Student Life

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A photograph of the first class of Humboldt State Teacher's College - an institution primarily founded to teach women how to be teachers. Humboldt State was created in a response to a need for teachers in rural areas. As advertized in the October 1916 Humboldt State Normal School Bulletin, total school expenses of attending was about $12.50 to $15.00 per month. 

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Centerfold to the Humboldt State Normal School College Letter - Summer School Announcement and Program. Outlines classes that students could elect to take over the summer. Such classes were  Applied Design and Gift Work, Elementary Manual Training, How to Teach Non-English Speaking Children (first grade), Psychology, Educational Sociology, Library Training, Library Practice, Children's Literature, Literary Appreciation, Story Telling, Pageantry, Piano, Americanization, Public School Music, Glee Club, Jewelry, Pottery, Woodwork, Field Geography, Nature Study, General Science, Swimming, and Physical Education.

The letter also announced the newest builsing - Founder's Hall - as the first permanent building of Humboldt State Normal School, which cost $300,00 to build. Students were allowed to board in the school, and the registration fee for summer school was $2.50. According to the Cabrillo yerbook of 1927, the construction of Founder's Hall began as early as April 6, 1914. 51 acres had been donated to Humboldt State Normal College by W.A. PReston and the Union Water Company. Eureka, Ferndale, and Arcata had all been vying to be the location of the university, but the large donations secured Arcata as the site on which Humboldt State would be built. 

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Humboldt State Teacher's College's Founder's Hall Courtyard. When the building was first built, there were no windows in the archways, or the exposed second story. According to professor and later vice-president of Humboldt State, the architect of Founder's Hall was a Sacramento man who was interested in Grecian misson architecture, and thus created a building that would have been more suitable for a Mediterranean climate. Due to annual flooding, glass panes were added to the archways and second story. 

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Founder's Hall in Spring, 1922

On Humboldt's Redwoods 

Thou Mighty redwood tree, standing since the first of time, 

Guardian of this college, in thy calmness most sublime, 

Holding in thy shadows and thy memories so fast,

Secrets of great ages, long since gone, long past,

Now standin out boldly, 'neath the sky's dark blue, 

Now lost in the shadows of a misty hue, 

A grand old monarch unyielding to stand, 

Ever the same in out changing land.

 - Winston Schussman, Humboldt State Teacher's College Student, 1927

- Cabrillo -

Below are samples of pages from the Cabrillo yearbook - Humboldt State Teachers Colleges' first yearbook, which was printed in 1927. This is the only publication of a Cabrillo yearbook in the school's history. 

"Cabrillo" was chosen as the name of the annual after much debate. The euphony and historical significance of the word were the deciding factors. Cabrillo was a daring explorer who discovered California and commanded an intrepid expedition. Memebers of his expedition sailed as far as Humboldt county after his death. His name is synonymous for courage, a quality which must neccessarily be noticeably present in connection with the publication of the next few issues of this volume." 

- Cabrillo, 1927

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I

"Far above Pacific's waters, with its waves of blue,

Stands our noble Alma Mater, glorious to view. 

Hail, all hail to Humboldt College; loud her praises sing

Hail to thee, our Alma Mater; hail, all hail, all hail. 

II

College Life is swiftly passing, soon its sands are run. 

While we live we'ss ever cherish, frienships here begun. 

Hail, all hail to Humboldt College; loud her praises sing,

Hail to thee, our Alma Mater; hail, all hail, all hail."

 

-Alma Mater on the back of the 1932 commencement programme