Guide to the Stephen Tyng Mather Film Collection

This finding aid describes the Stephen Tyng Mather Film Collection, part of the NPS History Collection. To search this guide for names, places, key words, or phrases enter Ctrl F on your keyboard (command key + F key on a Mac). Request an in-person research appointment or get more information by contacting the archivist.

Stephen T. Mather. (NPS History Collection, HFCA 1607)

Collection Overview

Collection Number: HFCA 1883
Creator: Mather, Stephen Tyng (1867-1930)
Title: Stephen Tyng Mather Film Collection
Dates: 1920-1929
Volume of Collection: 39 EA
Language of Materials: English

Digitized Copies: This collection has not been digitized.

Conditions Governing Access: Except for films that have already been digitized, this collection is not open to research use without funding for digitization. Requests to digitize films for access should be sent to the archivist. Films are housed in cold storage and requests require advance notice. Not all commercial films may have entered the public domain. See also the NPS general copyright & restrictions information.
Provenance: Donated to the National Park Service by Stephen Mather's three grandchildren.
Processing Note: This collection was processed and described by Nancy Russell in 2017. This guide was updated in December 2024.

Rights Statement for Archival Description: This guide is in the public domain.
Preferred Citation: Stephen Tyng Mather Film Collection, NPS History Collection (HFCA 1883)
Location of Repository: NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center, PO Box 50, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Related Materials:

• Assembled Historic Records of the NPS (HFCA 1645), NPS History Collection
• NPS Historic Photograph Collection (HFCA 1607), NPS History Collection
• Stephen T. Mather's 16mm film projector, NPS History Collection
• Stephen Tyng Mather Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
• Fred Payne Clatworthy Collection, History Colorado

Biographical Note

Stephen Tyng Mather was born in San Francisco, California on July 4, 1867. His parents were Joseph Wakeman Mather, a business merchant with ties to the borax industry, and Bertha Jemima Walker. A descendant of Richard Mather, a prominent Puritan minister in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, Mather attended Lincoln Grammar School and Boys' High School in San Francisco.

In 1887, he graduated from University of California, Berkeley. He moved to the East Coast and worked as a journalist for the “New York Sun” for the next five years. In 1893, he married Jane Thacker Floy and the Mathers had one daughter, Bertha Floy Mather. Following the marriage, Mather joined his father in the borax business at the Pacific Coast Borax Company, working in advertising and as a sales promotion manager. Talented at marketing and publicity, Mather helped Francis Marion "Borax" Smith make the brand name 20 Mule Borax synonymous with borax in the United States. In 1898, he and partner Thomas Thorkildsen created Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company.

In 1904, Mather hiked the Swiss Alps, followed by climbing up the icy side of Mount Rainier with the Sierra Club in 1905. He credited such experiences not only with making him into a committed mountaineer but also with inspiring ideas to improve national parks in the United States. Mather found that the parks had poorly maintained trails and roads, and no protection from private lumber and cattle interests. In 1914, after hiking in the High Sierra, he wrote the secretary of interior, Franklin K. Lane, to complain about the management of the parks. The story goes that Lane, who was looking for someone to administer the parks, invited Mather to come to Washington, D.C., and "run them yourself" as assistant to the secretary of the interior.

Mather came to Washington from Chicago in January 1915 as special assistant to secretary of the interior for national park concerns. There, he met Horace M. Albright, who became his assistant and together they laid the groundwork to establish a system of national parks. That summer the Mather took a group of influential individuals on a back country trek through the High Sierras. The "Mather Mountain Party" as it became known engendered significant support for the mission to establish a bureau to manage the parks. Within a relatively short time, Mather brought together a broad coalition in support for national parks, including the railroads and other business interests; writers and journalists; environmental groups such as Sierra Club, American Civic Association, and Save the Redwoods; and members of Congress, to secure passage of the act establishing the National Park Service (NPS) on August 25, 1916.

An appropriations act on April 17, 1917 provided funds for NPS operations and Mather became the first director on May 16, 1917. Albright became assistant director. However, Mather became incapacitated by depression shortly after the NPS was established, leaving Albright to serve as acting director and get the new bureau up and running. As Mather recovered, he continued to promote park access, development, and use and contributed generously to the parks from his personal fortune. He traveled regularly to the parks, often bringing government officials, senators, and representatives with as guests, to showcase the national parks and their needs. During his tenure the Service's domain expanded eastward with the addition of Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Mammoth Cave National Parks.

Around 1924, Mather purchased a Bell and Howell 16mm Cine camera and Filmo Cine Projector. He used the camera to create home movies that document his family life, national parks he visited, and special events. From 1925-1928, he made dozens of films while traveling to national parks as part of his annual inspection tours, as well as during trips to Alaska and Hawaii.

Mather began talking about retirement in January 1927, saying that he was tired and had accomplished all that he had set out to do. However, that phase passed quickly and, following a trip to Central America, he refocused on “all that’s got to be done” and continued his work and his strenuous travel schedule. During a spring 1927 trip to Hawaii, Mather had a heart attack on the outbound boat journey. Although he recovered and appeared fit when he returned to California, others remained concerned about his health. He suffered a stroke on November 5, 1928, and retired from the NPS on January 12, 1929. He remained in the hospital until May 1929, when he returned to the Mather homestead in Darien, CT.

In November 1928, Mather entered the Corey Hill Hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts to work with Dr. Joel Goldthwaite to regain mobility in the leg, arm, and fingers affected by the stroke. He had a second stroke while at the hospital and died on January 22, 1930. Following his death, sympathy messages sent to Mrs. Mather and newspaper obituaries praised his good works. Numerous locations and geographic features were named in his honor, including Mount Mather in Alaska; Mather Point at the Grand Canyon; Mather Memorial Highway in the Cascades; Mather Memorial Arboretum of redwoods in Strawberry Canyon at the University of California; and a 10,000-tree Mather Forest was developed at Lake George, NY, among others.

Bronze plaques, known in the NPS as “Mather plaques” were designed by sculptor Bryant Baker and installed in 23 national parks and 33 national monuments. Memorial trees were planted in numerous national parks and monuments. On July 10, 1932, the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, through the courtesy of NBC, made a National Memorial Broadcast in honor of Mather. In 1969, the scenic gorge of the Potomac River below Great Falls was renamed in his honor. Mather's legacy continues to be acknowledged in books, journals, newspaper reports, and documentaries that address the history of the National Park Service and conservation in the United States.

Sources

American National Bibliography Online. "Mather, Stephen Tyng", available at http://www.anb.org/articles/20/20-00648.html

Sellars, Richard West. (1997) Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History available at https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/sellars/chap3c.htm

Shankland, Richard. (1951). Steve Mather of the National Parks, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Scope and Content Note

16mm, silent, black and white films taken by NPS Director Stephen T. Mather with his Bell and Howell Cine camera. Films document trips to national parks from c. 1924-1929, including Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Redwoods, Isle Royale, and Rocky Mountain as well as trips to Hawaii and Alaska. Rocky Mountain film features Fall River Road and imagery by Fred Payne Clatworthy. Films include shots of Mather, his wife Jane Floy Mather and their daughter Bertha Floy Mather; Horace M. Albright; Mr. and Mrs. Arno B. Cammerer; Roger Toll; Oliver Mitchell; secretaries of the interior; and others. Subjects include wildlife such as deer, bears, moose, and buffalo (bison); Superintendents' Conference at Yosemite; opening of the Gardiner Gateway at Yellowstone; 1926 Coordination Commission at Yosemite; views of the High Sierra; Lake Tahoe; and the 1926 national parks visit by the Crown Prince of Sweden. Also contains films not created by Mather but developed between 1920-1929 to promote national parks, including Great Northern Railroad films of Glacier National Park and Horsley Productions films of Carlsbad, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon. Cine library films of Mount Rainier and Native Hawaiian hula dancing are also included.

Reel numbers are from the original film cannisters. They are not consecutive and not all films were assigned reel numbers. Undated films have been given approximate dates based on Mather's known travel schedule, whenever possible.

Arrangement

Organized into two series, as follows:
Series I: Mather's Home Movies, ca. 1924-1929
Series II: Film Productions, 1920-ca. 1927

Series I: Mather's Home Movies, ca. 1924-1929

Volume of Series: 31 EA
Arranged alphabetically by park or subject.

Scope and Content Note

16mm films made by Stephen T. Mather as part of his travels and work as director of the National Park Service. In some cases, films may have been sent to him by others. Most of the films feature specific parks, including Grand Canyon, Isle Royale, Redwoods, Rocky Mountain, Mt. McKinley, Yosemite, and Yellowstone, as well as parks in Alaska and Hawai'i. Films were also made at conferences and at the Mather Homestead in Darien, Connecticut. People featured in the films include Stephen T. Mather, his wife Jane Floy Mather, and their daughter Bertha Floy Mather; NPS assistant directors Arno B. Cammerer and Horace M. Albright (who was also superintendent of Yellowstone National Park); Oliver Mitchell, Mather's attorney and business associate; Yellowstone Superintendent Roger Toll; secretaries of Interior; and Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden.

Film List

01. Animals in National Parks, ca. 1924-1928
Reel #50. Animals in various national parks. Undated reel attributed to ca. 1924-1928 (Mather's many trips to Sequoia and Yosemite do not permit a more precise date at this time). Original note in the canister reads, "Elk in Yosemite, deer in Giant Forest, Sequoia, rabbit, deer, and buffalow [sic] in Yellowstone."

02. Bears, ca. 1926
Reel #59. Yellowstone, Kenai and Katmai in Alaska. Undated reel but Mather is known to have been at Katmai in 1926.

03. Conferences: State Park Convention, 1928
National Conference on State Parks held in June 1928 in San Francisco, California. After attending the conference, many joined Mather on a visit to Yosemite Valley.

04. Conferences: Superintendent's Conference, 1927-1928
Reel #38. The April 1928 Superintendent's Conference was held in San Francisco, CA. Following the conference, Mather brought his associates to Yosemite Valley to see the "all-year" highway, the new village, the museum, the Ahwahnee Hotel, and to discuss national park problems. Also includes footage with Mrs. Jane Floy Mather and Mrs. Arno B. Cammerer on western trip, 1927-1928.

05. Crown Prince of Sweden's Visit, 1926
Reel #44. Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden's trip to national parks as part of an international trip around the world to benefit Swedish interests. Crown Princess Louise of Sweden accompanied him on the journey, visiting Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Mesa Verde National Parks.

06. Mather Homestead, "Babby", ca. 1926-1927
Reel #9. Kaibab deer named "Babby" reared from fawn at Darien, Connecticut. Undated film but Mather is known to have acquired Kaibab fawns in 1926. Over population of Kaibab deer was a major issue at the Kaibab National Forest and around the Grand Canyon in the 1920s. In 1926, the US Forest Service started a program of transferring Kaibab fawns to other Western forests. Mather bought two of them. The one named "Babby" lived until ca. 1940 at the Mather Homestead.

07. Parks: Alaska, 1926
Reel #65. Alaska #2. NPS did not receive a film labeled "Alaska #1" but see film featuring Kenai and Katmai in Alaska (reel #59) or #66 which could also be from this trip.

08. Parks: Grand Canyon, 1927
No reel #. North Rim.

09. Parks: Grand Canyon, ca. 1927
No reel #. North Rim.

10. Parks: Grand Canyon, 1929
North Rim and Kaibab. Date based on date on original box, but box may have been reused.

11. Parks: Hawai'i #1, 1927
Reel #46. Family list dates this to 1919 trip, not Mather’s 1927 trip. However, Mather didn’t acquire his filming equipment until the early 1920s. In spring 1927, Mather traveled to Hawai'i with Secretary of the Interior Dr. Hubert Work for a Pan-Pacific conference.

12. Parks: Hawai'i #2, 1927
Reel #47. Family list dates this to 1919 trip, not Mather’s 1927 trip. However, Mather didn’t acquire his filming equipment until the early 1920s. In spring 1927, Mather traveled to Hawai'i with Secretary of the Interior Dr. Hubert Work for a Pan-Pacific conference.

13. Parks: Isle Royale & Alaska, 1925-1926
Reel #66. Moose at Isle Royale National Park in 1925 with good pictures of Stephen Mather. Includes 1926 Alaska trip footage.

14. Parks: Mt. McKinley National Park, ca. 1926
Animals in Mt. McKinley (Denali) National Park. Original box labeled "Mailed direct from Harry Karstens c/o Stephen T. Mather, Director, NPS to Eastman Kodak Co in San Francisco." Karstens was park superintendent from 1921-1928. Film expiration date on box is May 1928.

15. Parks: Redwoods, 1927
Reel #39. With Jane Floy Mather in Redwoods, Miss Jessie Foster. Original note in the canister reads, “Reel Three 1. Alaska trip (cont), 1926. 2. Superintendent’s conference in Washington, DC, 1926. 3 Redwoods and Zion National Park, 1927.”

16. Parks: Rocky Mountain, ca. 1925
Reel #67. Rocky Mountain and Fall River by Clatworthy. Probably Fred Payne Clatworthy. Undated reel but likely filmed in 1925 when Clatworthy was at the park. Original note in cannister reads, "Rocky Mountains, falls, snowbanks, button hook curve, yacht race, motor boating."

17. Parks: Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone, 1926
Reel #41. Opening of Gardiner Gateway at Yellowstone. Rocky Mountain National Park and Superintendent Roger Toll. Good views of Mather speaking. Undated reel but Mather is known to have been at the opening of the elk horn gate across the Roosevelt arch in Gardiner on June 29, 1926.

18. Parks: Stills of Parks, undated
Reel #49. Stills of all the parks.

19. Parks: Yellowstone, 1927
Reel #60. Various animals at Yellowstone National Park, including buffalo (bison), deer, and bears.

20. Parks: Yellowstone, 1927
Reel #61. Buffalo (bison) at Yellowstone National Park.

21. Parks: Yellowstone, undated
Reel # 68. Wildlife, including buffalo (bison), deer, and bears, at Yellowstone National Park.

22. Parks: Yosemite, 1926
Reel #42. Coordination Commission 1926. Fine High Sierra views and winding trails. Billy Nelson & “bathing men.”

23. Parks: Yosemite, October 1927
Reel #42a. Stephen T. Mather addressing group at the administration building. Ahwahnee Hotel.

24. Parks: Yosemite, 1927
Reel #45. Yosemite National Park with Oliver Mitchell, Mather's attorney and business associate. Mather and Mitchell also travelled to Yosemite during the summer of 1918.

25. Parks: Yosemite, 1927
Reel # 57. Trip through Yosemite National Park.

26. People: Mather, Jane Floy and the Townsends, 1925
Reel #40. Mather, Jane Floy and the Townsends, Charlottesville and Winchester, VA, May 5-6, 1925.

27. People: Mather, Stephen T., undated
Reel #1. Shots of Stephen T. Mather.

28. People: Mr. Cam and Mr. Albright, undated
No reel #. Arno B. Cammerer and Horace M. Albright.

29. People: Purdy, 1927
Reel #48. 1927 trip to Lake Tahoe with Purdy.

30. People: Secretaries of the Interior, undated
Reel #37. Four secretaries of the Interior, undated. Original note in canister reads, "Mr. Albright. Stills of Sec. of Interior by Mode Wineman."

31. Western Trip, August-September 1928
Reel #8. Western trip by Stephen T. Mather with his daughter, Bertha Floy Mather. This trip followed her graduation from Vassar College and included stopping at Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, Sequoia, and Yosemite. At Yosemite, they took a horseback trip up the Merced River to the Merced Lake ranger station, over the 10,000-foot Vogelsang Pass, and down to Tuolumne Meadows.

Series II: Film Productions, 1920-ca. 1927

Volume of Series: 8 EA
Arranged alphabetically by park or subject.

Scope and Content Note

16mm films made by people other than Stephen T. Mather or commercially-produced to showcase and promote national parks. Includes travelogues of Yosemite, Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite by Horsley Productions. Two films about Glacier National Park produced by the Great Northern Railroad are present. Cine library films on Mount Rainier and hula dancing in Hawai'i are also included.

Film List

01. Carlsbad Caverns, undated
Reel #56. Carlsbad Caverns National Park footage by Horsley Productions.

02. Glacier Lake Fishing, undated
Reel #64. Lake fishing scenes at Glacier National Park. Sent to Mather by W.R. Mills of the Great Northern Railroad.

03. Glacier Stream Fishing, undated
Reel #63. Stream fishing scenes at Glacier National Park. Sent to Mather by W.R. Mills of the Great Northern Railroad.

04. Grand Canyon Travelogue, undated
Reel #58. Grand Canyon travelogue titled by Horsley Productions.

05. Mount Rainier, ca. 1927
"Above the Clouds on Mt. Rainier," number 1502 in the Kodak Cinegraph Library. These were produced for purchase or rent from c. 1927-1930s.

06. Native Hawaiian Hula Dance, ca. 1927
"Native Hawaiian Hula Dance," number 101 in the Cine Art Library. These were produced for purchase or rent during the 1920s-1930s. Presumably Mather purchased this in association with his 1927 trip to Hawaii.

07. Yosemite, 1920
Reel #62. Horsely Productions film featuring the 1920 dedication of the Ranger clubhouse, superintendent's office, and Glacier Point. (Note: a digital version of the 1920 Ranger Club dedication is available through the Yosemite National Park archives).

08. Yosemite Travelogue, ca. 1920s
Reel #55. Yosemite travelogue film by Horsley Productions.

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