33 Lovely Photos Show What the First Day of School Looked Like in the Past Century

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.

A young boy and girl on the way to school for the start of a new term in the 1920s

A girl's first day of school in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, circa 1921

Japanese children in traditional garb start school in California in 1927

A 5-year-old girl shows off her books after her first day of kindergarten, circa 1929

A mother takes her daughter by the hand as they head to school in the late 1920s or early 1930s

A young Australian boy stares into a classroom already full of students, circa 1930

Children on their way home from school, with book bags strapped on their backs, after the first day of classes in Germany, circa 1930

Parents and their children are seen outside a school in Tokyo in the early 20th century

Students in France greet a photographer at the start of a new term by shaking their schoolbags in 1932

During World War II, Parisian students line up a courtyard on the first day of classes

A little boy in Paris says goodbye to his mother outside a school in September 1945

As their instruction begins in 1948, students at the Lucy D. Anthony school examine a small turtle

In 1948, a young girl shares a moment with her mother outside the Lucy D. Anthony school in Madison, New Jersey

Joyce Payne and Vincent Baker have fun depicting their teacher at a school in New York’s Harlem community on Sep. 13, 1948

Nap-time on the first day in 1949

Wide-eyed children listening to fairy-tales on their first school day in 1949

Children getting to know their new teacher, circa 1950

Students eagerly vie to be called on at a New York school, circa 1950

Teacher Agnes Bolton stands in the schoolhouse door on the first day of classes for her only pupil, Jimmy MacLellan, in Scotland, circa 1950

Five-year-old Howard Crafter has a tough time adjusting at the St. Nicholas County school, circa 1952

Richard Sharp on his first day at the St. Nicholas County Primary School in Loughton, England, circa 1952

Children hard at work on Sept. 15, 1959

Delores York heads off for her first day at a previously all-white school in September 1960 in Arkansas

Two brothers about to start the new school year, circa 1964

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

Children walk up a flight of stairs to attend a newly desegregated school in Berkeley, California, 1968

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