Maxwell Street Market in Chicago in 1954. Everything from lamps to a child’s tricycle and a pair of crutches all awaited the appearance of the right buyer. This street emporium had been going on for a long time when this photo was taken — since at least 1847. And you can still hunt for a bargain there today on alternate Sundays. 

It would probably be quicker to describe what was not for sale at this branch of Walgreens on Broadway in Denver, CO, than to list the inventory. Not long before this photo from 1956, the store had been remodeled. Yet it still seems to be crammed to overcrowding with an extraordinary assortment of goods. 

Meat from the back of a van parked on a street corner? Sounds like a terrible idea. But back in the 1950s, it was a normal sight in Scotland. These shoppers are buying some meat from their friendly butcher, Mr. J. D. McFarland, in 1955. His business was based in Liddesdale Square on the edge of Glasgow. There’s still a butcher there today, but it belongs to Alex Cameron. Perhaps he bought it from McFarland?

This looks very far from a pleasurable retail experience. Hopefully, the discounts on offer compensated for that. These frantic shoppers are in Pontings department store in the Kensington district of London, England, in 1953. Apparently, a rival store had gone out of business, and Pontings had acquired some of its men’s underwear stock to sell at bargain-basement prices. 

We’ll quote directly from the original photo caption from this 1951 shot of a supermarket in Beloit, Wisconsin. Apparently this store was “one of the first to incorporate washing and drying machines so the busy housewife can provide clean clothes and the makings for a good dinner for her family all in one stop.” How grateful those 1950s women must have been. 

Kim Hunter is probably best remembered for her role as Zira in The Planet of the Apes and its sequels. But she’s not engaged in any monkey business here — she’s out shopping with her two children, buying produce from a street stand. It’s a summer’s day in 1956 and the location is Bleecker Street in Lower Manhattan.

So why is this fellow lugging a TV along the street on his back? Has he just looted it? We’re glad to say that the answer is "no." Harold Hartman, for it is he, was a law-abiding citizen who scored an excellent bargain at the store’s annual Birthday Sale in the U.S. capital in 1958. Apparently, he paid just $1.01 for his set!