The original photo is the property of Wayne Long of Port Dover, Norfolk County, who kindly loaned it to us for scanning in August/September 2010. Wayne inherited it from his mother-in-law Evelyn Horne, who appears in the photo. A life-long resident of Port Dover now living retired, Wayne knew many of those in the photo in his younger days.

Prior to our receiving this photo for scanning, someone (presumably Evelyn) identified most of the people in the picture and wrote their names on the back of the photo. These names became the starting point for our identifications.

Our identifications should be considered tentative until confirmed via multiple sources. Generally speaking, the older the "last updated" date on each bio web page, the higher our confidence that the identification is correct.
 
Our scans reveal a few imperfections in the original photo. These can be traced to either the camera's shallow depth of field or the student moving during picture taking.

The source photo measures approximately 6 inches by 22 inches. There are 71 people (students and staff) in the picture, which appears to have been taken in the late fall of 1929 or early spring of 1930. (There are leafless trees in the background, some girls appear to be wearing coats.)

The photographer was E. J. Powell of Hamilton, who seems to have specialized in taking panorama pictures of high school students for many years. Panned group pictures of this type were a photography niche market into the 1960s across much of Ontario. Text written on the face of the print (presumably by the photographer) reads: 
"Port Dover High School, 1929-30" then 
"A. C. Hazen, B.A., Principal." then 
"E. J. Powell, Hamilton."

World War I was a receding memory when this photo was taken. The Great Depression had barely begun, and World War II was still a decade into the future. There were cars in Norfolk by then, but car ownership was still a big deal. Many homes had telephones and radios. Ice boxes were more common than refrigerators.

Port Dover High School served Port Dover and the immediate rural population of Woodhouse Township. Cars were only semi-common back then, so it is likely these students walked to school.
 
At the time this photo was taken, Ontario high school education consisted of five grades: 
9 through 13, but Port Dover High provided only 9 through 12, sending students to neighboring Simcoe High for grade 13. Typically students would have started high school at approximately age 13 and graduated four years later, age 17, so the students in this photo would have been born between approximately 1912 and 1916.