Phoebe Hearst

She was born Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson in St. Clair, Missouri, in Franklin County, the daughter of Drucilla (Whitmire) and Randolph Walker Apperson. In her early years, Phoebe studied to be a teacher. Her childhood consisted of helping her father with finances at his store, learning French, and playing the piano.[2] George Hearst returned to St. Clair in 1860 to care for his dying mother and met Phoebe. When they married on June 15, 1862, she was 19.

Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst's house, 1400 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., by Frances Benjamin Johnston

Soon after their marriage,[3] the couple left Missouri and moved to San Francisco, California, where Phoebe gave birth to their only child, William Randolph Hearst. As a very successful miner who later became a U.S. senator, George often left Phoebe alone during his work.[2][4] She and her son were close and had many similar interests, including art and design.[5] After Phoebe's death in 1919, William inherited a $10 million fortune.[2]

Phoebe Hearst

In the 1880s, she became a major benefactor and director of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association[6] and the first president of the Century Club of California.[7] In 1902, Hearst funded the construction of a building to provide teacher training and to house kindergarten classes and the association's offices. The association had 26 schools at the time of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.[8] Hearst was a major benefactor of the University of California, Berkeley, and its first woman regent, serving on the board from 1897 until her death. That year, 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 all-girls National Cathedral School in Washington, DC. A nearby public elementary school bears her name.[9] Hearst funded the Hearst Library in Anaconda, Montana, in 1898. She maintained it until 1904.[10]

Hearst became a close friend of Dr. William Pepper, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, who was also a medical doctor who treated her for a heart condition. In 1896, in her first major act of museum philanthropy, she donated more than two hundred objects to the Penn Museum, many of them items such as Anasazi ceramics excavated from the Cliff Palace site of Mesa Verde, Colorado.[11] Later, she also funded a Penn Museum expedition to Russia, and sent the Aztec specialist, Zelia Nuttall, to Moscow for this purpose.[12]

In 1901, Phoebe Hearst founded the University of California Museum of Anthropology, renamed the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in 1992. The original collection comprised 230,000 objects representing cultures and civilizations throughout history.

Phoebe Apperson Hearst

The museum now contains about 3.8 million objects. Throughout her lifetime and as provided in her will, Hearst donated over 60,000 objects to the museum. She also funded expeditions such as the Pepper-Hearst Expedition (1895–1897) on the coast of Florida, near Tarpon Springs. Most notable are the 1899 expeditions in Egypt by American archaeologist George A. Reisner and in Peru by German archaeologist Max Uhle. These ventures further contributed to the museum's collection. Among these are approximately 20,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts, the largest such collection west of Chicago. Hearst also realized the importance of preserving Native Californian culture. With her support, 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 helped to preserve approximately 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 named to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association as the second vice regent representing California. She held that position from 1889 to 1918, contributing much time and money to the restoration of George Washington's home at mount Vernon, furnishing it with Washington-owned objects and improving the visitor experience. The William Randolph Hearst Foundation continues to fund projects at Mount Vernon in her memory.[13]

Hearst also donated money to the restoration of Pohick Church in Virginia.[14]

Hearst chose a "different way" than radical feminists.[15] While she believed in women having financial freedom, in her support for women's suffrage she did not strongly believe in women gaining political power. She thought women should have the right to vote "to protect homes and children." [16] In 1895, when the Women's Congress resolved for the passage of a federal amendment, Hearst supported it "distantly".[17] She officially declared herself in favor of suffrage in the summer of 1911, saying it would enable "the betterment of conditions affecting children and women particularly." [18]

Resting place of Phoebe Hearst at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in San Bruno, California

Hearst was raised a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian faith in the 1840s.[19] In 1898 she declared her belief in the Baháʼí Faith,[20] and helped play a key role in the spread of the religion in the United States. In November 1898, Hearst, with Lua Getsinger and others, briefly stopped off in Paris, on their way to Palestine, and was shocked to see May Bolles (later Maxwell), a well known American member of the Baháʼí Faith, bedridden with the chronic malady with which she had been afflicted.[21] Hearst invited Bolles to travel to Palestine with her, believing that the change of air would be conducive to her health. Getsinger disclosed to Bolles the purpose of the journey: a pilgrimage to visit the then head of the Baháʼí Faith: ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.[22] The group travelled to Akka and Haifa in Ottoman Palestine on pilgrimage, arriving on December 14, 1898.[23][24][25][26] That group was the very first Westerners to make the pilgrimage and meet ʻAbdu'l-Baha. Hearst later wrote, "Those three days were the most memorable days of my life."[27][28] In October 1912, she invited ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, who was travelling throughout the United States, to stay at her home for a long weekend, even though at that time she had become estranged from the Faith. During his stay, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentioned that anyone who tried to extort money or goods from others should not be considered a true Baháʼí. Mrs. Hearst had been a victim of such an incident, which had caused her estrangement.[29]

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 in Colma, California.[4][30]

• Nickliss, Alexandra M. ""Phoebe Apperson Hearst's 'Gospel of Wealth,' 1883-1901," Pacific Historical Review 71#4 (Nov. 2002) pp 575–605.
• Nickliss, Alexandra M. Phoebe Apperson Hearst: A Life of Power and Politics (Bison Books, 2018)
• Paul, Rodman Wilson. "Phoebe Apperson Hearst," in Edward T. James et al. eds. Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary (3 vols., 1971), 2: 171.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phoebe Apperson Hearst.

• Phoebe Apperson Hearst online archive, The Bancroft Library
• History of the PTA 1897–1899 The founding of the organization by Phoebe Apperson Hearst and Alice McLellan Birney