The photograph is from an exhibition entitled "Thirteen" by German professional photographer Janina Wick. It shows a young female ice skater leaning against the wall in a sports center. The elaborate costume, hairstyle, and makeup shows that she is not a casual skater, but one who trains for formal competition. The artist created this series of images in the tradition of formal portrait photography, to explore the way her subjects—young girls in early adolescence—portray themselves and at the same time reveal unintended vulnerability, awkwardness, and cultural aspects of the feminine adult world they aspire to enter. Wick photographs these young women in their own surroundings, wearing their own clothing. She takes multiple exposures, mostly allowing her subjects to pose themselves, but preferring the three-quarter portrait over full-frontal camera shots.

The photograph is from an exhibition entitled "Thirteen" by German professional photographer Janina Wick. It shows a young girl leaning slightly against a tree, against the background of a graffiti-covered wall, in an urban environment. The artist created this series of images in the tradition of formal portrait photography, to explore the way her subjects—young girls in early adolescence—portray themselves and at the same time reveal unintended vulnerability, awkwardness, and cultural aspects of the feminine adult world they aspire to enter. Wick photographs these young women in their own surroundings, wearing their own clothing. She takes multiple exposures, mostly allowing her subjects to pose themselves, but prefers the three-quarter portrait over full-frontal camera shots.

These photographs are included in an archive with over 600 images all taken by U.S. airman Glenn S. Hensley in 1945 in various locations where he was stationed. The island of Akyab in the Bay of Bengal, which is called Sittwe today, was occupied during World War II, first by the Japanese, then, in 1945, by the British and the Americans. It was a strategically important airfield from which supplies could be airlifted into Burma. These are two of a series of photographs documenting four different ways in which children pounded or ground grain for use. These small children wielded heavy hardwood implements for hulling rice or grinding grain. The tools have a timeless quality and show obvious signs of constant use. Similarly, the chores that the village children carry out in these images, and drawing water in others, were typical children's activities.

Hensley served the U.S. Army as a professional reconnaissance photographer. He and other American photographers Robert Keagle and Frank Bond had access to darkroom facilities, and often accompanied one another on photo excursions among civilians, so that each man's archive contains shots of the same scenes and people. For this reason, it is likely that wherever they went, "everyday" scenes took on an extraordinary quality for the people depicted. The archive, according to Hensley, was created and shipped to the U.S. for his wife to use in teaching world history courses in Missouri during World War II.

The photograph shows buildings and students of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School around 1900. Attended by over 12,000 Native American children from more than 140 tribes between 1879 and 1918, the school was the model for nearly 150 Indian schools. Its founder was U.S. Army officer Richard Henry Pratt, who commanded a unit of African American "Buffalo Soldiers" and Indian scouts in Oklahoma and witnessed the Bureau of Indian Affair’s irresponsible policies on reservations. In 1875, the Army placed Platt in charge of 72 Indian warriors imprisoned in Florida. Platt imposed military discipline on the prisoners, but also arranged to teach them to read.

Based on this experience, he developed a scheme to assimilate Indians by removing them from tribal influences and transforming them through education. In 1879, Pratt secured permission to use a deserted military base in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as the site of his school. Platt expressed his educational philosophy, highlighted in the accompanying quotation, in a paper read at an 1892 convention. Today, one of the few remaining landmarks of the Carlisle Indian School is the cemetery for students who died at the school and whose remains could not be returned to their families.

The poem and photographic collage is the work of students at the Pima Indian School boarding school near Phoenix, Arizona, and is part of an album probably owned by the school matron. The school was one of some 150 institutions for Indian wards of the U.S. Government. The boys' poem was dedicated to their Matron, a female official who was responsible for supervision and discipline of the students on a day-to-day basis. The school's mission was to "civilize" and assimilate the Indians to American society through a process of education that sought to obliterate their native cultures. The model of organization and discipline was military. Student life was highly regimented, with little free time, uniforms and marching drills. Boys and girls were subject to whipping and jailing. It is notable that the matron herself would not actually carry out the punishments she ordered; older students selected as "officers" often did so. Students at the Pima Indian School performed school maintenance, cleaning, cooking, laundering, and caring for the animals and crops that provided students and teachers with food. Students were also put out to work as domestics and farm laborers, for further acculturation and to provide work experience. School officials did not envision preparing them for higher education.

The decorated poem as an object is notable for its penmanship and skill in use of language. The photographs of the boys' heads pasted around the poem indicate that students had access to copies of group photographs, since they are all wearing uniform caps. The poem's tone is both ironic and affectionate toward the matron and the school, incorporating language that indicates exposure to American customs and domestic habits, such as the Christmas holiday, mention of loafing, castor oil and germs. The language is revealing of the tension between the boys' obedience to the matron and assertion of individuality and group solidarity, and their perception of the social context of the school expressed in recognition of the matron's “worry of the whole red race.”

Six children of the Seri indigenous people slide down a hill using the shells of sea turtles as sleds, illustrating the universal ability of children to create play activities including equipment out of things in their environment. These children belong to a group that has been indigenous to the area for many generations, so it is likely that this game has a long heritage on the beaches where sea turtles come to breed. The place is Tiburón Island in the Gulf of California, the state of Sonora, Mexico. The island is named Tahéjöc in the language of the Seri, which is a linguistic isolate, or language distinct from all others in the region. Clans of Seri lived in the area of Tiburón Island for many centuries if not millennia. Their heritage was recognized by a decree of the Mexican government in 1975, granting them a title of communal property ("reconocimiento y titulación de terrenos comunales). Today Tiburón Island is a nature reserve.

The photograph was taken in 1924 by Edward H. Davis (1862-1951) who owned a ranch near San Diego, California. He explored the vicinity, photographed its indigenous inhabitants, and collected native objects. Through his knowledge of the region and familiarity with the people, he was able to capture this revealing, unusual image. George Heye, founder of the Museum of the American Indian, hired Davis in 1916 to help add to his collection.