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FRESH OFF THE PRESS!
Docent Donn Smith has been busy poking around the attic of the Mather Homestead and he's found treasures abound! Check out his blogs which document his findings including artifacts from 250 years of American life - a bible from 1743, a girl's dress from the 1860's, Stephen Mather's camera, a love letter written by Stephen Mather to his wife ❤️ and more. Oh the stories they tell!
A Tip of the Hat to the Chief…A fun look at Stephen Mather’s choices in headwear.
By 1929, as Director of the National Parks Service, Stephen Mather was respon-sible for 25 National Parks comprising 7.6 million acres,...
Mather Homestead Foundation
2 days ago1 min read
“I know that he spent at least $200,000 of his own money for the benefit of the national parks.” Stephen Mather’s generosity remembered by Francis Farquhar
Farquhar spent three years at the Harvard Crimson and twenty years as editor of the Sierra Club Bulletin. He climbed all the 14,000 foot...
Mather Homestead Foundation
2 days ago2 min read
Class Acts: Three Schools Named for Stephen T. Mather
In an earlier blog we looked at various locations in the National Parks that had been named in honor of the Park Services’ first...
Mather Homestead Foundation
3 days ago2 min read
Tidings of comfort and joy…The Homestead’s trove of Christmas reading.
Without question, the holidays were a time of celebration at the Homestead. Nestled on an upper shelf in the Keeping Room is a...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Sep 111 min read
A Fireside Chat: A brief look at three objects from the Keeping Room Hearth
The Homestead was built around a central chimney serving three fireplaces, the largest of which is in the Keeping Room. This fireplace,...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Sep 111 min read
Bertha Jemima Walker Mather ... An overdue appreciation of Stephen’s mother
On June 20, 1862, Bertha Jemima Walker, the youngest daughter of Edward and Sophia Walker, received her diploma from the Misses...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Sep 91 min read
Joseph Wakeman Mather - 4 lesser-known facts about Stephen Mather’s father
Tours often speak of Joseph Mather’s purchase of the Homestead from his cousin, Ann Lockwood. Or how Stephen followed his father’s...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Sep 42 min read
The painting in the parlor. The portrait of Stephen Mather’s mother.
Often, visitors to the Homestead parlor are told that the painting of Bertha Jemima Walker was originally much larger and included her...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Sep 41 min read
Before there was Ancestry.com…The Joseph Mather Family Register
Recently discovered among the archived holdings is a commercially-produced lithograph form designed to record family births and deaths. ...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Aug 221 min read
Nesting in the archives: An avian encyclopedia that predates Audubon!
Where can you find a passenger pigeon, the great auk, and a dodo too? In The Natural History of Birds.” A well-traveled copy of this...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Aug 141 min read
Who painted this iconic portrait of Stephen Mather? When, why, and just where is it?
If you’ve picked up Robert Shankland’s definitive biography of Stephen Mather, you’ve seen the image. If you’ve visited the Homestead,...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Aug 121 min read
“Ah, the stories we could tell…”Gleanings from an 1848 Mather Genealogy
In a small volume entitled “Genealogy of the Mather Family from about 1500 to 1847,” the compiler states that “…he had been furnished...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Aug 42 min read
Reflecting on the Homestead’s Many Mirrors.
In colonial America, mirrors were not used just as looking glasses, but as sources of lighting. Whether from windows or fireplaces,...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Aug 41 min read
Sometimes bookends tell a story too. Revisiting an NPS gift to Bertha Mather McPherson
A table sits at the far eastern end of the Keeping Room. On the table are books buttressed by a pair of wooden bookends. Upon each...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Jul 292 min read
From an architect to a zoologist…a churchman to a playboy…the tennis court to the Supreme Court. A brief look at 6 writers of notes and letters to Stephen Mather.
Attempting to learn about the men and women who wrote to Stephen Mather in the late 1920s, we find that his circle of friends and...
Mather Homestead Foundation
May 252 min read
From The Petrified Forest to Poet of the West: A note to Stephen Mather from Norman Wicklund Macleod
In February 1929, Stephen Mather received a note from Norman Macleod, thanking Mather for his “kindness and courtesy.” Macleod was...
Mather Homestead Foundation
May 132 min read
The man who gave up $25,000,000 for love. A note to Stephen Mather from Jordan Lawrence Mott
Among the letters Stephen Mather received from well-wishers in 1928 was one postmarked Santa Catalina Island from Jordan Lawrence Mott...
Mather Homestead Foundation
May 72 min read
Hey, do we have any more unnamed mountains?Giving legacy to 6 Stephen Mather correspondents
Established in 1890, The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN), a federal body operating under the Secretary of the Interior...
Mather Homestead Foundation
May 62 min read
Hey, do we have any more unnamed mountains? Giving legacy to 6 Stephen Mather correspondents
Established in 1890, The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN), a federal body operating under the Secretary of the Interior...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Apr 292 min read
He put the National Parks on the map. The Park Service did the same for him.
We all know about the Mather plaques that can be found in so many of our National Parks. But beyond that, the National Park Service has...
Mather Homestead Foundation
Apr 291 min read
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