Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School Guest of Honor Book
Finding aid created by History San Jose Research Library staff using RecordEXPRESS
History San Jose Research Library
2020
1661 Senter Road
San Jose, California 95112
(408) 287-2290
research@historysanjose.org
http://www.historysanjose.org/
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
The album has been photographed and is available online. It can be viewed in person by appointment with the Curator of Library
and Archives.
Contact the Curator of Library & Archives for reproduction and publication questions.
Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School Guest of Honor Book. History San Jose Research Library
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.
Nineteen thirties
Autographs--Collections
Entertainers
Auditoriums--California
Musicians
Lecturers
San Jose (Calif.)