A Brooklyn high school’s brainy class of 1927

Whatever became of the graduates of James Madison High School that year?

Born around 1909, they were little kids when the U.S. entered World War I and in their early 30s when World War II broke out.

Based on a copy of their class book, most were Jewish and headed to good schools: New York University, City College, Cornell, and Columbia. That includes many of the girls too. (Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in the class of ’51.)

They came to from a wide swatch of Brooklyn, from as far away as Park Slope and Sea Gate. James Madison, near Kings Highway, was only a few years old in 1927; nearby high schools like Midwood and Lincoln hadn’t been built yet.

None of the four students in this yearbook photo could be tracked via a Google search. If still alive, they’d be about 101 years old.