Bradford Washburn

Bradford Washburn, who would later become Director of the Boston Museum of Science, on his way up the Matterhorn 1926.

The above announcement from the January 12, 1930 FBCN church bulletin illustrates how the Mather Class at First Baptist Church in Newton continued to be a source of ideas, experiences, and fellowship from 1925 to 1955.

As a young Harvard undergrad, Bradford Washburn had spent three summers climbing the mountains of the Alps. He wanted to study some formal geology. Harvard Magazine noted that Washburn’s “love affair with glacial geology was sparked by Professor Kirtley Mather’s Geology 4 in the fall of 1929.”

Many years later Washburn would write of Mather, “He opened my eyes about how our world was made—and I’ve been interpreting it in photography and maps ever since.” In November 1964, Washburn, by then the founding Director of the Boston Museum of Science, was pleased make his former professor an Honorary Recipient of the Bradford Washburn Medal for service to science.