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Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School Guest of Honor Book
1963-1  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography/Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School Guest of Honor Book
    Dates: 1929-1957
    Collection Number: 1963-1
    Creator/Collector: Woehler, Tosca Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School
    Extent: 1 album
    Online items available
    Repository: History San Jose Research Library
    San Jose, California 95112
    Abstract: Autograph album compiled from international traveling artists who performed at Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School, primarily between 1929 and 1936 before San Jose's Civic Auditorium was completed.
    Language of Material: English

    Access

    The album has been photographed and is available online. It can be viewed in person by appointment with the Curator of Library and Archives.

    Publication Rights

    Contact the Curator of Library & Archives for reproduction and publication questions.

    Preferred Citation

    Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School Guest of Honor Book. History San Jose Research Library

    Acquisition Information

    Donated to Clyde Arbuckle and the Historical Society of Santa Clara County in 1963 by the retired teachers of Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School.

    Biography/Administrative History

    Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School was San Jose's first junior high school, designed by W. H. Weeks. It opened in 1926 at 925 East Santa Clara Street, San Jose. The auditorium was used not only for student events, but for the general public, featuring performers and speakers from around the world. Construction on the San Jose Civic Auditorium began in 1934, which would become the main auditorium after completion in the mid-1930s.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The album comprises autographs, promotional photographs, and programs from a wide variety of performers, the bulk of which performed between 1929 and 1936 before San Jose's Civic Auditorium was completed in 1936. Students in the home room class of Miss Tosca Woehler contributed the money to buy the material necessary for the book and the information and signatures were kept up to date by the teacher. Many of the acts were musicians or choral groups, but also included well known performers such as Harry Lauder, California governors and civil servants, authors and cartoonists, sports figures, and speakers such as Ilya Tolstoy and Chief Standing Bear. Nearly all of the performers wrote messages to the student body, some embellishing the autograph with caricatures, cartoons, or paw print autographs from their famous animals. After the Civic Auditorium opened in 1936, the number of performers in the book diminished, and most are simple autographs.

    Indexing Terms

    Nineteen thirties
    Autographs--Collections
    Entertainers
    Auditoriums--California
    Musicians
    Lecturers
    San Jose (Calif.)