Name/Title
Teaching certificate for Bertha T. Volmar, by Nahl Brothers, 1889Entry/Object ID
2025.42.1Description
Acc. No. 25.42.1
Subject Category: Citizens of Alameda; artists of Alameda
Date or Period: 1889
Object: Certificate, Teaching
Description: A certificate on thick paper, formed by a lithographic image with figures in classical dress, a globe, books, and a building at the bottom, and a central shield with printed legends and details filled in in ink. The shield states: 'The State of California / Through its Department / of / Public Instruction / presents this / Life Diploma / to / Bertha T. Vollmar', signed by the State Board of Eduction: Ira H. Hoitt, supt. pub. of instruction; Elias H. Allen, Princ. Ste. Norml. School, Edw. T. Pierce, Princ. Ste. Norml. School, R. Waterman, Gov. of Cala., and Ira More, Princ. Ste. Norml. School. Dated 8 April 1889.
Lithoghraph is signed: Nahl Brothers.
History of Object: Lifetime Teaching Certificate for Grammar School Teaching, based on scholarship and experience, for Bertha T. Vollmar (or Volmar), b. 1859, d. Alameda, 1955. She taught at Alameda High School.
The Nahl brothers, half-brothers Charles Christian Nahl and Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl operated as the Nahl Brothers from 1854-1857 in San Francisco. H.W. Arthur Nahl (1833-1889) was an artist, daguerreotyper, engraver, portraitist, and landscape painter. He and half-brother Charles Christian Heinrich Nahl (Charles Nahl, 1818-1878) were born in Germany, and moved to the U.S., trying for gold, then to Sacramento, then to San Francisco. By the mid-1870s the family had moved to Alameda, including Hugo (Arthur)'s son Perham Wilhelm Nahl (1869-1935). Perham Nahl became a director and president of the Alameda Olympic Club, was a competitive diver at the Pacific Swimming Club, and served on board of the Gentleman's Exercise Club of Alameda. He followed in his father and uncle's footsteps as artist, and was at one time employed as lithographer at H. S. Crocker & Co.
Donor: Mrs. Alex Reynolds
Donation Date: Sept. 1956
Catalog Date: 3/1/2025