| Phoebe Hearst | |
|---|---|
Phoebe (Apperson) Hearst |
|
| Born | Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson December 3, 1842 Franklin County, Missouri, USA |
| Died | April 13, 1919 (aged 76) Pleasanton, California, USA |
| Spouse | George Hearst (c. 1862–1891) (his death) |
| Children | William Randolph Hearst |
Phoebe Apperson Hearst (December 3, 1842 – April 13, 1919) was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist.[1] She was also the mother of William Randolph Hearst.
She was born Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson in Franklin County, Missouri. At the age of 19, she married George Hearst, who later became a U.S. Senator. Soon after their marriage the couple moved to San Francisco, California, where Phoebe gave birth to their only child, William Randolph Hearst, in 1863.
In the 1880s, she became a major benefactor and director of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association [2] and the first president of the Century Club of California.[3] She was a major benefactor of the University of California, Berkeley and its first woman Regent, serving on the board from 1897 until her death. Also in 1897, she contributed to the establishment of the National Congress of Mothers, which evolved eventually into the National Parent-Teacher Association. In 1900, she co-founded the National Cathedral School in Washington, DC. A public elementary school near the National Cathedral School bears her name.[4]
In 1901, Phoebe Hearst founded the University of California Lowie Museum of Anthropology. Renamed Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in 1992, in celebration of the Museums 9th decade. The original collection was founded with about 230,000 objects representing cultures and civilizations throughout history. The museum now contains about 3.8 million objects. Throughout her lifetime, and as denoted in her will, Phoebe Hearst donated over 60,000 objects to the Museum. She also funded expeditions by anthropologists and archaeologists to study and collect objects. Most notable are the 1899 expeditions in Egypt by George A. Reisner and in Peru by archaeologist Max Uhle. These expeditions, among others, produced numerous, well-documented objects now in the museum's collection. This includes approximately 20,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts, the largest Egyptian collection west of Chicago. Phoebe also realized the importance of such a museum in preserving Native Californian culture, which was rapidly disappearing at the hands of white settlers. With support from Phoebe Hearst, anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber and his students, including Robert F. Heizer, documented Native Californian culture in the form of photographs, audio recordings, texts, and artifacts. This research produced about 250,000 Native Californian artifacts, the most extensive in the world. The museum collection is available to students and researchers for examination. A gallery located on the University of California Berkeley campus is available for public view.
Hearst was raised a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian faith in the 1840s.[5] In 1898 she converted to the Bahá'í Faith, and helped play a key role in the spread of the religion in the United States. She briefly travelled to Akka and Haifa in Palestine (modern day Israel) on pilgrimage, arriving on December 14, 1889.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] She later wrote, "Those three days were the most memorable days of my life."[13][14]
She died at her home in Pleasanton, California, aged 76, on April 13, 1919, during the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, and was buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, San Mateo County, California.[15] [16]