By 1929, as Director of the National Parks Service, Stephen Mather was respon-sible for 25 National Parks comprising 7.6 million acres, hosting 2,600,000 visitors a year—and all on a federal operating appropriation of only $2.2 million dollars. Professionally he had to wear many hats; sartorially he did so as well! At the Homestead, cosseted in its own case, is Stephen’s top hat. The hat was by The Williams Company, Southern Building, Washington DC, and has the initials ST

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...

In an earlier blog we looked at various locations in the National Parks that had been named in honor of the Park Services’ first...

Without question, the holidays were a time of celebration at the Homestead. Nestled on an upper shelf in the Keeping Room is a...

The Homestead was built around a central chimney serving three fireplaces, the largest of which is in the Keeping Room. This fireplace,...

On June 20, 1862, Bertha Jemima Walker, the youngest daughter of Edward and Sophia Walker, received her diploma from the Misses Bucknall’s finishing school “Of Amiable Deportment and Excellent Scholarship.” Two years later, on June 27, 1864, at the age of twenty, she was married to Joseph Wakman Mather, who had turned forty-four earlier that year. Almost immediately thereafter, the couple left for San Francisco, far from Bertha’s lifelong home, friends and family. Three

Tours often speak of Joseph Mather’s purchase of the Homestead from his cousin, Ann Lockwood. Or how Stephen followed his father’s footsteps when he went to work for Pacific Coast Borax. But often overlooked is that Joseph Wakeman Mather was also… A Grammar School Principal. In the late 1850s, J. W. Mather was principal of Grammar School No. 20 as well as Treasurer of the New York Teachers’ Association. A 1859 newspaper article wrote: “The large new first class school e

Often, visitors to the Homestead parlor are told that the painting of Bertha Jemima Walker was originally much larger and included her...

Recently discovered among the archived holdings is a commercially-produced lithograph form designed to record family births and deaths. This particular “Family Register” focuses on Deacon Mather’s son Joseph, his marriage to Happy Wakeman, and their five children. The listing of names and births corresponds to dates in the Mather Genealogy. Notable however, is the birthdate of Happy Wakeman. According to the published Wakeman Genealogy, Happy was born June 1, 1795, not Ja

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 two-volume compendium rests in its own box in the Homestead archives. Published in Bungay, England in 1815, this work predates Audubon by 12 years. On the inside cover of Volume One is written “H. Thacker’s Book 1818” and on the facing page “J. Floy Jr. from his mother.” Who was H. Thacker? Humphrey Thacker was the great-grandfather of Jan

If you’ve picked up Robert Shankland’s definitive biography of Stephen Mather, you’ve seen the image. If you’ve visited the Homestead,...

In a small volume entitled “Genealogy of the Mather Family from about 1500 to 1847,” the compiler states that “…he had been furnished...

In colonial America, mirrors were not used just as looking glasses, but as sources of lighting. Whether from windows or fireplaces,...

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...

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...

In February 1929, Stephen Mather received a note from Norman Macleod, thanking Mather for his “kindness and courtesy.” Macleod was...

Among the letters Stephen Mather received from well-wishers in 1928 was one postmarked Santa Catalina Island from Jordan Lawrence Mott...

Established in 1890, The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN), a federal body operating under the Secretary of the Interior...

Established in 1890, The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN), a federal body operating under the Secretary of the Interior...

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...