Guide to the Donald B. Tresidder Photograph Albums
Daniel Hartwig
Stanford University. Libraries.
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
October 2010
Stanford, California
Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Call Number: A0060
Creator:
Tresidder, Donald Bertrand, 1894-1948
Title: Donald B. Tresidder photograph albums
Dates: 1913-1945
Bulk Dates: 1913-1926
Physical Description:
1.25 Linear feet (2 volumes)
Language(s): The materials are in English.
Repository:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064
Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu
Phone: (650) 725-1022
URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc
This collection is open for research.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
Donald B. Tresidder Photograph Albums (A0060). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University
Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Donald Bertrand Tresidder (April 7, 1894 – January 28, 1948) was the fourth president of Stanford University.
Son of Dr. John Treloar Tresidder (from Cornwall), Tresidder was born in Tipton, Indiana. At the age of 20 he took a trip
with his sister to Southern California. However, the railroad tracks were washed out and they went to Yosemite Valley instead.
There he met many Stanford faculty, who convinced him to enroll in Stanford University.
In Yosemite, Tresidder also met future wife Mary Curry, daughter of the owners of the park concession, Yosemite Park and Curry
Company, Tresidder spent summers working in Yosemite as a porter and other various odd jobs. He was briefly fired for taking
his future wife rock climbing up the back side of Half Dome. They married June 17, 1920. He earned his M.D. from Stanford
Medical School in San Francisco, and became president of Yosemite Park and Curry Company. While attending medical school he
was a member of Phi Chi Medical Fraternity.
Dr. Tresidder was president of Stanford University from 1943 until 1948 and brought the school through the difficult years
of World War II. He often said that his main job at Stanford was fundraising for the school. Tresidder set up a professional
fundraising organization and streamlined administrative and accounting practices. He established a scholarship program and
helped established Stanford Research Institute. Tressider also abolished the sorority system on campus. Stanford's student
center is named after him.
Photographs from Tresidder's first trip west, 1913; World War I planes and Tresidder as a pilot, 1918; and many photographs
of Yosemite National Park, c. 1915-1926. Also included are a pamphlet from the cornerstone laying of the Ahwahnee Hotel, 1926;
clipping concerning Tresidder as Stanford's president, 1945; and a clipping concerning social affairs in Tipton, IN, and the
Grishaw family, 1921.
Mosser, Ann Grishaw
Box 1
