Video
Stephen T. Mather Collection: Western Trip, August-September 1928
Descriptive Transcript
[The location of these first scenes could be at a hotel in Los Angeles, California, but the location is unknown.]
Stephen Mather, wearing a suit, and his daughter Bertha, wearing a long coat and hat, point at flowers planted in pots around a manmade pond in a garden outside a building. Close up of flowering lily pads and tall grasses in the pond. They walk towards the building. Mather opens the door and enters.
Scene changes to Mather and his daughter walking along a fence outside the building towards an old-looking car.
Scene changes to father and daughter walking down a curved staircase on the exterior of a building. Bertha is no longer wearing her coat, revealing the dress she was wearing underneath. Arm-in-arm they walk across a courtyard towards a long arch. Shadows of other people crossing the arch are seen.
Scene changes to father and daughter walking out of a canopied entrance to the building, across a brick patio towards steps. They walk down the steps and exit the camera frame to the left.
Scene changes to close up of two boys who look at the camera then turn and run away across a patio to two women waiting for them, clapping their hands to get them to come to them. After meeting the women, the boys shake hands.
Scene changes to one of the boys climbing a white entrance barrier. He turns and smiles proudly at the camera. As the angle changes both boys can be seen on top of the white wooden barrier which is painted with “Road Closed” in large letters. Adults mill around the background.
Two women in long, open coats stand chatting in front of a stone wall with an arched entrance and a pond. A dog comes running into the scene towards them. The collie runs around in circles as the women try to pet it. A third woman enters the scene and talks to the others. A man in a suit tries to give the dog a treat but it ignores him and goes to the woman. He tries again, holding out a treat.
Scene changes to three women in a garden setting. One smells a flowering bush and touches the flower’s petals. Scene changes to a man in a suit waiting on a stone bench in front of a stone wall. He holds his hat in his left hand and rests his right elbow on his knee, holding his head in that hand, perhaps suggesting impatience. The camera pans right revealing a woman standing by the stone wall.
Two women stand in a garden setting, shaking hands. They walk away but turn back to look at the camera. The camera pans past them standing at the far end of the garden to the large building behind them.
Scene changes to nine ducks swimming around in a small pond surrounded by reeds.
Woman and a man wearing a bowler hat chatting in a garden setting. Bertha Mather and two other well-dressed women look at flowers in a garden. Bertha Mather holds a large bud in her hand and brings it to her nose to smell. The women walk around a courtyard of flowering bushes.
Bertha Mather appears from behind a pillar near the entrance of the building. She has changed out of her dress and long coat into white breeches, riding boots, a long-sleeved white shirt, and a necktie. Holding a scarf in one hand she puts up the other to shade her eyes from the sun. After looking around briefly she walks down the steps towards the camera. Stephen Mather comes out of the building’s entrance wearing white knickerbockers, knee-high socks, a long-sleeved white shirt, and a bow tie. He walks down the stairs towards the camera, pausing to say something.
[Yosemite National Park]
Scene changes to Bertha Mather and another woman on horseback. They stop in front of the camera. The other woman’s horse rears up on its hind legs. The women ride their horses slowly towards the camera which gives a close-up to the other woman as she talks to the camera.
Scene changes to a man in a park ranger uniform adjusting the saddle on Bertha Mather’s horse. He looks up at her smiling. Although he is not identified in the film, family notes suggest that the ranger may be Billy Nelson at Yosemite. Views of the women on their horses as the ranger continues adjusts her saddle.
A party of five people, including Stephen and Bertha Mather, riding horses past the camera. Although he is not in uniform, Mather is wearing a broad-brimmed flat hat which looks like a ranger hat. A woman dressed in a long skirt, jacket, and cowboy help standing next to a horse. She mounts the horse revealing that the skirt is actually a split skirt for riding astride, with fringe around the hem. She begins to ride away, waving her hand at the camera. She then takes off her hat and waves that over her head. Another woman and man on horseback follow slowly behind her.
Stephen and Bertha Mather standing in front of a log building. Bertha dressed in breeches, boots, shirt, vest, and headscarf walks around her horse then puts her fit in a stirrup and mounts the animal and rides off.
Bertha and Stephen Mather ride up on horses. A man greets them, and Bertha Mather reaches down and shakes his hand. He shakes Mather’s hand as he rides by.
Bertha Mather rides her horse in a stream, followed by a park ranger on a horse. The ranger, now dismounted, adjusts her saddle as she casually rests her leg on the horse’s neck.
Bertha Mather rides a horse from behind a large boulder. Her father Stephen Mather follows her out from behind the rock. He is wearing a National Park Service uniform. They ride off.
Scene changes to Stephen and Bertha Mather standing in front of log structure with a sign on the top that reads, “Sierra Club Public Welcome.” They are drinking from tin cups.
Bertha Mather and another woman wearing a long coat and hat stand beside a car. Scene changes to a man wearing a cardigan sweater next to the woman in the long coat. They both shake Stephen Mather’s hand. Mather is wearing his Park Service uniform. They stand among trees and another car can be seen in the background. After shaking hands, the couple moves to get into the car as Mather walks away past another car. Bertha Mather walks up to the couple’s car and shakes the woman’s hand through the open window.
Stephen and Bertha Mather walk towards a bronze plaque set into the gentle slope of a hill. They pause to read the plaque, and the camera focuses on them. The text on the plaque is never clearly visible.
Scene shifts to a lake. A boat is docked along a narrow wooden pier. Four people walk towards the camera along the pier which is only three boards wide.
Bertha Mather among a group of people, including an older man who hugs her. Scene shifts to men building a stone wall in the woods. A group of young men and women watch the work. One of the men slathers cement on the wall with a trowel. A man lifts and carries a large rock to the wall. Three men work on the wall.
A group of at least a dozen people are gathered at the wall. A woman reads from a sheet of paper in her hand. Stephen Mather stands next to her holding a tin can in one hand. He then reads to the group from the piece of paper. The group laughs and smiles as he continues to speak after he finishes reading. He reaches down and places the tin can in a hole in the top of the wall. Next he uses a trowel to place mortar along the top of the wall. The young men then place a large stone over the hidden time capsule. The men finish off the wall. A woman is seen talking to Bertha Mather who has a dog next to her.
Scene changes to a small boat cruising across the lake towards the camera, revealing about eight people on board. As the boat comes near, Bertha Mather and others are underneath raincoats or tarps to avoid splashing water. They laugh. A close-up view of Bertha Mather reveals that she is wearing a “USNPS” collar ornament on her lapel. This ornament is an official part of the ranger uniform.
Description
Silent black-and-white film. Part of a western trip taken by NPS Director Stephen T. Mather with his daughter, Bertha Floy Mather. This trip followed Bertha Mather's graduation from Vassar College. During the trip they visited 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.
Duration
12 minutes, 12 seconds
Date Created
12/05/2024
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