A late 19th-century Boston photographer, A.H. Folsom, captured
this amazing picture of a sixth-grade class with almost every
student examining a small desk globe. This image is part of a
photographic survey commissioned by the Boston Public Schools in
1892-93. A number of these photographs were included in an album
displayed at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. While
most certainly posed, the photograph speaks to the importance of
geography and an understanding of global issues in the
late-19th-century Boston Public School curriculum. In the same
vein, the photograph can serve as an icon for the Norman B.
Leventhal Map Center's mission of making the Boston Public
Library's map collection available to Bostonians of all ages,
particularly, the city's school children. The children portrayed
in this photograph attended the George Putnam Grammar School
which was located at 2025 Columbus Avenue. Today, the site of
the Putnam school is across the street from the Eggleston Square
Branch of the Boston Public L