Portland Press Herald Glass Negative Collection

In Portland and across the nation, historical pageantry was frequently incorporated into the Americanization curriculum as a way to teach immigrants and their children about the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship. The newspaper often printed photographs of these pageants.

The Americanization students in this photograph are reenacting immigration to the United States in a pageant called "Uncle Sam's Problems."

According to the Sunday Telegram, the pageant would be "depicting some perplexing questions, and concluding with a discussion of many truths of vital interest to the thinking citizens of today."