Dear Reddit
(Note: I apologize for any shortcomings in my use of the English language. It is not my maternal language. I've tried to explain my request as clear as possible. I hope I have succeeded.)
I'm a Belgian and I've been trying to learn more about a phenomena that happened in Belgium during and short after the first World War. It would seem that all over Belgium school photo's were made in local communities with as destination the United States as thanks to the US for their provided assistance. I believe but have not been able to substantiate that these photo's have been made in waves as part of a coordinated effort. Sometimes towns who are +100 km apart have the same message written on the chalkboards shown on the photo's. Most photo's feature Belgian pupils before the local Belgian school building, possibly a teacher, references to Belgian king Albert I and his wife and a message on a chalkboard.
Thus far there are quite a few pictures with the following message:
To the Americans After the struggle for Right at Work To the pupils of [place in America] The children from [place in Belgium]
Some examples of this can be found here:
There are also pictures with a different message but largely the same setup. The message goes as follows:
As a gift of their gratitude from the Belgian children of [place in Belgium] to the little American of [place in America] 1914-1918
Some examples of this can be seen here:
There are also photo's with other messages. These messages always show gratitude. Sometimes the photos have no messages and are just a group of school children.
Some of these pictures really did reach the US. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum is host to about 30 of these pictures. Library of Congress has about 13 of these pictures and an undetermined amount of these pictures is located in the Hoover Institution archives. However it is more than likely all these pictures were donated by the Hoover family.
There is an indication that the pictures were really sent to the US and addressed to someone. School photo's addressed to the students of Indianapolis, were sent to superintendent of the Indianapolis (public) schools and member of the state board of education Ellis U. Graff. This information is derived from a newspaper article dating October 3rd 1919 in The Indianapolis News (Indiana) which shows such a school photo.
The reason I'm telling you all this is cause I'm hoping to find out where the school photos from the town of Massenhoven, Belgium ended up. These school photo's were addressed to a place called La Fayette, US. Unfortunately there are about 15 places called La Fayette in the United States and the photos do not specify which one.
You can see the Massenhoven photo's here:
Since I'm in Belgium, I've contacted numerous US institutions via e-mail. Archives, libraries, town councils, historical societies, museums ... but I'm unable to locate where the picture of Massenhoven ended up. I'm kinda at the end of my ideas and wanted to try Reddit in the hopes of finding new directions to look in or, even better, find the photos.
There is a chance these photo's ended up in a private album. Again, I believe that Reddit might offer me a good chance in finding those images. Also learning more about where the other various school pictures ended up might help me in my search of learning more about the Massenhoven pictures. I also know that a lot of local places in Belgium would be more then interested to know where their pictures ended up in the United States. Especially considering the upcoming 100th anniversary and the many commemorative events in Belgium.
Thank you for reading and considering my message. I look forward to your replies.
TL:DR, I'm hoping to locate Belgian gratitude school photo's addressed to the US from the town of Massenhoven, Belgium. These photos were taken around or during World War 1 and are part of a phenomena in which places all across Belgium made school photo's as thanks for the American assistance during the war. Learning more about these photo's might help me in locating the Massenhoven ones.
Massenhoven WW1 school photo's: Massenhoven boys school photo: http://i.imgur.com/j441Fqn.jpg Massenhoven girls school photo: http://i.imgur.com/P6ocWhS.jpg
This is completely and utterly fascinating!
Which Lafayettes in America have you contacted people in? Were these photographs primarily being sent to larger cities, like the Indianapolis example? My first thought it that this was Lafayette, IN, because that's home of a big public US university, and a larger city. Next guess would be Lafayette, LA because that is also a big city. The rest you should probably not focus on because they are pretty small places. (Also you can safely ignore any La Fayette/Lafayette differences, Americans are not great at French.)
Unfortunately my search has not yet yielded succes. Tips are still welcome. Feel free to mail them to massenhoven1418[at]hotmail.com
