Napa County Historical Society

We're ready for a weekend full of fun heritage events! On Friday the 26th, our Tulocay Cemetery Tour takes place from 11am to 12:30pm.
On Saturday the 27th, we return to the Henry Haus Blacksmith Shop in Pope Valley with Ken Maxfield and Bob Fulton who are offering a demonstration, free to the public, from 1pm to 3pm.
On Sunday afternoon at 3pm, we are back at Tulocay Cemetery for our second tour of the weekend. Don't wait, because our next Cemetery tours aren't until the end of August!
Get tickets and more information at napahistory.org/events/

This beautiful Mark Strong photograph donated by one of our generous supporters shows workers at a cherry harvest at A. D. Butler's cherry orchard, circa 1906. According to a Napa Register article by Louis Ezettie in June 1969, Butler's orchard was one of the top cherry producers in the Napa area, located on Redwood Road a mile north from the end of Brown's Valley Road.
Ezettie writes that families would go to the cherry orchards and camp during the harvest, doing picking and packing work.

The last weekend of the month means it's time for our Tulocay Cemetery Tour! Join us on Friday, July 26 at 11am, or Sunday, July 28 at 3pm, to take a tour of this vibrant historic cemetery which has served the Napa community since the mid-1800s and learn about the pioneering families who called the Napa Valley home.
Tours are 90 minutes on foot. Tickets are $30 for NCHS Members and $45 General Admission and can be purchased on our website at napahistory.org/event/tulocay-july2024.

Don't forget that next Saturday (July 27) we're up at the Henry Haus Blacksmith Shop again in Pope Valley for another demonstration and open house with local blacksmiths Ken Maxfield and Bob Fulton!
This is a free event, and no registration is required. Just bring some water and your enthusiasm for priceless local history!
Open House is from 1pm to 4pm.
The Henry Haus Blacksmith Shop is on Chiles-Pope Valley Road across the road from the Pope Valley Market.

Check out this photo, from a family collection recently transferred to NCHS! The "Old Man with a Pipe" on Highway 121 is a natural landmark and was a favorite site for local photo opportunities for decades. Eloise Hill is the woman standing on the cliff in this photo. It's thought that the old man's first pipe was placed there at the turn of the century. The landmark was registered with California State Parks in 1968.

We have another weekend of Historic Downtown Walking Tours coming up! Catch fan favorites like the Opera House, the Napa Mill and River Walk, the historic Oberon bar, and more.
Friday July 12th, 11am-12:30pm.
Sunday July 14th, 3pm-4:30pm.
Tickets are $30 for NCHS Members and $45 General Admission. Led by true Napa locals, our tours can't be beat!
See our tour dates and buy tickets at napahistory.org/events/

We're closed today for the holiday, but hope everyone enjoys a nice 4th of July!
This fun picture from our collection shows a large boat-shaped float during a 4th of July parade circa 1906, near the corner of First Street and Franklin Street. The tower of the Masonic Lodge and steeple of the First Presbyterian Church can be seen in the background.

We're looking for summer interns! Do you know someone who would love to work in an interesting, fully-functioning archival library and museum space? NCHS is the place to go!
NCHS offers unpaid internships for high school and college students, or anyone looking for hands-on experience in the museum, library, and history fields.
Interns can practice professional skills in the following areas:
* Communications and social media
* Records and digitization
* Hospitality and retail
Visit https://napahistory.org/support/ for more information and to apply.

Agriculture is the first category of our Ephemera Boxes, and as we work on our 2024 Inventory we are getting to review all of the interesting materials related to Napa County farming, including fruit, grain, silk, and honey. This photograph shows men working on a prune-drying operation in St. Helena.

Don't miss our return to Tulocay Cemetery next week with two walking tours:
Friday, June 28, 11am-12:30pm
Sunday, June 30, 3pm-4:30pm
Tickets are now available at napahistory.org/events/
$30 for NCHS Members, $45 General Admission
We're excited to start a summer season of educational tours!

Another interesting piece of Napa History, originally donated in 1983, is making its way to being fully digitized thanks to the support of a kind researcher! This "Napa County War History" details the activities of the Napa County Chapter of the Red Cross and other organizations during World War I. The honor roll lists about 200 service personnel with a short one-page profile of their contributions.
A full index of names can be found on our catalog.
You can help support projects like these through donations, becoming a member, or volunteering your time!

It's already time for our Downtown Walking Tours this weekend! Friday, June 14th (11am-12:30pm) and Sunday, June 16th (3:00-4:30pm) we will be guiding our historic downtown walking tour starting at the Goodman Library, the town's first permanent public library location! We then make our way towards Main Street and loop our way past over a dozen landmarks in downtown.
Special $30 ticket price for NCHS Members, $45 General Admission.
We hope you'll join us!
Visit napahistory.org/events/ to select your tour date and buy tickets.

In light of last days of school and graduations over the weekend, we wanted to share this wonderful brochure from our collection of school-related ephemera, the Graduation Exercises of the Napa Grammar School Class of 1913. We're lucky enough to have a photo of this graduating class as well! Names as identified on the photo listed below.
Do any names stand out to you in this class roster? We recognized quite a few! :)
Front Row: Olga Braghetta, Marjory Fritshaw, Madeline Drussel, Ralph Roth, Ruth Foss, Dorothy King, Violet De Weese, Clara Fischer.
Second Row: Bertha Giaque, Harriet Switzer, Etta Prall, Mr. Shearer, Miss Cora Wright, Harold Koethen, Lydia Hillman, Mala Gildersleeve, Grace Gray.
Third Row: Edith Beattie, Paul Bohen, Helen Bliss, Vernice Stoddard, Hazel Goodrich, Margery Mower, George Tanner, Florence Jordan, Minnie Osbourne, Alverda Burns, Bertha Beard.
Fourth Row: Lina Fisher, Phillip Farman, Ruth Money, Herman Frash, Jane Fullerton, Russell Levansaler, Lillian Ewald, Harold Doughty, Doris Lawson.
Back Row: Lila Scott, Edith Hunt, Leo Lechner, Ruth Arnitz, Fred Coffield, Frances Chord, Agamemnon Mantaphunius, Ima Walker, Emmet Guisto.

A photocopy of Essie Stewart's graduation photograph. Essie graduated from Napa Intermediate School in 1915. She was a member of the Stewart Family who lived off Old Sonoma Highway in Napa/Carneros.

There's still time to sign up for Mark Gudgel's book talk this Sunday, "Rise of Napa Valley Wineries: How the Judgment of Paris Put California Wine on the Map." We're so grateful to be able to have Dr. Gudgel join us in-person to talk about his new book!
This is an in-person presentation at the historic Goodman Library, 1219 First Street.
Sunday, June 9th, 4:30pm - 5:30pm. $35 General Admission, $30 NCHS Members, $15 Students. Get tickets at napahistory.org/event/mark-gudgel

It's not often that we get to invite a guest speaker from Omaha, but on June 9th Dr. Mark Gudgel is joining us to talk about his recent book, "The Rise of Napa Valley Wineries," available through Arcadia Publishing. It's also the first lecture since 2020 that we've hosted in our exhibit hall at the Historic Goodman Library! Truly a rarity.
Get your tickets today at https://napahistory.org/event/mark-gudgel/
Tickets are $30 for NCHS Members, $35 General Admission, and $15 for Students.

Do you know where the first elevator was in Downtown Napa? How about the first stoplight in town?
Join us for our Downtown Napa Walking Tour next week to find out! Two dates available in May: Friday, May 24 at 11am, and Sunday, May 26 at 3pm. And impress your friends with your knowledge on your next downtown excursion!
Get tickets on our website at https://napahistory.org/event/downtown-may2024/. $30 for NCHS Members and $45 General Admission.
To see our full tour schedule for the summer, including Tulocay Cemetery, go to https://napahistory.org/programs/walking-tours/
Image: People gather in front of the Goodman Library on First Street, photo not dated.

A huge congratulations to Nancy S. Brennan, who received our Steward of History Award at our Annual Members Meeting on Saturday! Nancy's extraordinary work in collecting and presenting the history of Napa Valley, notably her work on the historic Tulocay Cemetery and well-remembered tours, has been foundational for our understanding of the early families of Napa, and NCHS's own tours over the years. Truly a well-deserved recognition!
Thanks to all our members who were able to attend. The lecture portion of the Annual Meeting will be available on our YouTube channel soon. Please stay tuned!

Sometimes, donations to NCHS include materials that belonged to Napa residents that are not necessarily related to Napa County. This might include photographs of family friends and relatives who lived farther away.
Among a collection of photographs recently processed into our collection are these two portraits of Gussie and Edith Klose. The sisters lived in Oakland. Gussie (Augusta) was born in 1868 and Edith was born in 1871. Their father Charles August Klose was from Germany and their mother Susan Margaret was born in Arkansas.
The family's connection to Napa isn't clear to us, but portraits are such an important piece of family history and worth preserving and saving. Finds like these remind us of the value in our ongoing work to catalog and research our growing collections.
Oakland History Center

Huge thanks to everyone who weighed in to identify our postcard of Walters Springs! Here's another image of the Walters Springs Hotel on Pope Canyon Road.
Be sure to come in and check out our exhibit on early Napa resorts! On view for free, five days a week, and only on view until September 21st. Online version of the exhibit to come, so stay tuned!

🎉 NCHS is celebrating a birthday on May 11th with our 76th Annual Members Meeting! 🎉
Free for NCHS Members and their guests to attend. This year, our special guest speaker is local resort historian Don Winter, with moderator Liz Alessio, at the beautiful and historic Native Sons of the Golden West hall!
Members register here: https://napahistory.org/event/76annual/
Not an NCHS Member yet? There's still time to join! Visit our website at https://napahistory.org/support/ and become a member for as low as $50 per year ($30 for seniors and students.)
If you're a history enthusiast with curiosity about the resort towns of the early Napa Valley, you will not want to miss this event! Join us Saturday, May 11th from 11am - 1pm.

Taken at St. Helena High School's "Old Clothes Day" in 1939, three students pose on the grounds of the school. From other photos of the same year, it seemed like a fun occasion to dress up and spread some laughter.
Does anyone else remember having an Old Clothes Day in their school days?

City of Immigrants is now only online, but Destination Napa ~ Philosophies of Wellness is on its way up. You don't want to miss this look at the early resorts of Napa Valley. The exhibit opens April 5th

What a day inside the Historic Henry Haus Blacksmith Shop? So great to experience Valley history with experts Ken Maxfield and Bob Fulton. If you didn't make it be sure to watch for our next open house this coming summer.

Mark your calendars! Henry's Place will be open on Saturday March 23rd. You will get the chance to talk to Blacksmith Ken Maxfield and Ferrier Bob Fulton. Don't miss the opportunity!
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