Crocker (Henry R. & May Hall) Collection, 1863-1936

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Summary

Title:
Crocker (Henry R. & May Hall) Collection,
Dates:
1863-1936
Creators:
Celia Crocker Thompson
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Crocker (Henry R. & May Hall) Collection, Ms4, San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Physical description:
0.5 linear ft.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Processed by Don Walker; machine-readable finding aid created by Don Walker
Date Prepared:
© 1998
Date Encoded:
Machine-readable finding aid derived from MS Word. Date of source: March 1998.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research by appointment only.

Terms of access:

The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary property.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Crocker (Henry R. & May Hall) Collection, Ms4, San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum.

Location of this collection:
11793 North Micke Grove Road
Lodi, CA 95241, US
Contact:
(209) 331-2055
info@sanjoaquinhistory.org
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