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Register of the Crocker (Henry R. & May Hall) Collection, 1863-1936
Ms4
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Table of contents
Title: Crocker (Henry R. & May Hall) Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1863-1936
Collection number: Ms4
Creator:
Celia Crocker Thompson
Extent: 0.5 linear ft.
Repository:
San Joaquin County Museum.
Lodi, CA 95241
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research by appointment only.
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible
for satisfying any claimants of literary property.
[Identification of item], Crocker (Henry R. & May Hall) Collection, Ms4, San Joaquin
County Historical Society and Museum.
Clark, Galen (1814-1910) -Correspondence
Bade, William Frederic (1871-1936) -Correspondence
Crocker, Henry R. (d. 1904)
Thompson, Celia Crocker (1874-1965)
Crocker, May Hall (d. 1936)
Sierra Club. San Francisco Bay Chapter
Crocker's Station (Sequoia, Calif.)
Hotelkeepers -California -Sequoia
Women conservationists -California
Photographs -California -Yosemite Valley
Hotels -California -Sequoia
Yosemite Valley (Calif.) -Social life and customs
Europe -Description and travel
California Federation of Women's Clubs. San Joaquin Chapter
Henry R. Crocker, who came to California from Michigan in 1853, operated a hotel on the
Big Oak Flat route to Yosemite at Sequoia, Tuolumne County (ca 1870-1904). May Hall, a
school teacher from Michigan, married Crocker early in the 1870s. Following Henry
Crocker's death (1904), May Hall Crocker attempted briefly to run Crocker's Station hotel
alone, but, finding the task too difficult, she sold out and moved to Lodi where she
lived with her daughter and son-in-law until her death (1935). Perhaps the major event of
Mrs. Crocker's final thirty years was a lengthy tripto Europe, financed by her daughter
and son-in-law (1922).
The Crockers' daughter, Celia May (1874-1965), was raised at Crocker Station and
subsequently educated at San Joaquin Valley College in Woodbridge (1894-96). There she
met her future husband (1903), Wilson Henry Thompson (1868-1953), subsequently Vice
President of the Citizens National Bank of Lodi and one of the founders of the Pacific
Fruit Exchange. The Thompsons had one son, Henry Allen. Celia Crocker Thompson earned
modest renown as a photographer through pictures she took while still a child of the
Yosemite region (1890-1904). She subsequently gave the bulk of her work to the Lodi
Public Library, where her husband served on the Board of Directors for over fifty years.
In addition, Mrs. Thompson gave personal diaries and scrapbooks on local history to the
Lodi Library. The San Joaquin County Historical Museum also holds approximately 600 of
Thompson's original negatives.
Mrs. Crocker was friendly with many notables associated with Yosemite, including Galen
Clark, John Muir and William F. Badé. Her devotion to conservationist causes is
represented by a substantial correspondence---most notably with Sierra Club President,
William F. Badé. Mrs. Crocker's European Grand Tour (1922) is represented by much
descriptive correspondence from Mrs. Crocker to her Lodi friends and family. The Crocker
Collection also contains legal documents pertaining to the Crocker Yosemite property,
conservationist publications and ephemera.