James Cleghorn, Composer and Music Librarian

Illustrious pianist and Bay Area treasure Sarah Cahill will perform a concert of music by James Cleghorn at Old First Presbyterian Church on Sunday, January 5, 2025 at 2 PM. 

James Cleghorn was San Francisco Public Library's music librarian from 1951 until 1971. He wrote the following mini-autobiographical statement in the sole issue of The Affectionate Bear, a staff publication. 

James Cleghorn of the Art & Music dept. informs us that he turned to the study of musical composition many years ago chiefly as a creditable means of avoiding library conferences and committees.

It accompanies a musical miniature (Fugue Mignonne) that Cleghorn published there. Cleghorn was far too modest about his connection to musical composition. Several years before entering librarianship as a profession he published a piano work, How Do You Like This?, in Henry Cowell's legendary New Music Quarterly. He was an active part of San Francisco's musical and cultural life before and during his tenure at the Library.

James Cleghorn, Department Head (image source: "Art and Music Dedication")

James Gilbert Cleghorn was born in Sacramento on July 17, 1913. (In his biographical statement that accompanied his composition in the New Music Quarterly he stated that was born in Berkeley in 1914). The 1920 and 1930 censuses show that his family lived in Berkeley while his father taught at Lowell High School. They later moved to San Francisco. The 1940 census shows that he had completed two years of college and was already working as a librarian (although with that little education, he probably worked in some lesser role at a library). By the 1950 census he was working as a librarian the public library.

He started working at the San Francisco Public Library around 1946. He first worked in the Circulation Department and Cataloging Departments, and at Excelsior and Park Branches. In 1951, he started his tenure as head of the Music Department, taking over its founder Jessica Fredricks.

A librarian's work often is unnoticed behind the scenes - unpublicized yet evident to knowing library users through the collections built and the reference standards attained. Mr. Cleghorn (as his colleagues called him) met these standards. A 1953 San Francisco Chronicle article detailed the department's collection and programming under his leadership. He later assumed leadership of the new Art and Music Center in 1963. He gave a November 19, 1968 presentation teaching regional librarians about the use of scores for composer's collected works. Our files also include another talk he wrote entitled "Forms of Music Publications in the Art and Music Department of the San Francisco Public Library."

At his retirement he was honored by Library Commission Resolution #577.

WHEREAS, the quality of musical life in San Francisco is of the greatest importance to the City and is an area in which the Library performs an office of vital support through its materials and services, and

WHEREAS, the career of James Cleghorn during twenty of his twenty-five years with the Library has been concentrated in the Music Department which has benefited by the dedication of his strong subject knowledge and professional skills to the sustaining and development of a distinguished collection now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the San Francisco Public Library Commission extend to him on the occasion of his retirement an expression of deep appreciation for the valuable contribution he has made to the Library and the community; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Library Commission join the staff and administration in wishing him many years of continued productivity and fulfillment.

Few of Cleghorn's compositions have been published. We own the only two works listed in the WorldCat database, the aforementioned How Do You Like This?, as well as a setting of an Emily Dickinson poem, This Quiet Dust. Performances of his works can be researched in our databases for the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner as well as our department's Newspaper Clipping File.

Bibliography:

Affectionate Bear, San Francisco Public Library Staff Association (Winter 1969/1970).

Alves, Bill and Brett Campbell, Lou Harrison: American Musical Maverick (Indiana University Press, 2017).

"Art and Music Dedication," The Colophon March 8, 1963.

Cleghorn, James, "Collected Editions and Musical Monuments," in Music (Bay Area Reference Center, 1968).

Cleghorn, James (Composer) [Musicians and Performing Artists Vertical File]

Cleghorn, James, "Forms of Music Publications in the San Francisco Public Library" (unpublished typescript, Musicians and Performing Artists Vertical File).

Cleghorn, James, How Do You Like This?: Three ironies for piano; Lou Harrison, Saraband ; Prelude (New Music Society of California, 1938).

Cleghorn, James and Emily Dickinson (poem), This Quiet Dust: A Song (Carlvi Music Co., 1960).

James Cleghorn, [Review of The San Francisco Opera: 1923-1961, by Arthur J. Bloomfield]. Notes, March 1962.

Frankenstein, Alfred, "The Music Section of the Public Library," San Francisco Chronicle March 8, 1953.

"James Cleghorn," Sonora Union Democrat September 25, 1987.

"James Cleghorn to Retire," San Francisco Public Library Official Bulletin August 27, 1971.

"Resolution #577," San Francisco Public Library Library Commission Minutes September 14, 1971.

San Francisco Public Library – Main Library – Art and Music Department [Newspaper Clipping File].

San Francisco Bay Area ... Today

The "Today" of the title was the year 1973 when San Francisco was in the midst of a development spree. A later book, Splendid Survivors: San Francisco's Downtown Architectural Heritage, reacted forcefully to the overbuilding of San Francisco's downtown with brutalist high rises. While Splendid Survivors dismissed the aesthetic value of these newcomers, San Francisco Bay Area... Today celebrated them.

The Urban Land Institute, an almost 90 year old nonprofit organization dedicated to real estate and infrastructure development, compiled this book. While Splendid Survivors focused on architectural style and historical context, San Francisco Bay Area ... Today examines those factors as well as the bottom line. The entries look at the construction cost, each project's function and the amenities offered.

The book only dedicates the opening section to San Francisco's downtown. It also looks at the redevelopment projects of that time such as those at the Embarcadero / Golden Gateway, Japantown, Yerba Buena Center, Diamond Heights and the reconstruction of Market Street. 

As the title suggests, San Francisco Bay Area ... Today covers the wider Bay Area, devoting almost sixty percent of its pages to projects outside San Francisco. Many of the projects detailed are suburban shopping malls and housing developments. The book also has an excellent chapter on the development and technology of the nascent BART system. There are black and white photographs throughout, sometimes show the before and after of a project, throughout the book.

An artist's rendering of an unbuilt Sports Arena at Yerba Buena Center

San Francisco Bay Area ... Today / Compiled by Carla C. Sobala, Meetings Division Director, Urban Land Institute, 1973 Fall Meeting. ([Urban Land Institute], 1973).

San Francisco Sheet Music of the Roaring Twenties from the Dorothy Starr Collection featuring local bandleaders

The 1920s were a heyday for live music. Most people went out on the town to enjoy their music -- sound recordings had limited audio fidelity, films were silent and  San Francisco also had a lively music publishing scene. Sherman, Clay & Co. and Villa Moret, Inc. both introduced hit songs of that era. We have collected many imprints of that era in our Dorothy Starr sheet music collection.

Come to the Steve Silver Beach Blanket Babylon Music Center on the Main Library's Fourth Floor to view the display "San Francisco Sheet Music of the Roaring Twenties from the Dorothy Starr Collection featuring local bandleaders." 

We display sheet with photographs of the main bandleaders of that time - Ben Black, Abe Lyman, Herb Meyerinck, Jack Coakley, Anson Weeks, Walt Roesner, Tom Gerun (Gerunovich), Clyde Cooper, Frank Jenks and Paul Ash. The bands performed at motion picture palaces like the California Theater and Granada Theatre, hotels like the Mark Hopkins and the Clift and restaurants like the Cabiria and the Roof Garden Cafe.

Sheet music on display:

Day by Day in Every Way (I love you more and more) / words and music by Art Hickman and Ben Black (Florintine Music Publishing Co., 1923).

Idolizing / words and music by Sam Messenheimer, Irving Abrahamson and Ray West (Sherman, Clay & Co., 1926).

New Moon / words and music by Anson Weeks, George S. Tyner and Herbert B. Marple (Weeks & Winge, Inc., 1926).

Croon A Little Lullaby / music by Chris Schonberg and Clyde Baker (Sherman, Clay & Co., 1925).

Moonlit Waters / music by Nacio Herb Brown (Villa Moret, Inc., 1927).

Count The Stars / words and music by Glenhall Taylor, Henry Santrey, Maurice J. Gunsky and Merton H. Bories (Florintine Music Publishing Co., 1926).

I'm Telling You / music by Vincent Rose (Sherman, Clay & Co., 1929).

Consolation / music by Merton H. Bories (Villa Moret, Inc., 1926).

Nancy (Irish fox trot) / music by Neil Moret (Villa Moret, Inc., 1924).

Dear Little Girl (When I'm with you) / words and music by Otto Cesana (Villa Moret, Inc., 1928).

Art, Music & Recreation Books With The Most Holds (October 2024)

Books about performing artists and entertainers usually dominate our most popular books lists. Memoirs by Al Pacino (Sonny Boy) and Lisa Marie Presley (From Here to The Great Unknown) rose to the top of today's list. Other related memoirs include Kelly Bishop's The Third Gilmore Girl, Earth To Moon by Moon Unit Zappa, director Jon Chu's Viewfinder. 

Drawn Testimony offers Jane Rosenberg's unique perspective as a 40 year courtroom sketch artist. What's Next, Melissa Fitzgerald and Marcy McCormack's memoir of The West Wing, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the television show. Emily Nussbaum's Cue The Sun looks at the popular phenomenon of reality TV.

William Finnegan's surfing memoir Barbarian Days has been circulating consistently over the past decade that we have offered the title. Danny Lyon's photo documentation of motorcycle culture, The Bikeriders, first published in 1968 and reprinted in 2014 remains a hot title.

Craft books often figure among our most popular titles, this time including Making Things, 15 Minute Art Watercolour, and Knitting for Olive. Works discussing the creative process like The Long Run and Assembling Tomorrow are also perennially popular.

Daniel Levitin's I Heard There Was a Special Chord explores the global looking at the relationship between music and healing. Paris In Ruins by Sebastian Smee ties the birth of French impression to its larger historical context. Memories of Home by decorator Heidi Caillier is a welcome addition to our interior decoration shelves.

Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino (Penguin Press, 2024).

From Here to The Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough (Random House, 2024).

What's Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service by Melissa Fitzgerald & Mary McCormack (Dutton, 2024).

The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir by Kelly Bishop, with Lindsay Harrison (Gallery Books 2024).

I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel J. Levitin (W.W. Norton & Company, 2024).

The Bikeriders by Danny Lyon (Aperture, 2014).

Paris In Ruins: Love, War, and The Birth of Impressionism by Sebastian Smee (W.W. Norton & Company, 2024)

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (Penguin Press, 2015).

Making Things: Finding Use, Meaning & Satisfaction in Crafting Everyday Objects by Erin Boyle & Rose Pearlman (Hardie Grant North America, 2024).

15 Minute Art Watercolour: Learn to Paint in Six Steps or Less by Jola Sopek (Hardie Grant Books, 2024).

Earth to Moon: A Memoir by Moon Unit Zappa (Dey St., 2024).

The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry by Stacey D'Erasmo (Graywolf Press, 2024).

Drawn Testimony: My Four Decades as A Courtroom Sketch Artist by Jane Rosenberg (Hanover Square Press, 2024).

Cue The Sun: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum (Random House, 2024).

Memories of Home: Interiors by Heidi Caillier (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2023).

Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen by Jon M. Chu and Jeremy McCarter (Random House, 2024).

Knitting for Olive: Classic, Timeless Knitting Patterns (Interweave, 2023)

The Selby Comes Home by Todd Selby (Abrams, 2024).

Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future by Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley (Ten Speed Press, 2024).

Previous lists:

Most requested Art, Music & Recreation Center books (Dewey 700s) - March 2023

The Top Fifteen Most Requested Books in the Art, Music and Recreation Center, March 2022

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center books in November 2017

The Most Requested Art, Music & Recreation Center Books in January 2017

The Most Requested Art, Music & Recreation Center Books - December 2015

The 25 Art, Music and Recreation Center Books with the Most Hold in April 2015

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center books in 2013

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center books in May 2013

Maya Angelou and the Purple Onion

Another pioneer offbeat, avant-garde, and/or existential cellar, with a more or less continuous show featuring folk singers, monologists, and comics of the cerebral variety.

That was the legendary Herb Caen's appraisal of the Purple Onion. An off-shoot of of Enrico Banducci's legendary hungry i, the Purple Onion opened in early 1953.

Weep not for the hungry fellows who run the "hungry i" tavern on Columbus avenue. They'll do their own weeping in a branch they're opening across the street to be called "The Purple Onion"... (San Francisco Chronicle December 18, 1952)

According to Phyllis Diller, Keith Rockwell, a co-owner of the hungry i, left his partnership with Banducci to open the Purple Onion as a vehicle for the "chanteuse" Jorie Remes. Diller wrote that Rockwell, who "absolutely adored her," was also a musician who played string bass.

Jorie Remes (Marjorie Remes who was later was known as Jorie Remus) was a native of New York City. She perfected her craft in the early 1950s at La Boite de Sardines [Sardine Tin] along the Paris Champs Elysees. "Jorie Remus was too hip for the room before being too hip for the room was a thing, and almost even before there was a room worth being to hip in." That is the appraisal of Shawn Levey in his book In on The Joke: The Original Queens of Stand-Up Comedy.

source: San Francisco Chronicle May 9, 1953

She was a singer and monologist who sang and wrote her own material that she called "20th Century Laments." Historian and former Chronicle theater critic Gerald Nachman designated her as one of the "foremothers" of stand-up comedy. Phyllis Diller described her as "a willowy, sexy, French chanteuse-type with a husky voice, a droll sense of humor, and haughty, heaving affected manner." By November 1953, a Chronicle columnist remarked that crowds lined up outside the Purple Onion's door to watch her performance. When Variety magazine reviewed her act they noted that she projected "warm cynicism" and that she "has a knowledge of humor in its less blatant forms."

At the same time that Remes was putting the Purple Onion on the map as a destination for the night hawks of San Francisco, Maya Angelou, then going by Marguerite Angelos, was in the process of divorcing her husband. Her savings were dwindling so she went looking for work in San Francisco's International Settlement. This was the entertainment district that supplanted the former Barbary Coast occupying Pacific Avenue between Montgomery and Kearney Streets.

In her memoir, Singin' And Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, Angelou remembered how the block had four strip joints. She found work as a showgirl at one of them -- the Garden of Allah. (Angelou may have changed the name of this establishment -- it is not listed in the city directories or phonebooks of that time). Once the management discovered her expressive skill as a dance, they had her perform her artistic routines fully clothed and she started bringing in a different clientele. The audience transitioned from lonely old men to "laughing open faced couples" who came to see her.

One night she noticed a party of four - three men and a woman. Angelou described the latter, Jorie Remes, as a "young Marlene Dietrich-looking woman" with a shock of "sunlight-yellow hair." They were all from the Purple Onion, just a few blocks away. Word had spread about this expressive dancer. Angelou wrote:

These beautiful people and their friends began dropping in each evening and I awaited their arrival. I danced indifferently until I caught a glimpse of their party near the back of the room, then I offered them the best steps I had and as soon as the dance was finished I hurried over.

Jorie Remes (from the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

Remes had accepted a gig at a New York nightclub for the new year and the club was looking for a new headliner to replace her. They learned that Angelou was being let go by her club and wondered whether she could sing as well as dance. She volunteered that she could and hey found her a vocal coach and helped her work up a repertoire of songs. She and the rest of them even brainstormed her new stage name. Maya (a truncation of Marguerite) was a nickname her brother familiarly called her and Angelou was adapted from her married surname - Angelos.

With Jorie Remes on her way to New York City, the Purple Onion debuted the name and persona Maya Angelou ("The New Singing Sensation") in their advertisement in the Chronicle of January 2, 1954. The Chronicle's nightlife correspondent, who went by "The Owl," excitedly announced on January 9, 1954 that:

The Purple Onion now has a bigger and better show with that young romantic baritone Patrick McVey and that new sensational find Maya Angelou. The Owl predicted she would make you forget Jorie Remes.

He later noted audiences frequently requested her rendition of the Louis Jordan song "Push ka pee she pie." He continued to gush:

The exotic Maya Angelou, now appearing at the Purple Onion, has more expression in her hands than most singers have in their faces. You really have to see Maya's graceful gestures to appreciate her.

Maya Angelou is the spellbinder at the Purple Onion. One moment the passion flower sings quietly and demurely and suddenly, she erupts in strictly spontaneous combustion. An artist with both delicacy and fire, Miss Angelou is certainly the most expressive singer in these parts.

After this auspicious start, her show business career took off. She continued her run at the Purple Onion through the end of August 1954. She then joined a European tour of Porgy and Bess as a dancer. While in Paris she headlined at a nightclub.

Mars-Club presents Maya Angelou (source: New York Herald Tribune October 2, 1954)

She returned to San Francisco in September 1955 where she headlined at a new nightclub called the Hollow Egg. We haven't found any photographs of Maya Angelou performing in San Francisco. Fortunately, the 1957 feature film, Calypso Heat Wave documented her act.

Maya Angelou, still shot from Calypso Heat Wave (1957)

Maya Angelou's show business career continued for several more years. She appeared in clubs in Los Angeles and New York. She also recorded a calypso album for Liberty Records in 1957. But her name and her fame started with the Purple Onion on Columbus Avenue.

The Purple Onion in 1964 (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

Bibliography

"Americans Make Good as Paris Nitery Ops," The Billboard February 3, 1951.

Angelou, Maya, The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou (Modern Library, 2004).

"The Bachelor," San Francisco Chronicle November 23, 1953.

Caen, Herb, Herb Caen's Guide to San Francisco (Doubleday, 1957).

De Beix, Maxime, "Paris," Variety October 25, 1950

Diller, Phyllis, Like A Lampshade in A Whorehouse: My Life in Comedy (J.P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2005).

Jennings, Dean, "It's News to Me," San Francisco Chronicle December 18, 1952.

Levy, Shawn, In on The Joke: The Original Queens of Stand-up Comedy (Doubleday, 2022).

"Maya Angelou in Calypso Heat Wave (1957)," Youtube.

Nachman, Gerald, Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s (Pantheon Books, 2003).

The Owl, "After Night Falls," San Francisco Chronicle January 9, 1954

The Owl, "After Night Falls," San Francisco Chronicle February 27, 1954.

The Owl, "After Night Falls," San Francisco Chronicle April 10, 1954.

"Purple Onion, S.F.," Variety August 12, 1953

Steif, Bill, "San Francisco," Variety July 6, 1955

Databases used:

Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive

Gallica
San Francisco Chronicle Historical

The San Francisco of Maya Angelou

The San Francisco Public Library is honored to be the home of “Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman,” Lava Thomas's monument to Maya Angelou. Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928, came to the Bay Area with her family in the 1940s. She documented her eventful life through several autobiographies. We also have clues to her activities in San Francisco through our print and database collections.

The 1950 Census, found in Ancestry.com, shows her living with her mother, Vivian Baxter, her brother, Bailey, and her son, Clyde at 948 Fulton Street in San Francisco. The Census mis-records her first name as Margaret and notes that she worked as a "saleslady" in "retail music" (i.e., a record shop).

She was listed twice in the 1949 San Francisco City Directory.

Her name appears as the misspelled Margrette Johnson, a dancer residing at 948 Fulton Street (her family's address) and as Marguerite Johnson, a clerk for David Rosenbaum (the owner of the Melrose Record Shop).

At the beginning of her memoir Singin' And Swingin' And Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), she described getting hired at the Melrose Record Shop at 1256 Fillmore Street.

San Francisco Chronicle April 29, 1951

The store featured jazz and rhythm and blues music not easily found in other stores. Louise Cox noticed the young Maya Angelou's knowledgeable taste in recordings and hired her as a clerk. 

The Billboard November 5, 1949

Husband and wife Richard and Louise Cox ran the operations of the store. Angelou met her future husband Tosh Angelos working there.

Angelou made an appearance in the November 28, 1951 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle with her married name -- Mrs. Marguerite Angelos. This family event happened at the Booker T. Washington Center and featured art and performances by children. Angelou assisted in putting the program together.

Her autobiography, Gather Together in My Name (1974), tells of her early forays into the performing arts. She told of being tutored by an experienced dancer named R.L. Poole. Angelou recalled her performing with him as the team Poole and Rita (Rita was a diminutive of Marguerite) at the Champagne Supper Club. This nightclub operated at 1849 Post Street between 1952 and 1955. The club frequently advertised in the Chronicle but there is no mention of Poole and Rita there. The dance team may have rated as "others" as shown in this blurb announcing comedy stars Red Foxx and Slappy White.

source: San Francisco Chronicle April 4, 1952

Around this time, Maya Angelou met dancer Alvin Ailey at the dance classes they took with avant-garde choreographers Walland Lathrop and Anna Halprin. Ailey's biographer described them forming a dance team, Al and Rita, that performed at small community events. Ailey, in his autobiography, noted they rehearsed frequently but never danced outside of her apartment.

Pearl Primus, the Trinidadian-American dancer and choreographer, also strongly influenced Angelou as a performer. She described being moved to tears watching Primus perform her dances rooted in African tradition. An awed Angelou auditioned for Primus who exclaimed, "You are a dancer. You are a dancer," and awarded Angelou a scholarship to study with her in New York.

Bibliography

Ailey, Alvin, Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey (Carol Pub. Group, 1995).

Angelou, Maya, The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou (Modern Library, 2004).

"David Rosenbaum [obituary]," San Francisco Chronicle January 6, 1998.

"Dealer Doings," The Billboard November 5, 1949.

Dunning, Jennifer, Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance (Addison-Wesley, 1996).

"Notes And Addenda," San Francisco Chronicle November 28, 1951.

Polk's Crocker-Langley San Francisco City Directory (R.L. Polk & Co.,1949)

Schwartz, Peggy, The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus, with Murray Schwartz (Yale University Press, 2011).

Databases used:

Ancestry.com
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive

San Francisco Chronicle Historical

J. C. Cebrian's gift to the Music Department of the San Francisco Public Library

image source: Sigma Delta Pi website

Juan Cebrián Cervera (1848-1935) was a prominent Spanish-American citizen of San Francisco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although he was born and died in Madrid, he came to California in 1870 where he made his fortune. He appears in directories and in the press variously as J. C. Cebrian, John C. Cebrian or Juan C. Cebrian. A man of many skills and interests he was variously described as a civil engineer, an architect, a surveyor, a scientist and a capitalist. 

Educated as a military engineer in Spain, he came to the United States in the 1870s where he worked on Pacific coast lighthouse construction. He later worked for the Western Pacific Railroad. In the 1880s he was the municipal architect and town surveyor for Santa Barbara and was quite prosperous by the time he moved to San Francisco in the 1890s. A 1909 article described him as "a millionaire government contractor."

Cebrian prodigiously donated Spanish language books and scores to many libraries, including San Francisco Public Library, Stanford and UC Berkeley. These gifts were especially welcome in San Francisco where the 1906 Earthquake and Fire had required the Library to rebuild its collections from scratch.

source: News Notes from California Libraries August 1918.

The San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed with his gift, the San Francisco Public Library had the best Spanish collection the west coast. Cebrian's donation of musical scores is listed in the August 1914 and November 1915 issues of the San Francisco Public Library Monthly Bulletin, a publication that listed all the additions to the Library's collection.

Many of the donated scores were for zarzuelas, a form of musical theater popular in Spain, Mexico and the Philippines. He also contributed collections of Spanish sacred music as well as the collected works of famed renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Cebrian also sponsored the Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Church at 908 Broadway, San Francisco, provide the land and the funds to build it. Along with E.J. Molera he commissioned Jo Mora to create the Miguel Cervantes Memorial in Golden Gate Park.

Bibliography:

An incomplete list of volumes contributed by Cebrian to the San Francisco Public Library's collections.

"A Bridge of (Probable) Sighs," Santa Barbara Daily Press May 28, 1880.

"Cebrián Cervera, Juan (1848-1935)." Archivo de la Real Academia Española.

"Cebrian Donation," San Francisco Public Library Monthly Bulletin May 1914.

"Has Best Spanish Collection on Coast," San Francisco Chronicle May 17, 1914.

"Juan Cebrián Cervera (1848-1935)" Biblioteca ETSAM.

"Le Breton and Laveaga Heirs at War," San Francisco Examiner August 8, 1909.

"Music by Spanish Composers: Cebrian Donation," San Francisco Public Library Monthly Bulletin November 1915.

"San Francisco," News Notes from California Libraries August 1918.

“Services for Ralph J. Cebrian, 81,” San Francisco Chronicle November 14, 1970.

Varela-Lago, Ana Maria, "Conquerors, Immigrants, Exiles: The Spanish Diaspora in the United States (1848-1948)," PhD Thesis, University of California, San Diego.

Vives, General, Juan C. Cebrián (Huérfanos de Intendencia e Intervención Militares, 1935)