Isabella Coleman

Question: About Isabella Coleman and her being involved with, or involving the students of PJC, PHS as she constructed her floats?
Answer: Isabella Coleman was born in 1892. She grew up in Pasadena. She started working on floats at Pasadena High School in 1904, when she was 12. Isabella Coleman helped to decorate flower-covered wagons for the Tournament of  Roses. Teenaged Coleman entered her own float in the parade and won second prize in the carriage division. She was the first to weave flowers in and out of a chicken wire frame rather than tie them onto the float's structure. She was the first to glue flower petals onto her floats. She created the design and decorating techniques that float builders use today. Mrs. Coleman is considered the original leader in float experimentation with many special engines and contraptions. Over the next 50 years, she designed more than 250 award-winning Tournament of Roses floats. She transformed the art of float design. Mrs. Isabella Coleman became the Queen of Float Construction. After she retired (1969) the Tournament of Roses honored her by adding a new parade award: the Isabella Coleman Trophy for the best presentation of color and color harmony in flowers.

More about Isabella Coleman click: http://www.scpr.org/news/2009/12/23/isabella-coleman-rose-parade-pioneer/
Sources: TR791.62 H 3 (p. 66, 69, 76, 78); TR791.62 H 1(p. 30, 33-35, 274)
Location: Locked case.