Stephen Mather
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Stephen Tyng Mather | |
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 Stephen Tyng Mather |
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| Born | July 4, 1867 San Francisco, CA[1][2][3] |
| Died | January 22, 1930 (aged 62) Brookline, Massachusetts[4] |
| Occupation | businessperson, naturalist, First director of the National Park Service |
| Spouse(s) | Jane T. Floy of Elizabeth, NJ in 1893 |
| Children | Bertha Floy Mather |
Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 - January 22, 1930) was a pioneering American industrialist and conservationist. He was the president and owner of the Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company, which made him a millionaire. With journalist and writer Robert Sterling Yard, Mather spearheaded a publicity campaign to promote the creation of a federal agency to oversee National Parks. Mather eventually became the first director of the new agency, the National Park Service under the United States Department of the Interior.
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[edit] National Park philosophy
Mather felt that the scenery should be the first criterion in establishing a park. He introduced park concessions to the national parks, allowing vending of basic amenities and necessities to park visitors, including nature study aids. Mather promoted the creation of the National Park to Park Highway[5] and encouraged cooperation with the railroads in order to encourage visitation to normally remote units of the National Park System, and thereby create a base of public support for the fledgling agency and its holdings with those who had seen them and gained a personal appreciation for them.
Bronze plaques honoring Mather were placed by the Stephen Mather Memorial Fund in numerous national park units beginning in 1932. Inscriptions on the plaques read:
Stephen Tyng Mather July 4, 1867 - January 22, 1930. He laid the foundation of the National Park Service, defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done.
[edit] Legacy and memorials
Various places within today's National Park System are named after Mather, including Mather Point on the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Mather District and Camp Mather in Yosemite National Park, Mather Pass in Kings Canyon National Park, the Mather Gorge on the border of Great Falls Park and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, and the Stephen T. Mather Training Center serving the entire National Park System at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. Stephen Tyng Mather High School in Chicago, Illinois is also named after him, as is the Stephen Mather Memorial Parkway (Washington State Route 410) in the Mount Rainier National Park and the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Most of North Cascades National Park is protected as the Stephen Mather Wilderness. His home in Connecticut, the Stephen Tyng Mather Home, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1963.[6]
In 1937, his portrait was painted by artist Herbert A. Collins.[7]
[edit] See also
- National Park Service
- Horace M. Albright - 2nd Director
- Arno B. Cammerer - 3rd Director
- Heritage interpretation
[edit] References
- ^ NRPA Hall of Fame bio
- ^ Creating the National Park Service: The Missing Years. By Horace M. Albright and Marian Albright Schenck, 1999. Chapter 4
- ^ NHL Submission form
- ^ NYtimes January 23, 1930 obit
- ^ The National Parks: America's Best Idea. http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/. Ken Burns, broadcast on PBS.
- ^ Blanche Higgins Schroer and S. Sydney Bradford (1963), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Stephen Tyng Mather Home / The Mather Homestead, National Park Service, http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/66000877.pdf (Includes a biography of Stephen Tyng Mather) and accompanying 8 photos, exterior, from c.1880 to 1974PDF (3.05 MB)
- ^ Biography of Herbert Alexander Collins, by Alfred W. Collins, February 1975, 4 pages typed, in the possession of Collins' great-great grand-daughter, D. Dahl of Tacoma, WA
[edit] Further reading
- Everhart, William C.; The National Park Service; Praeger Publishers, New York, 1972
- Shankland, Robert; Steve Mather of the National Parks; Alfred A. Knopf, New York; 1970
[edit] External links
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