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Thursday, January 5, 2012

The mystery of boys with guns

I recently came across a group of items from the Nichols family which included these two images.  I'm afraid I'm stumped as to what they are.  I can make out the initials "LCI" on the collars of the boys, and I'm assuming those were the initials of a military school.  Any help would be appreciated!  Put your clues in the comments section below.  Thanks!
Click on any image to enlarge
Boys, military school, date uknown
Boys, military school, date unknown.  Collars have LCI embroidered on them.

7 comments:

  1. Interesting. The first Guess is that it would be something involving the "Schreiner Institute" that started as a military academy before becoming Schreiner College and now University.

    There appears to be 2 different guns in the front row of the second picture. The boy that is hunched down clearly has an 1873 "Trapdoor" Springfield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Model_1873). You can see the hinge of the trapdoor, and his hand is covering the rear sight. The boy that is sitting more erect is holding what apears to be an unconverted 1863 Springfield rifled musket. The 1863s were convereted into "Trapdoor" configuration at the beginning of the self contained cartridge era. However, Springfields were LONG rifles (56 inches long). The ones that the standing and kneeling boys are holding appear to be shorter than four and a half feet.

    Mind if I post a link to this to some gun message boards? I bet we can get positive ID on the hardware in short order.

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  2. Oh, one more thing. The sword appears to be a US Model 1902 Army Officer's sword:

    http://arms2armor.com/Swords/1902army.htm

    The grip, Pommel, guard and scabbard all seem to match. Don't know if any of this helps.

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  3. That Guy: sure, post away. Everything on this blog is meant to be shared. Especially if it helps solve a mystery!

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  4. The second photo does appear to be boys who are part of a military school.

    However, in the first photo all the boys are wearing shoes that look very similar to my great granddaughter's ballet shoes.

    I wonder if the boys in the first photo are in some type of play, or stage act.

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  5. Definitely not Schreiner Institute as the uniforms are totally different from the original SI uniform. The caps are different,SI cadets and officers wore boots, the uniform colors were WWI doughboy and there would be the SI shoulder patch on the left upper sleeve. Refer to book "Proud Promise". Agree with "Anonymous" re: play or stage act on first photo...

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  6. Hope my email was helpful for your follow-up tomorrow!!

    Jan

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  7. The CI could stand for Correctional Institute. Don't know about the L. Louisiana maybe?

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