San Antonio High School, Class of 1898
In searching for materials to display as part of this month’s First Saturday Exhibit, archivist Caitlin Donnelly stumbled across this fun graduation photograph of the San Antonio High School Class of 1898, contained within the library’s Cassiano-Pérez Family Papers:
Photograph of the San Antonio High School Class of 1898, taken June 2, 1898. We especially like the students’ outfits!
Names of students in the class, listed on the back of the photograph.
The Cassiano-Pérez collection also contains additional materials pertaining to Esther Pérez (circa 1882-1942), the third student from the right in the third row from the front. Esther was a teacher in San Antonio following her high school graduation. She later studied Romance languages and comparative literature at the University of Chicago, obtaining an associate’s degree (1917), bachelor’s degree with honors (1920), and master’s degree (1929). In July 1919, she married Gaspar C. Carvajal; evidence in the collection suggests they had long been friends. Returning to her native city, Esther worked for the San Antonio Independent School District as the Secretary of Administrators and Supervisors and the Director of Foreign Languages. She also authored several books and articles and participated in a number of organizations, including the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
Esther Perez’s graduation portrait, June 4, 1898.
Certificate to Esther Perez, one of three in the Cassiano-Pérez Family Papers, June 3, 1898.
Built in 1882, San Antonio High School was the first public secondary school established in the city, remaining the only one until Brackenridge High School was constructed in 1917. For more information about the history of the school, see this 2010 article from the San Antonio Express-News.
Illustration of San Antonio High School published in the “Souvenir of San Antonio, Texas,” 1887.
For Further Reading
DRT Library has a number of materials related to San Antonio schools, including yearbooks, records and documents, newspaper articles and vertical files, ephemera, and photographs.
Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.
