A Brief History of the Historian
Don’t let this picture of Sharlot Hall fool you. She may look gentle enough, but in 1926, around the time this picture wa s taken, she got the only slaughtering license ever issued to a woman and was quite proud of it. Her acclaim does not stem from this dubious distinction however, but rather from her work as a writer and a historian.
Phoenix Pioneers: The McClartys
Ida McClarty sits behind the wheel of a right-hand steering Buick with her dog and her father, George William McClarty, in this 1917 photograph, taken about the time of her graduation from Phoenix Union High School.
The Making of Sharlot Hall
Sharlot Hall may not have regarded herself as a feminist, but she had a remarkable ability to think for herself and the bravery to eschew the traditional roles of wife and mother at a time when most of society viewed those roles as practically definitive of womanhood.
The Desert Laboratory
These scientists are gathered at the Desert Laboratory for a photograph on the occasion of a visit from Robert Simpson Woodward of the Carnegie Institution. The year is 1906.
Phoenix’s First Light Rail System
Just about every city of any size in the early days had a streetcar or trolley line. In Phoenix, there was the Phoenix Street Railway System, which operated from 1887 to 1948. It was owned and operated by the great promoter and subdivision mogul, Moses H. Sherman, until 1925, when the city of Phoenix took over operations.
The Shrine at the Casa
Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico, of the Americas and of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. The mosaic building being dedicated in the photo was erected by the Franciscan Renewal Center (Casa de Paz y Bien) in 1954 on the center property at Lincoln Drive between Mummy and Camelback mountains.
Princess Margaret visits Arizona
When Tucsonan Lewis W. Douglas was appointed ambassador to the Court of St. James in 1947, his daughter Sharman left Vassar to accompany her parents to England and became a close friend of Princess Margaret.
The Mertz Family
This photo shows 444 Monroe Street in downtown Phoenix in 1936. The building in the background is the former convent of the Sisters of the Precious Blood, who taught St. Mary’s Elementary School classes for nearly a century.
Swigarts’ Irresistible Arizona
In 1910, Esther Rothrock, who lived in Elgin, a town southeast of Sonoita in Santa Cruz County, invited her sisters, Carrie and Rhoda Swigart, to come out to Arizona to homestead land.
Annie Daniels, Schools Superintendent
Annie Evalena Stakebake Seayrs Daniels, a schoolteacher and Pima County superintendent of schools, was born in a log cabin on a farm near Windsor, Indiana, on Oct. 3, 1869. Her parents were Henry Harrison and Louisa Cropper Stakebake.
Last of the Buffalo Soldiers
Master Sergeant John P. Campbell, age 90, died at a nursing home Sept. 7, 1984, in Phoenix. Campbell was born Nov. 7, 1893, the youngest of 13 children in Evansville, Indiana. He finished high school joined the Army in 1911, and of his 35 years of service, 27 were spent at Fort Huachuca.
Thriving St. Mary’s
Several generations of Phoenix’s Catholics attended St. Mary’s Elementary School, which closed in 1992 and was eventually demolished to make way for new Diocesan offices.