In the 1880s, she became a major benefactor and director of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association and the first president of the Century Club of California. In 1902, Hearst funded the construction of a building to provide teacher training and to house kindergarten classes and the association's offices. Hearst was a major benefactor of the
University of California, Berkeley, and its first woman
regent, serving on the board from 1897 until her death. Hearst funded the Hearst Library in
Anaconda, Montana, in 1898. She maintained it until 1904. Hearst became a close friend of Dr.
William Pepper, provost of the
University of Pennsylvania, who was also a medical doctor who treated her for a heart condition. In 1896, in her first major act of museum philanthropy, she donated more than two hundred objects to the
Penn Museum, many of them items such as Anasazi ceramics excavated from the Cliff Palace site of
Mesa Verde, Colorado. Later, she also funded a Penn Museum expedition to Russia, and sent the Aztec specialist,
Zelia Nuttall, to Moscow for this purpose. In 1901, Phoebe Hearst founded the University of California Museum of Anthropology, later called the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology and renamed the
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in 1992. The original collection comprised 230,000 objects representing cultures and civilizations throughout history. The museum now contains about 3.8 million objects. Throughout her lifetime and as provided in her will, Hearst donated over 60,000 objects to the museum. She also funded expeditions such as the
Pepper–Hearst expedition (1895–1897) on the coast of
Florida, near
Tarpon Springs. Most notable are the 1899
expeditions in Egypt by American archaeologist
George A. Reisner and in
Peru by German archaeologist
Max Uhle. These ventures further contributed to the museum's collection. Among these are approximately 20,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts, the largest such collection west of Chicago. Hearst also realized the importance of preserving Native Californian culture. With her support, anthropologist
Alfred L. Kroeber and his students, including
Robert F. Heizer, documented Native Californian culture in the form of photographs, audio recordings, texts, and artifacts. This research helped to preserve approximately 250,000 Native Californian artifacts, the most extensive in the world. The museum collection is available to students and researchers for examination. A gallery located on the University of California Berkeley campus is available for public view. Hearst was named to the
Mount Vernon Ladies' Association as the second vice-regent representing California. She held that position from 1889 to 1918, contributing much time and money to the restoration of
George Washington's home at
Mount Vernon, furnishing it with Washington-owned objects and improving the visitor experience. The William Randolph Hearst Foundation continues to fund projects at Mount Vernon in her memory. Hearst also donated money to the restoration of
Pohick Church in Virginia, and donated a
pipe organ to
St. Stephen's Church in California, where she was also a parishioner. Hearst chose a "different way" than radical feminists. While she believed in women having financial freedom, in her support for women's suffrage she did not strongly believe in women gaining political power. She thought women should have the right to vote "to protect homes and children." In 1895, when the Women's Congress resolved for the passage of a federal amendment, Hearst supported it "distantly". She officially declared herself in favor of suffrage in the summer of 1911, saying it would enable "the betterment of conditions affecting children and women particularly." ==Religion==