Pat Hathaway, raised in Pacific Grove, assembled one of California’s largest privately held image collections. Upon his return to the Monterey Peninsula in 1968 after serving in the Vietnam war, Pat immediately began collecting historical images and also focused on his own passion for photography. In fact, his first exhibition was at the Pacific Grove Art Center in 1968 where he was also an artist n residence. Before suddenly passing in January 2021, Pat managed to assemble over 80,000 historical images, mostly of the Monterey Peninsula, Salinas Valley & California dating to the 1850s. His love of photography was immense as evidenced by over 470,000 of his own images chronicling daily life on the Monterey Peninsula. Little is it known that Pat was also a collector of cameras as well as books and ephemera relating to Monterey County and California. His images have appeared in 1000s of books, magazine & newspaper articles and history documentaries that have inspired generations of historians, teachers and authors. Most recently, images from his collection were highlighted in an in-depth article, titled, “MISSIONS, PRESIDIOS, AND PUEBLOS: The Hathaway Collection of Early California Photography, 1850-1990” by Dr. Ruben G. Mendoza and originally published in the Boletin: Journal of the California Missions Foundation in 2023.
We are most certainly very honored to be the custodians of his collection.
Pat Hathaway’s California Views website
Images from the Pat Hathaway Collection are available for sale at Fine Art America