The Bishop’s School Collection is made up of photographs, ephemera and archival material collected by the La Jolla Historical Society since the 1930s to use for historical research and reference. The Bishop’s School was organized in 1908 and opened, firstly, at the campus in San Diego on First Street. In La Jolla, the first Principal was Mrs. Charles E. Bentham, whose husband was later the Vicar of St. James-by-the-Sea in La Jolla. In 1909, ground was broken for the first building in La Jolla, whose architect was Irving Gill, funded by The Scripps Foundation (Ellen Browning Scripps and Virginia Scripps). Erected and incorporated during 1910, the formal opening was in 1911. Additions came in 1913 and 1916, including a chapel. Named after the Right Reverend Joseph Horsfall Johnson, the first Bishop of Los Angeles, The Bishop’s School was initially a school for girls with a fully rounded curriculum preparing young women for college. This material pertains to the history and heritage of La Jolla, California; its people, places and events. A container list is included on the PDF and HTML versions. The La Jolla Historical Society also houses a Collection of Bishop’s School yearbooks between 1917 and 2004.

The La Jolla Historical Society inspires and empowers the community to make La Jolla’s diverse past a relevant part of contemporary life. The La Jolla Historical Society’s Collections encompass over 80 years of actively collecting archival material, books, maps, scrapbooks, ephemera, fine art, newspapers, street and land use files, business and personal documents and historic and archaeological artifacts. The Society boasts over 20,000 photographs, over 1000 postcards, 400-plus architectural drawings and approximately 200 oral history recordings. Collecting was initiated by Howard Randolph and volunteers on the historical committee of the Library Association of La Jolla. The Collection began by gathering photographs and documentation in the late 1930s, which later became the nucleus of the La Jolla Historical Society’s Collections. The Society was created in 1963. Through many moves in location the Society continued collecting and expanding. Accumulated Collections took on its current construct in 2010 after the renovation of the La Jolla Historical Society’s campus of structures in central La Jolla, which consists of the 1904 Wisteria Cottage and 1940s Balmer Annex used for exhibits and programming, and a 1909 cottage used for business and research offices. The late Ellen Browning Scripps’ 1916 automobile garage was also renovated and now houses the Collection in a modern collections storage facility. Materials are housed in archival boxes, sleeves, envelopes and other archival-safe materials and are cared for according to standards and best practices of the museum profession. In 2016, the Society initiated new PastPerfect Museum Software to manage and catalog its Collections and in 2018 started using the Online Archive of California to upload searchable information from its Collections to enable improved public access. The Society will continue these processes and look forward to utilizing new opportunities to collect, preserve and share the history of La Jolla.

1 linear foot

The La Jolla Historical Society holds the copyright to any unpublished materials

The Collection is open for research