Corpo Nacional de Escutas group in Lowell, MA

Hello!

I recently came accross this picture on Digital Commonwealth and I found it confusing. Namely those aren't American Girl and Boy Scout uniforms. The Cub Scouts, the younger boys, are wearing knit shirts, the American Cub Scouts have never had knit uniforms (unlike their British counterparts). The American Girl Scouts have never had neckerchiefs that go directly on the neck, pleated skirts, or a button front shirt with chest pockets like that.

If you look very carefully at the flag in the background you can make out the words: "corpo nacional de". I think this might be "Corpo Nacional de Escutas" as in Corpo Nacional de Escutas - Escutismo Católico Português (CNE), a Catholic Scouting organization based in Portugal. Essentially these kids are members of a Portuguese scouting troop on foreign soil rather than an American group (and all of the American civic religion that comes along with that). 

This seems like a pedantic detail but I think it's quite notable that St. Anthony's went from having a Portuguese scouting group in the midcentury to American Girl and Boy Scouts in the nineties (based on the other pictures). Evidence of assimilation and all that!

Yours in Girl Scouting,

Elsie