This page features photographs that are too interesting not to show, but for which we don't have the usual standard of verification or details of sources that normally apply on this website.

Readers should bear in mind that we cannot be absolutely certain that these pictures are what they claim or appear to be. Any help with identifying them would be appreciated.

Click on the thumbnail image to see the full picture in each case. The picture will open in a new window.

AUSTRALIA: School CP

• School punishment book extract

  This is said to be from Kalgoorlie School, in the Australian outback, c.1900. Canings were mostly given on the hand, punishment "on the buttock" apparently being reserved for serious defiance.

  
  

BOLIVIA: School CP

• Instituto Americano, La Paz

  Picture said to be from 1972 at an American college in Bolivia. Even if (as I assume) this is meant in fun, it is quite intriguing that what is being acted out here is an English-style caning, rather than a US-style paddling.
  

CANADA: School CP

• School paddle in British Columbia

  Recipients' names on a paddle. This one is interesting in that it comes from Canada, not generally known for school paddling, the strap being the usual instrument there, at any rate in public schools. It appeared on a web page about the demolition of Richmond High School in Vancouver, and was captioned "The crazy paddle they used in the 50s", though this was apparently as well as, rather than instead of, the strap.
  

  
  

• School paddle in Alberta (with cigarette for scale)

  This picture came in 2002 from a student at St John's School of Alberta, Canada, a famously rigorous boys' boarding school in the depths of the frozen north. He says he "liberated" it from the discipline master's office, and that in 2002 there were paddlings at the school practically every day. This fact, if true, is all the more remarkable because it is a very small school - there are only a couple of hundred boys on the roll. Certainly the school has a very disciplined regime with a strong CP tradition -- sensibly involving US-style paddling of posteriors rather than the more usual, but in my view silly and dangerous, Canadian (Scottish) practice of strapping the hands -- and I have been able to verify independently that my correspondent was indeed a student there. Since then, CP has been outlawed in Canada, supposedly even in private schools -- despite there having been, as far as I am aware, no demand whatsoever for such a ban from parents, students, teachers or anyone else involved with such schools -- so we have to assume that this fine instrument is now in enforced retirement.

CUBA: Slave CP

• Punishment of slave in Cuba

  This appeared on a Unesco web page about slavery. The date given is 1868 and the picture is credited to Harper's Weekly in the US Library of Congress. It appears that the slave is being held down on a horizontal frame or ladder. It may be that his trousers have been pulled down ready for a whipping on his bare buttocks, but it looks as if he may already have been whipped on his upper back too.
  

GERMANY: School CP

• School caning re-enacted in a play

  Scene from a play, captioned "Prügel in der Schule" (corporal punishment in school). This is somewhat unrealistic. It is a common error, in modern re-enactments or drawings, to suppose that a caning could properly be administered with the culprit in an over-the-knee position. In reality, the person inflicting the punishment has to stand back from the target in order to have room for an effective swing of the cane.
  

  
  

• A schoolroom caning

  This is from a "school museum" in Germany. Present-day kids visit it to see what school used to be like in the old days. The lucky ones get a chance to be caned!
  

  
  

• Another school museum scene

  Another "school museum" -- or possibly the same one. This is Schlossbergschule in Landsberg (Bavaria). The caption reads "You can see how the teacher hits a pupil with a stick on his back", but the stick is much too big and thick, and "back" seems likely to be a mistranslation or a euphemism: as far as I am aware, such classroom punishment was always delivered to the seat of the boy's trousers.
  

GHANA: School CP

• School canes in Ghana?

  These are claimed to be canes for use in schools in Ghana. They do look as if they might be punishment canes: they seem to be the right sort of length, though perhaps a bit on the thick side. Whether it is really believable that a photographer would happen upon so many of them in one place is perhaps open to question.
  

  
  

• A present-day classroom caning in Ghana

  This picture is from a junior secondary school in Ghana, and comes from a website in which pupils there were asked to document what they dislike about the school. It illustrates item 1 in their list -- "We don't like it when the teacher canes us". The student being caned in this case is a girl. Impossible to tell whether it is posed or "the real thing", but it looks authentic enough, and from the context it can be deduced that caning is a more or less daily occurrence. At least it is clear that the treatment here is being applied with care and a degree of precision across the offender's seat and only the seat, which is by no means always the case in Africa. Contrary to some reports, CP is still legal in Ghanaian schools.
  

IRAN: Employee CP (?)

• Caning on the soles of the feet (Bastinado/Falaka)

  From an online photo album about Persia (now Iran) between 1870 and 1930, this is captioned "Administering discipline by bastinado at the rashti-duzi workshop, needlework, Rasht ca. 1880". Rasht is the capital city of Gilan province. Caning the soles of the feet, rather than the place provided by nature, is in my view a very perverse, inhumane and dangerous punishment. It requires two helpers to hold the feet up with a bar, as shown here.
  

SOUTH KOREA: School CP

• Mass punishment in the street

  These students have been made to assume the "all fours" position outside their school. This is the normal posture for receiving a caning in South Korean schools, but being required to hold the position for several minutes can also be a punishment in its own right, without CP, and that may be what is happening here. Cf. the mass outdoor caning of students seen in this video clip.
  

• Result of caning on thighs

  Two Korean schoolboys show the results of being caned on the back of their thighs. This is actually against the official rules in South Korea, which lay down that boys are to be caned across the buttocks; only girls are supposed to receive the punishment on the thighs. In practice, it is evident that this rule gets broken in both directions. My own personal view is that caning the thighs or legs is a stupid idea: it can do damage, because the muscles are close to the surface, whereas there is no danger in caning the posterior, the obvious padded target area provided by nature.
  

• Classroom punishment in Korea

  This sort of classroom punishment is quite common in present-day South Korea. Whether this particular example is "the real thing" or just some students play-acting, I am not sure.
  

  
  

• South Korean schoolboys punished for smoking

  Apparently from the present day. Korean culture seems to go in for public humiliation as punishment, something which has largely gone out of fashion in the West. These schoolboys have been made to stuff their cigarette packets in their mouths and kneel in front of their teacher, who is holding a stick. Is she about to cane them with it? From what we hear about Korea it seems quite plausible, but we shall probably never know.

TAIWAN: School CP

• Taiwan lesson

  The caption to this undated agency picture reads "Students lean their legs on the teacher's desk whilst reciting an academic lesson during a lesson [sic] in Taiwan". Why they should be doing so is not explained, but anyway the teacher seems to threatening to beat them with his paddle.
  

  
  

• Hand paddling in Taiwan

  Picture posted to a Chinese website in December 2004. Allegedly taken through a classroom window at Fu-an middle school in Taipei, it is said to show substitute teacher Ms Zhao Hsing hitting a line of students on the palm of the hand with a paddle 60cm long and 5cm wide. The authorities were said to be investigating, following complaints. For a clearer example of a classroom paddling in Taiwan being captured on a cameraphone, see this Oct 2005 video clip.
  

THAILAND: School CP

• Photo from a Thai newspaper

  This is said to have appeared in 1998. The boy is showing marks on his bottom. It looks as if his father is complaining about a school caning. A reader has kindly procured from a Thai speaker the following rough translation: "Mr Jirawat's student at Trad School was punished by teacher because he did not sit still in class. Teacher whipped him with a cane because he can't follow instructor and did not have discipline in class. The parent reported to the Police on Sept. 18." Presumably for a little while after this the boy would have been even less inclined to "sit still in class", or anywhere else for that matter. The accuracy of the teacher's aim is certainly to be commended.

UGANDA: School CP

• "They beat you with a stick"

  From a book, Schooling in Uganda Through Children's Eyes . It consists of photographs taken by school students in Kampala. This picture is entitled "Discipline" and subtitled "They beat you with a stick". Evidently the boys are queuing up for a caning on their bottoms, but some of them are not taking it terribly seriously.
  

  
  

UNITED KINGDOM: School CP

• "Well well Tomo getting whacked again"

  Picture taken in a classroom at a boys' secondary school in South London, c.1970, and submitted to F.R. by the "culprit" himself, though he evidently has no recollection of the incident, and says he cannot even remember who the teacher is. While there was no lack of real CP at the school in question at the time, this particular event looks to me more jocular than serious. Firstly, if this was a real punishment the teacher would need to fold the boy's blazer back above his backside and get the boy to bend a bit tighter. Secondly, the teacher is wielding only a thin 12-inch ruler, which would not have much effect on a trousered bottom. Indeed, it would probably break on impact if you attempted to apply it with any vigour through the arm's-length arc shown. Thirdly, if a real whacking were under way, all eyes would be riveted to the action, but the only other boy in the picture is watching the cameraman! One reader suggests the photo was taken secretly, but I think the picture quality is too good for a hidden camera in that era. On balance I think it is most likely an end-of-term jape that the teacher was in on.

UNITED KINGDOM: unknown

• Wooden-handled tawse

  The Scottish tawse does not usually have a wooden handle. In fact, if this were French, it would be better described as a martinet. But it was on sale in Scotland. It was said to weigh 5 ounces. My informant's hunch is that it could be 100 years old or more, and was clearly made for application to the buttocks, not the hands. He also thought it looked extremely well made by a practised hand, so not a one-off. School, parental, reformatory or judicial use? Information welcome.
  

UNITED STATES (probably): Domestic CP

• "The Line's Busy"

  A cartoon showing what appears to be a multiple domestic whipping, source and date unknown.
  

• Over-the-knee spanking

  Double photograph meant for use in a stereoscopic viewer to give a 3-D effect. It is captioned "He protests vigorously" and dated 1902.
  

• Domestic spanking

  Picture agency photo of an over-the-knee spanking that looks as if it dates from the early 20th century. Obviously posed, and I think meant as a joke.
  

  
  

• Boy Getting Spanked by Mother

  Agency picture dated "circa 1896" - presumably in America, though that is not stated. The stick the mother is using looks too small to be very effective.
  

  
  

• "A father uses the shingle on his son, c.1897"

  A US picture presumably posed for the purposes of the photograph. I first thought this an unusual technique, with the boy on all fours. However, several other pictures showing the recipient in this posture have now turned up (see next item). (It is also, by the way, the position that present-day students are often required to assume for school CP in South Korea.) The "shingle", which Webster defines as "a small thin piece of building material", appears to be for all practical purposes a paddle. The same picture has also appeared, with an 1897 copyright, as a stereoscopic double image for 3-D viewing, with the jokey title "Meeting of the board of education".

  
  

• Another all-fours paddling

  The previous item prompted a reader to send me this, just to show that the "on all fours" position might not have been as unusual as I thought. The source and date are unknown, but from the look of it, I would say it predates colour photography, so the colour was probably added artificially. There also seems to be something a bit wrong with the perspective, but that might be because it was originally part of a stereoscopic double image for use in a 3-D viewer.
  

  
  

• And another one

  Another picture remarkably similar to the previous two. This one is captioned "A special meeting of the board of education" and dated 1902.
  

  
  

• Over-the-knee spanking

  A young boy is enthusiastically spanked by, presumably, his father. Possibly USA in the 1960s, to judge from the boy's clothes. This looks as if it could be a still from a film.
  

  
  

• Small boy paddled

  Date and provenance unknown. The boy looks happy, perhaps because he visibly has some protection stuffed down the back of his shorts. The implement appears to be a table-tennis bat.
  

  
  

• "Yours with all my sole"

  This postcard dates from 1906. A cartoon of a domestic slippering, with typical punning title. I do not know what the significance of the black cat is. It is not an advertisement for Black Cat cigarettes, because they did not exist in 1906.
  

UNITED STATES: Judicial CP

• "Mother spanking Tom Bradley"

  This intriguing agency photo, taken on 25 May 1938, was captioned "By Order of the Court. New York: Tom Bradley, 16, of 100 West 96th Street, pulled an emergency cord in a subway train; here's what the court told his mother to do as punishment -- and she did". Is this a re-enactment, perhaps posed at a pressman's request, or did the court really require a newspaper photographer to attend the punishment, in what looks like Mrs Bradley's own Manhattan home? It is rather mysterious. There is nothing about this case in the New York Times, the only NY paper whose archive I can currently access from here. Have we any readers in New York who can track this down? Please let me know.
  

UNITED STATES: Reformatory CP

• Denver reform school straps, 1941

  This came with a caption reading "Denver reform school scandal, straps used in flogging, 1941". I do not know what scandal is alluded to here - can anyone throw any light on this?
  

UNITED STATES: School CP

• ""The Board of Education"

  An over-the-knee paddling, source and date unknown.
  

• "Father Fozenlogen's Board of Education"

  Said to be from a Catholic school - evidently in the chemistry lab. The holes are to reduce air resistance during the paddle's swing. Allegedly, "students that had a meeting with the 'board of education' three times in a semester got to sign the paddle", and indeed a number of signatures can be glimpsed if you look closely.
  

• Scene from a play

  Scene captioned "Master Crane dealing with the tardy Mr. Hans" from a play called Icabod at the Brewster Theater Company in New York State. I infer from the costumes that the play is set in the 19th century, before the paddle superseded the cane in American schools.
  

• American school paddle

  This American paddle is said to be from a school in Washington State around 1930. It is a rather unusual shape, crafted from a light springy wood, about 18 inches long and just under 4 inches wide at the broadest point, says the reader who possesses it. Some of its recipients have signed it - intriguingly, at least as many girls as boys. The names that can be deciphered include Kit Williams, Martha Bodine, Roy Satchwell, Bud Frolin, Esther Schumacher and Elden Cutler.
  

  
  

• 1940s school paddle
  

  Another school paddle on which the recipients have written their names. It comes from Mount Pleasant School in North Carolina, and dates from the 1940s or 1950s. What is interesting about this paddle, when you look at the picture of two chaps holding it up, is how small it is -- surely too small to have much effect. Several instances of the surname "Eller" can be seen, and the picture comes from a page that was on an Eller family website.
  

  
  

• A classroom caning

  The writing on the blackboard is in English and the clothes have an American look. They, and the sepia tones, perhaps suggest the early 20th century. Of course, it could be a clever reconstruction, possibly for a film.

  
  
  

• A US schoolroom punishment

  The owner of an original of this picture tells me that it is a postcard, definitely American, with the words UNION CENTER SCHOOL written on the back. (Unfortunately there are dozens of schools with this name in different US States.) He dates it from 1907 to 1915. The presence of three adults and two spectating students on the stage seems to indicate that this is not an ordinary classroom scene but rather an assembly of some sort. The implement being used looks like a stick, and too small to have much effect. The facial expressions don't convey any sense of a very sombre or serious occasion -- maybe this is a "birthday spanking"? My correspondent agrees that this is a likely explanation, but anyway he is sure the picture was taken in a real school and not on a film set.

  
  

• "Walk softly and carry a big stick"

  This is from Concord High School in Arkansas. Neither the school district's CP policy nor the school's student handbook was on line when I last looked, so whether the school really uses this paddle we do not know; obviously the picture is posed as a joke.
  

  
  

• A school paddling in Texas, 1977

  This picture (larger size not available) is said to be from the 1977 Year Book of Calallen High School, Corpus Christi, Texas. In the 1960s and 1970s it was not unknown for photographs of apparent paddlings to appear in US school yearbooks. However, all the others I have seen were clearly posed for more or less jocular purposes. This one seems quite different and has a definite look of being "the real thing", perhaps furtively snatched sur le vif by a student who happened to be passing with a camera for some other purpose. Hence, among other things, the murky quality of the image. If I am right about this, we have here an extremely rare, possibly even unique, document of enormous historical value. Note the staff member acting as witness, who I think has possibly just spotted the intruder with the camera and is not quite sure what to do about it. The half-leaning, half-bending, hands-on-the-wall posture of the boy being punished ties in exactly with myriad anecdotal accounts of modern-day southern US school paddling. Doing it in the corridor seems to have been typical of the era, whereas nowadays these things, where they happen at all, are more often confined to the privacy of an office. The boy, in his very 1970s flares, looks as if he has just been given the traditional instruction to put his feet apart and stick his rear end out a bit -- or maybe he was a "regular customer" and didn't need to be told. It would be interesting to know what "discussions" took place later with the photographer, and how comfortable the school authorities were with the idea of including the picture in the yearbook.

  
  

• A school paddling out of doors

  This is allegedly from a Kansas (USA) school in 1915, but I have no way of checking that. Note students peeking round the corner of the schoolhouse, giggling nervously. The scene was clearly posed for the photographer. Teacher is looking straight at the camera, holding the paddle still in the air. I don't think the boy is seriously being punished, though he is putting on quite a good wriggling act.

  
  

• "Student takeover day 1971"

  The Class of 1971 from Lafayette High School, Lexington, Kentucky. On "student takeover day", this is Kenny Gullette getting a paddling from Luanne Azevedo.

  
  
  

  And here is a front view of Kenny round about the same time, with an unidentified friend:

  
  
  

• "Teacher Spanking Boy in Classroom"

  Picture in the Corbis collection dated 1906. Presumably from the USA. I think it was clearly posed for jocular effect.
  

UNITED STATES: Miscellaneous CP

• Spanking tunnel

  Probably from an American college or sporting team of some kind, this is an illustration of a spanking tunnel, sometimes confusingly called a "spanking machine". The person to be punished crawls along the "tunnel" made by the legs of the other members, and is spanked by each of them as he or she passes through.

  
  

• Hunting camp spanking

  A stereoview card that was for sale on eBay. The seller titled it "Camp discipline? What kind of deal is this?". The man being paddled looks as if he could be much younger than the others, though it's hard to be sure. Presumably the picture is American, from the late 19th century (it has an "early days of photography" look about it) -- a reader suggests 1890s. Another reader, who claims personal experience of US hunting camps, suggests this sort of thing was not uncommon in the 1920s and not entirely unknown even more recently, though this picture is clearly much earlier. His view is that the event is probably not as jocular as it may appear and that the punishment could be a real (though obviously informal) one, but on the other hand it could be some sort of initiation ceremony. Either way, I haven't yet found any other corroboration of this tradition.

  
  

• A "corps of cadets" paddling in Texas

  A boy forces a resigned grin as he obeys orders to "assume the position" for a bruising posterial encounter with what I assume is a baseball bat. Someone has written "Texas A&M 1982" on the photocopy. There is a sizeable and clearly highly appreciative audience, which evidently is not confined to members of the college fraternity but seems to include casual passers-by and even their young children. Notice the young spectator at far left clutching his own backside, as though in sympathy, or maybe he's just had it, or perhaps he's next (cf. boys in Japan unconsciously holding their bottoms as they queue up for a caning).

  UPDATE: I am now informed that this is not a fraternity event, as I had supposed, but the annual "Aggie Bonfire" ritual, and the young man bending over is a junior "Yell Leader" in his third year, receiving punishment from a 4th-year senior. The instrument is said to be an axe handle, and this is referred to as "the traditional method of discipline at the university until the mid-1980s".

COUNTRY UNKNOWN: School CP

• Muslim boys with paddles

  From an unspecified Muslim country in North Africa. This appeared on an evangelist website devoted to converting the Third World to Christianity. So, clearly not an unbiased observer. The caption, for whose accuracy I cannot vouch, claimed: "These Muslim boys memorize the verses from the Koran written on their paddles. If they don't measure up they are spanked with the paddles."
  

  
  

• Classroom spanking

  A little boy gets spanked by his lady teacher in front of the class. This tiny picture (the only size available) appeared in the Vienna paper Der Standard (2 November 2001) to illustrate a news item about the Liverpool Christian school that was trying to get the UK school CP ban overturned. However, my feeling is that the picture is not from Britain. Then again, nor are such things supposed to go on in Austria.
  

  
  

• "Teacher angry punishment violence"

  This picture of a female student supposedly being rulered over the knuckles comes from a photography website (you can buy it for $195). It definitely looks posed rather than real.