Is an Upside Down "Thumbs Up" Good or Bad?

 

The next photo to catch my interest was this photo 14 pages into Clara Kuck's album. Clara is the girl on the far left of this picture. What caught my eye were the letters at the bottom, S.P.E.'s and what did it stand for? I googled it but couldn't find anything that resonated. So once again I turned to Gemini A.I. and after inputting the picture, asked what it stood for. It gave me a handful of possible answers but the one that stood out was one that said in the late 19th century and early 20th century, right when this photo was taken, there was a Society for the Promotion of Education. It went on to say chapters existed and promoted women's literacy and higher education. Judging from what I know about Clara after this picture was taken, this is likely what she was referring too since she studied at four different Universities and taught at a fifth later on

A.I. went on to tell me that the girls were all dressed in "middy blouses" paired with dark bloomers or skirts which were the style of the time among girls attending school. It also noted that several of the girls had "Gibson Girl" updos or "bobs" done to their hair. I had to google the latter to see what exactly it was referring to since I have not heard of a Gibson Girl updo before.

On the following page is this photo of Art Class at the Great Falls High School. I just love this photo because of the intensity of everyone working on their carving their busts with one lady in the middle, presumably the teacher, looking directly at the camera. At least from my perspective, the teacher doesn't look like my 2nd great aunt Clara Kuck using all the previous pictures as examples. I'm guessing whomever the lady is was a friend of Clara's or at least they knew each other since they were both teachers in the same school 

I am also amazed at the quality of the busts! I know I never did anything remotely that good of looking when I was in high school. In fact the only clay sculpture I remember making was an ash tray which was pretty much useless since nobody in my family smoked. I especially love the sculpture bust being done by the young man on the right foreground of this photo. The one in the upper left corner in the background is also quite impressive. I wonder if any of those busts still exist?

Finally, here is another page out of the photo album with pictures in the orientation I found them. I'm not quite sure what to make of things. I'm not sure Clara is in either picture for sure. Again, it is apparently taken in front of the house where Clara rented a room at but I have no idea of the "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" writing in relation to the top photo being upside down. Had the top photo not been upside down, I would interpret the "thumbs up" on the top picture saying it is the better of the two. Indeed, it looks more light hearted and carefree than the more serious posing on the bottom picture. Because I got tired of spinning the picture digitally to compare the two, I have included an upside down (right-side up) version of the top picture for you below. 

In the interest of research, I gently probed at the top (upside down) picture with my letter opener knife and found that it wasn't adhere to the black corner retainer things like many of the pictures are so was able to extract one side from the clips and peel it up to see what if anything was written on the back. Indeed, it did have writing on the back saying, "PM April 1916 908 3rd Ave. North". So at least I have a date finally. I have been assuming the pictures were around 1915 and indeed the earlier pictures with snow on the ground could have been.