A sepia toned photograph of Iraqi schoolgirls depicts sixty children ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers, seated and standing against a brick facade in Baghdad in 1900. Their dress is uniformly Westernized, from ankle length garments with ruffled collars to wide, full length sleeves and gathered skirts in plaid or striped patterns, belted and cinched at the waists. Photograph historians who study the Ottoman period and read portraits believe these modernized textiles reflect a desire to connect with a larger “national identity beyond the Jewish community.” The bourgeois attire and “dignified” facial expressions become a way of seeking inclusion with non Jews and moving away from being considered an outsider or religious Other, a sartorial example of collective “longing and belonging.”