RON HENGGELER

The Hoover Tower at Leland Stanford Jr. University in Palo Alto.
Leland Stanford Junior University, or more commonly Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. It is one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

A view of Stanford University campus from the Hoover Tower Observation Platform.
Stanford University was founded by Leland Stanford, a railroad magnate, U.S. senator, and former California governor, together with his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford. It is named in honor of their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died in 1884 just before his 16th birthday. His parents decided to dedicate a university to their only son, and Leland Stanford told his wife, "The children of California shall be our children."

Leland Stanford Junior at the Age of Four c. 1872
By Willian Cogswell 1819-1903
Oil on canvas
Stanford Family Collection
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

A view of Stanford University campus from the Hoover Tower Observation Platform.
The Stanfords chose their country estate, Palo Alto Stock Farm, in northern Santa Clara County as the site of the university, so that the University is often called "the Farm" to this day.
The campus master plan (1886-1914) was designed Frederick Law Olmsted and later his sons. The Main Quad was designed by Charles Allerton Coolidge and his colleagues, and by Leland Stanford himself. The cornerstone was laid on May 14, 1887, which would have been Leland Stanford Junior's nineteenth birthday.

A detail of the Hoover Tower viewed from the tower’s Observation Platform.
Stanford faculty and alumni have founded many companies including Google, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, Sun Microsystems, and Yahoo!, and companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the world. Fifty-eight Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university, and it is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires, 17 astronauts, and 18 Turing Award laureates. It is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress.

On display at the Cantor Arts Center:
An albumen print photo of Leland Stanford Sr. 1890-1899
A silver and enamel watch c. 1750-1755 owned by Stanford Sr.
And an ivory paper knife from the 19th century

Senator Leland Stanford 1890
Oil on canvas
By Georgiana Cambell
1861-1931

Ears of the Trotting Champion Electioneer,
19th century
Taxidermy, horsehair, and velvet
Stanford Family Collections

On display at the Cantor Arts Center:
Central Pacific Model Car A and B, before 1882 (metal)
From the Stanford Family Collection

Renaissance Revival Clock c.1876
Tiffany & Co.
Stanford Family Collections

Jane Lathrop Stanford
By Léon-Joseph-Florentin Bonnat (France, 19th century)
Oil on canvas 1881
232 x 162 cm., 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 feet
Stanford Family Collection
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Portrait of Leland Stanford Jr. with Skates 1880
By Thomas Kirby van Zandt
Oil on canvas 1881
Stanford Family Collection
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Leland Junior’s pair of Roller Skates
Wood and steel
Stanford Family Collections

Tootsie 1889
By Andrew Putnam Hill 1853-1922
Oil on canvas
Stanford Family Collection
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

The Meglaethoscope (a photo-viewing contraption) was featured prominently in the living room of Stanford’s Nob Hill home in San Francisco. Stanford Family Collections

Stuffed Owl
From the Stanford Collection at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Ship at Sea 19th century
Graphite and colored pencil on paper
By Leland Stanford Jr. 1868-1884

Carleton E. Watkins (November 11, 1829 – June 23, 1916) was a photographer in 19th-century California. He captured a series of conservation photographs of the Yosemite Valley in the 1860s that significantly influenced the United States Congress' decision to establish the valley as a National Park in 1864.

A moment at the Carlton Watkins Show in the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

From the 1861 Yosemite Valley Photographs
Albumen print.
By Carlton Watkins
In June 1864, his stunning photographs of Yosemite’s valley, waterfalls and peaks proved instrumental in convincing President Abraham Lincoln and the 38th U.S. Congress to pass the Yosemite Valley Grant Act, legislation that preserved the land for public use and set a precedent for America’s National Park System.

Farallon Island
Albumen print.
By Carlton Watkins
At the Cantor Arts Center

Alcatraz from North Point
Albumen print.
1862-1863
Carlton Watkins

The atrium of the Cantor Arts Center

Madonna in Glory c.1670
Oil on canvas
Carlo Dolci
Italy 1616-1686

Dead Christ Mourned by Angels c.1698
Oil on canvas
Francesco Trevisani
Italy, 1656-1746

Detail inside the atrium of the Cantor Arts Center

Lady at a Window 1832
Oil on panel
By Henry Voordecker
Belgium 1779-1861

Detail of The Accident 1899
By Willem Geet
Oil on canvas
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Detail of The Accident 1899
By Willem Geet
Oil on canvas
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

The Stanford Mausoleum, located in the northwest of the Stanford University campus in the Stanford University Arboretum, holds the remains of the university's namesake Leland Stanford, Jr. and his parents Leland and Jane Stanford.

One of the two Egyptian style male sphinxes at the front of the mausoleum.

The mausoleum has sphinxes on both the front and the back. The back ones are Greek and female with naked breasts. They were originally on the front but the Stanfords disapproved of them and replaced them with Egyptian style male sphinxes and moved the female sphinxes to the back.

One of the two Greek and female sphinxes with naked breasts at the back of the mausoleum.
Once per year, the mausoleum is opened to the public and a wreath laid (usually in October during the reunion weekend) as part of the annual Founders' Day activities.

Plaster Death Mask of Leland Stanford Jr. 1884
After Leland Jr.’s death from typhoid fever in 1884 in Florence, Italy, the boy’s grieving parents requested this last remembrance of their son, a death mask cast in plaster from a wax facial mold made at the time of the body’s preparation for burial.

Posthumous Portrait of Leland Stanford Jr.
By Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois
France 1853-1923
Stanford Family Collections

A view of the Hoover Tower seen from the Memorial Court

The city of San Francisco 45 miles away, as seen from the Hoover Tower Observation Platform
At Stanford University in Palo Alto

Leland Stanford Jr. on His Pony, Gypsy,
Palo Alto, May 1879
Photo taken by Eadweard Muybridge

The Robert Mondavi Family Gallery
In the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Meier Family Galleria
In the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

The Susan & John Diekman Gallery
In the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

The Susan & John Diekman Gallery
In the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

The Susan & John Diekman Gallery
In the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

The Stanford Memorial Church as seen from the Hoover Tower Observation Platform
The church is located at the center of the Stanford University campus.
Stanford Memorial Church was the earliest and has been "among the most prominent" non-denominational churches on the West Coast of the United States. Since its dedication in 1903, the church's goal has been to serve the spiritual needs of the university in a non-sectarian way.

The Stanford Memorial Church
The church is located at the center of the Stanford University campus.
Stanford Memorial Church has been called "the University's architectural crown jewel".

The Stanford Memorial Church
The church is located at the center of the Stanford University campus.
Designs for the church were submitted to Jane Stanford and the university trustees in 1898, and it was dedicated in 1903. The building is Romanesque in form and Byzantine in its details, inspired by churches in the region of Venice, especially, Ravenna.

The Stanford Memorial Church
Its stained glass windows and extensive mosaics are based on religious paintings the Stanfords admired in Europe. The church has five pipe organs, which allow musicians to produce many styles of organ music. Stanford Memorial Church has withstood two major earthquakes, in 1906 and 1989, and was extensively renovated after each.

A typical view around the Stanford University campus