Girls’ High School opened at Bush and Stockton streets in 1864.
Originally part of the city’s first high school, San Francisco High, the school
separated genders in 1864, creating Girls’ High School and Boys’ High School.
In 1919 – the year this Girls’ High School Journal was published – the school
was located on Scott Street
Girls’ High School was an accredited, public school that drew
young women from all socio-economic classes and neighborhoods of San Francisco University of California or Stanford University
The cover of the December 1919 Girls’ High School Journal
celebrates the holiday season with its holly berry motif and young woman
bundled in a coat, scarf, and muff. More interesting are the pages of the
journal listing the 57 Girls’ High graduates, called “57” Varieties – a
play on the H. J. Heinz Company advertising slogan most commonly seen on tomato
ketchup bottles. Presumably the exercise required a bit of self-reflection on
the part of each graduate; she is asked to fill in the blanks after the prompts
“Name,” “Is,” “Wants to be,” “Will be,” and “Indoor sport.” The answers to
these prompts supplied by these 57 graduates reveal a class of young women
whose goals and aspirations certainly vary, as do their attitudes and
understandings of the cultural and societal limitations and expectations placed
on women during the suffrage era. Their answers demonstrate both confidence (E.
Judge) and doubt (M. Hardiman); high self-esteem (G. Quarre) and insecurity (I.
Bley); good-natured sense of humor (H. Richards) and self-effacing humor (M.
Ludwig). Some express a strong sense of self (E. Meyer) while others express a
desire to be something wholly unexpected (H. Hutchins). Also included is an
image from the journal with a selection of school portraits with whimsical
drawings next to each girl’s photo. Virginia Jurs yearns for Stanford, while
Therese Kutner declares, “I’m a jazz baby!”
Overall the young women demonstrate a youthful ambition to be
appreciated, successful, and to have all opportunities made available to them.
Less than a year after publication of this journal the 19th
Amendment giving women the right to vote would be passed on August 18, 1920.
One cannot help but think about how the right to vote, coupled with other
achievements gained by the first wave women’s movement, including reform in
higher education, the workplace, and health care and access, continued to
influence the Girls’ High School class of 1919.
