While the outfits, books, bags and hairstyles may have changed, the excitement surrounding going back to school, making new friends and learning new things seems timeless.
Take a look at these lovely photos from HuffPost to see how the first day of school has changed from the past century.
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| A young boy and girl on the way to school for the start of a new term in the 1920s |
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| A girl's first day of school in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, circa 1921 |
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| A 5-year-old girl shows off her books after her first day of kindergarten, circa 1929 |
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| A mother takes her daughter by the hand as they head to school in the late 1920s or early 1930s |
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| A young Australian boy stares into a classroom already full of students, circa 1930 |
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| Children on their way home from school, with book bags strapped on their backs, after the first day of classes in Germany, circa 1930 |
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| Parents and their children are seen outside a school in Tokyo in the early 20th century |
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| Students in France greet a photographer at the start of a new term by shaking their schoolbags in 1932 |
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| During World War II, Parisian students line up a courtyard on the first day of classes |
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| A little boy in Paris says goodbye to his mother outside a school in September 1945 |
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| As their instruction begins in 1948, students at the Lucy D. Anthony school examine a small turtle |
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| In 1948, a young girl shares a moment with her mother outside the Lucy D. Anthony school in Madison, New Jersey |
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| Joyce Payne and Vincent Baker have fun depicting their teacher at a school in New York’s Harlem community on Sep. 13, 1948 |
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| Nap-time on the first day in 1949 |
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| Wide-eyed children listening to fairy-tales on their first school day in 1949 |
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| Children getting to know their new teacher, circa 1950 |
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| Students eagerly vie to be called on at a New York school, circa 1950 |
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| Teacher Agnes Bolton stands in the schoolhouse door on the first day of classes for her only pupil, Jimmy MacLellan, in Scotland, circa 1950 |
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| Five-year-old Howard Crafter has a tough time adjusting at the St. Nicholas County school, circa 1952 |
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| Richard Sharp on his first day at the St. Nicholas County Primary School in Loughton, England, circa 1952 |
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| Children hard at work on Sept. 15, 1959 |
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| Delores York heads off for her first day at a previously all-white school in September 1960 in Arkansas |
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| Two brothers about to start the new school year, circa 1964 |
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| 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 |
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| Children walk up a flight of stairs to attend a newly desegregated school in Berkeley, California, 1968 |
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| 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 |
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| Canadian kindergarten teacher Trisha Langley teaching her first lessons on Sept. 7, 1971 |
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| Students at the Mary E. Curley School in Boston on Sept. 8, 1975 |
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| Maranda Francisco seems taken aback by a classmate’s antics on Sept. 20, 1987 |
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| Students line up at the Side Creek Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado, on Aug. 11, 1987 |
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| Schools kids arrive at Ellis Elementary School in Denver on Aug. 31, 1988 |
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| 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 |
