October 3, 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the UC Regents’ unanimous approval of a resolution: “That young ladies be admitted into the University on equal terms in all respects with young men.” – Regent Samuel F. Butterworth

In 2020, Berkeley celebrated 150 Years of Women at Berkeley. The first women were admitted to the university in 1872, and since that time, hundreds of thousands of women have graduated from UC Berkeley, and thousands of staff, faculty, and friends of the campus have made immeasurable contributions to the UC Berkeley campus and beyond.

The Hearst Museum is honored to have been a site for research and teaching for innumerable women since its founding in 1901 by Phoebe A. Hearst, the first female regent of the University of California. In honor of this momentous year, we are delighted to share a selection of notable women who have worked with the Hearst Museum. The images below link to more information including: articles, online catalogs of collections donated to the Hearst Museum, and more. To read about other women affiliated with the Hearst Museum, visit Women in the Department of Near Eastern Studies.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for posts all year-long featuring #BerkeleyWomen150.

Dear Friends,

We’ve been reaching out and welcoming you to enjoy the Hearst from Home since our campus’s COVID-19 closure in mid-March. Today we also write with our feelings of grief, anger, sadness, helplessness, and outrage, encouraging you to read the recent Standing Together message from Chancellor Christ and Vice Chancellor Oscar Dubón in full. We stand with our campus, in solidarity with our Black community and against racially motivated violence. We take part in the Chancellor’s call for institutional self-examination that will move all of us toward “change for justice and belonging.”  

You know us as a museum where cultures connect. We acknowledge that these connections occur within broader historical systems of power, violence, injustice and exclusion. Today, we strive to advance our institution while also looking back to reckon with the immense weight of our past.  

As Christ and Dubón write: “We must call out and hold accountable our broken structures, build bridges that will lead to mutual understanding and respect across differences, and work to create a future in which we can all thrive, especially in these most challenging times.”

In community,

Lauren Kroiz – Faculty Director

Caroline Fernald – Executive Director

How to Learn More & Get Involved

• Anti-Racist Actions, Learning, and Engagement Resources from the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost at UC Berkeley

• Curated Resources for Addressing White Supremacy and Police Violence with Youth from the UC Berkeley Professional Development Providers

Dear Hearst Museum Friends and Supporters,

Along with many of you, we have been sheltering in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 in our community here in Berkeley. This order has been extended throughout the Bay Area for the duration of April and will likely result in limited operations for the next few months. We’re grateful to our staff, student workers, and volunteers who helped prepare the museum for this temporary closure and have adapted to working remotely. With the support of campus leaders, essential personnel are ensuring that our gallery and collections remain safe and secure until the moment we can welcome you back to the Hearst Museum.

Although our gallery is closed to the public, our staff has created a variety of ways to experience the Hearst from Home. You can also follow the Hearst Museum on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as we develop new ways to share the museum with you. We are collaborating with our colleagues across campus to donate Personal Protective Equipment to where it is needed most throughout the University of California system. In challenging times it is all the more important for us to find ways of building community and connecting cultures.

While physically distant from each other, we have been reflecting on what brings us together and connects us. Our 3.8 million objects tell stories of amazing human resilience in the face of disaster, disease, injustice, and violence. As we confront an April so different than the one we imagined, learning about these past cultural responses is offering us a means of weathering the present and imagining the future world we want to live in together. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated some of the ways we are all connected across space and generations. Whether you are a visitor, student, researcher, or member of a descendant community, we can’t wait to help you find and share your new stories about inclusion, solidarity, sustainability and hope.

Despite the shift in our operations, we were able to successfully raise over $111K through Big Give, a campus-wide annual fundraiser, and an additional $8K in prizes for the museum. We are also thrilled to announce that the museum recently received two new endowments valued at over $2.3 million. We are certainly challenged by the lack of income due to the temporary closure of the museum, but we are inspired that these new gifts will help secure our financial sustainability, helping us to build our future for many years to come.

Please stay home and enjoy our museum virtually for now. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to our galleries soon, and wish you all health and safety until then.

Thank you,

Caroline Jean Fernald, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Lauren Kroiz, Ph.D.
Faculty Director

As a non-profit, the Hearst Museum relies on the support of those who believe in our institution as a place where cultures connect (even if it is just virtually for the time being). While our doors are currently closed, we invite you to experience the Hearst From Home. 

Museums have never been more important to us as a source of inspiration as well as a place that will be part of the healing process during this time of uncertainty. We are deeply appreciative of your commitment to the Hearst Museum and want to share how some of the legislation in the new “CARES” Act regarding your 2020 taxes can benefit the Museum. 

Below are some examples of those changes and a reminder of why you should support the Hearst Museum while saving yourself some money on your taxes next year. 

For those who don’t itemize their taxes…

The bill allows for up to $300 in charitable contributions to be an above-the-line deduction, meaning you don’t have to itemize to claim the deduction. Contributions must be cash donation(s) to qualified charities. The museum’s fundraising is supported through the University’s Foundation – Tax ID 94-6090626 

For those who do itemize…

The bill increases the cap on annual giving from 60 percent of adjusted gross income to 100 percent. 

Here is a quick explanation from the New York Times:

As part of the bill, donors can deduct 100 percent of their gift against their 2020 adjusted gross income. If you have $1 million of income, you can give $1 million to a public charity and deduct the full amount in 2020. The new deduction is only for cash gifts that go to a public charity. If you give cash to, say, your private foundation, the old deduction rules apply. And while the organizations that manage donor advised funds are public charities, you do not get the higher deduction for donating cash to your donor advised fund. If your assets are substantial enough that you can give more than your income this year, you won’t lose the deduction for the excess amount. You can use it next year, as has always been the case.

For corporate charitable giving …

The bill raises the annual limit from 10 percent to 25 percent of taxable income for corporations.

This is great news for our donors who are investing in the museum’s work of creating spaces for cultures to connect! Here is your opportunity to give to the museum and support the great work we are doing while saving yourself some money on your taxes!

Dear Friends, 

The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Caroline Jean Fernald to the position of Executive Director. She began her position on September 16.

Dr. Fernald previously served as the Executive Director of the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico, and  worked in collections management at the E. Irving Couse and Joseph Henry Sharp Historic Site, also in Taos. She has taught courses on Native American, Mesoamerican, and South American art history at the University of Oklahoma where she received her doctorate in Native American Art History. 

Fernald joins the Hearst Museum with a deep experience in museum leadership. As director of the Millicent Rogers Museum, she led the institution through its successful reaccreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, grew its permanent collection, and more than doubled income from major gifts and grants. 

As Executive Director, Caroline will lead the Hearst Museum’s mission to be a place where cultures connect with each other in uncommon ways. She will manage the Museum’s day-to-day operations as well as oversee the work of the exhibits, programs, and education divisions. Caroline will lead the Museum’s fundraising efforts and work closely with the Hearst Museum’s Advisory Board. She will also strengthen relationships with the many descendent stakeholder communities the Museum serves in the Bay Area and throughout California. This includes working with the Museum’s Native American Advisory Council, an 11-member body that advises the Hearst on a range of cultural issues.

Dr. Benjamin Porter, the Hearst Museum’s Director since 2015, will roll up to the new position of Hearst Museum Faculty Director. In his new position, Porter will coordinate research and develop new student discovery experiences in the collections. Porter will also lead collections care initiatives and coordinate projects related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and related cultural policy laws.

Porter, who led the Executive Director search committee, stated that “the committee was unanimous in its decision to offer this important position to Dr. Fernald. Her recent successes in museum leadership and her passion for cultural institutions made her stand out in this competitive search.” Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Linda Rugg offered that “Caroline joins the Berkeley community at an important moment when the campus is taking significant steps to improve its relationships with Native American communities. Caroline’s work here will be deeply valued.”

Please join us in welcoming Caroline to campus!

The Hearst Museum’s former director, Dr. Mari Lyn Salvador, passed away peacefully October 23rd just after a majestic Albuquerque sunset. She died as she lived, with grace and surrounded by family.

Dr. Mari Lyn Salvador

Mari Lyn, a renowned scholar, spent much of her adult life conducting research in the San Blas Islands of Panama and the Azores Islands of Portugal. During a distinguished career as a cultural anthropologist, she was a professor, museum director and generous mentor and colleague. Mari Lyn was particularly devoted to the Phoebe Hearst Museum as it figured meaningfully in the initial and final phases of her career. Serving as director from 2010 to 2015, Mari Lyn initiated multiple projects that enhanced the Museum’s goal to be a place where cultures from around the world connect with each other. These projects included the initiation of a dramatic collections relocation program, the design of a new campus gallery, and the establishment of the Native American Advisory Council that guides the Museum on its relationship with Native American communities. Without a doubt, Mari Lyn’s bold and innovative planning has contributed to the Museum’s recent advancements under her successor, Benjamin Porter.

Mari Lyn is survived by her daughter Melina, son Sergio, their spouses, Tony and Julie and her four cherished grandchildren: Griffin, Foster, Oliver and Matilda. As the eldest of six children, she is also survived by her sisters Louise and Michelle, brothers David, Pat and Michael and their families. Those who knew her will likely remember her love of flowers, good food and celebrating just about anything.

Mari Lyn’s family asks that you honor her by eating some ice cream, spending some time working in a garden and looking for beauty even when it is hard to see.

For further information, please contact:

David Tozer, Hearst Museum Head of Development
dtozer@berkeley.edu | (510) 642-3683