April Fool!

Old Heidelberg, copyright 1905.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

April 1 has long been an opportunity for children to tease their teachers. In an interview with a writer employed by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, Mrs. Sally Marlowe of Marion, South Carolina, recalled:

We used to run off in the woods on April Fools Day till twelve o'clock noon come — then we would all show up to the schoolhouse. What you reckon they done to us for it? Kept us in school so late every evening that week till the moon would be shining bright enough to show us the road home.

"The Skippers," January 19, 1939.
American Life Histories, 1936-1940

Rural School near Milton, North Dakota, Miss Margaret McKay, teacher, 1913.
Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920

Dr. Samuel Lathan recollected engaging in similar antics while attending "an old field school" near his childhood home in Fairfield County, South Carolina, in 1848.

Interior of "Little Red Schoolhouse," Crossville, Tennessee, 1935.
FSA/OWI Photographs, 1938-1944

April the 1st was dreaded by most rural school teachers. The pupils would get inside and bar the teacher out. The teacher, who didn't act on the principle that discretion is the better part of valor, generally got the worst of it. Mr. Douglass soon learned this, and, on April Fool's Day, he would walk to the school, perceive the situation, laughingly announce there would be no school until the morrow, and leave.

Dr. Samuel B. Lathan, circa October 10, 1940.
American Life Histories, 1936-1940

More April tomfoolery abounds in American Memory:

• Search on April Fool in American Life Histories, 1936-1940 to find more tales of pranks and shenanigans. If your taste runs to practical jokes, take a look at "How Snipe Hunting Was Invented," in which pioneer Steve Robertson tells how one Brad Slocum, "one of these tender-actin' persons that was always wantin' somebody else to do it," got his just desserts.
• Search on dog, humorous pictures, or animals in human situations to find more silly pictures in Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920.
• The online collection American Variety Stage, 1870-1920 contains many examples of comedy routines performed by vaudeville entertainers, including ten audio recordings.
  
  For a good laugh, tune in to "Henry's Music Lesson." Or, appreciate a time-tested joke routine to the accompaniment of a fiddler playing "The Arkansas Traveler," or listen to performers imitate various sounds such as a sawmill and a dog fight in "A Study in Mimicry."
  
  "Henry's Music Lesson,"
  performed by Miss Sally Stembler & Edward Meeker, Edison 51063-R, recorded 1923.
  American Variety Stage, 1870-1920
  
  Listen to this recording (Real Audio format)
  
  Listen to this recording (wav format, 452KB)
• Try a search on joke in the collection of Early Sheet Music to find humorous songs such as "Too Thin; or, Darwin's Little Joke" by O'Rangoutang.
• The Library of Congress collection of early copyrighted paper print films may be viewed in video format in the collection, Early Motion Pictures. Many early films show comic routines. The Unappreciated Joke, filmed by Thomas Edison, Inc. in 1903, shows a man on a subway attempting to entertain a fellow passenger who is not amused.
  
  In another early film, An Animated Luncheon, filmed February 1900, Edison exploits the newly discovered possibilities of film-splicing to create a gag. To see more examples, visit the online collection Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies. Viewer be warned: these films may take a long time to download!