33 Vintage First-Day-Of-School Photos

A young boy and girl on the way to school for the start of a new term in the 1920s.

A girl's first day of school in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, circa 1921.

A mother takes her daughter by the hand as they head to school in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

Japanese children in traditional garb start school in California in 1927.

A 5-year-old girl shows off her books after her first day of kindergarten, circa 1929.

Children on their way home from school, with book bags strapped on their backs, after the first day of classes in Germany, circa 1930.

A young Australian boy stares into a classroom already full of students, circa 1930.

Students in France greet a photographer at the start of a new term by shaking their schoolbags in 1932.

Parents and their children are seen outside a school in Tokyo in the early 20th century.

During World War II, Parisian students line up a courtyard on the first day of classes.

A little boy in Paris says goodbye to his mother outside a school in September 1945.

Joyce Payne and Vincent Baker have fun depicting their teacher at a school in New York's Harlem community on Sep. 13, 1948.

In 1948, a young girl shares a moment with her mother outside the Lucy D. Anthony school in Madison, New Jersey.

As their instruction begins in 1948, students at the Lucy D. Anthony school examine a small turtle.

Wide-eyed children listening to fairy-tales on their first school day in 1949.

Nap-time on the first day in 1949.

Students eagerly vie to be called on at a New York school, circa 1950.

Teacher Agnes Bolton stands in the schoolhouse door on the first day of classes for her only pupil, Jimmy MacLellan, in Scotland, circa 1950.

Children getting to know their new teacher, circa 1950.

Richard Sharp on his first day at the St. Nicholas County Primary School in Loughton, England, circa 1952.

Five-year-old Howard Crafter has a tough time adjusting at the St. Nicholas County school, also circa 1952.

Children hard at work on Sept. 15, 1959.

Delores York heads off for her first day at a previously all-white school in September 1960 in Arkansas.

Two brothers about to start the new school year, circa 1964.

Mary Lynch, an assistant principal at a school in Boston's Roxbury community, leads first graders to a school in the city's North End on Sept. 6, 1967. Operation Exodus, a voluntary busing program organized by Roxbury parents, transported students from overcrowded schools in predominantly black neighborhoods to schools in predominantly white neighborhoods that had vacant seats.

Children walk up a flight of stairs to attend a newly desegregated school in Berkeley, California, in 1968.

Jim Hard (left) of Framingham, Massachusetts, gets acquainted with Joseph Reis of the Roxbury neighborhood at the Trotter School in Boston on Sept. 3, 1969.

Canadian kindergarten teacher Trisha Langley teaching her first lessons on Sept. 7, 1971.

Students at the Mary E. Curley School in Boston on Sept. 8, 1975.

Maranda Francisco seems taken aback by a classmate's antics on Sept. 20, 1987.

Students line up at the Side Creek Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado, on Aug. 11, 1987.

Schools kids arrive at Ellis Elementary School in Denver on Aug. 31, 1988.

Five-year-old Dylan O' Sullivan appears determined to make it a good year as he heads into class in Denver on Aug. 30, 1989.