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)