This series consists of original and reproduction prints, oversize prints, panoramas, negatives, slides, reproduction drawings, and newspaper and magazine clippings depicting the campus, buildings, faculty, students, and events of San José State University, and its previous incarnations. Included are also some photographs and prints of local grammar schools. In most cases the photographer is not identified, but where it is known, he or she will be listed in the description.

This series documents May Fete, a May Day festival that used to be held at San José State, a series of photographs taken by Professor J. E. Addicott for an exhibit of the school in the 1893 World's Fair, and images of the buildings that housed the State Normal School in its early history.