Last week I was able to meet Joan Maw, a daughter-in-law of Herbert Maw, Governor of Utah from 1941-49. Governor Maw was the second governor to live in the Governor's Mansion and Joan let me look through a few family scrapbooks at her home in Salt Lake City.

While we looked the photos she shared a few fun stories she had heard over the years from her husband and in-laws.

While in the Mansion, oldest daughter La Rue complained to her father that none of her friends dared swing by the house to pick her up. Her parents tried to compensate for their fame by hosting parties for their children and keeping an open door policy for friends.

One day five year old Ralph decided to explore the home’s steep roof, “Just to see if I could do it,” he later recalled. But he soon found himself stuck three and a half stories in the air until the governor himself came on to the roof to rescue him.

Here are a few of the photos from the Maw family scrapbooks. They will be used a in a documentary I am producing for PBS station KUED7 on the Utah Governor's Mansion.

One unique event that happened at the Mansion during the Maw years was a wedding.

Each Governor family enjoyed hosting formal birthday parties for their children in the Mansion's dinning room.

An example of the Maw's "open door policy." Images courtesy Joan Maw and the Utah State Historical Society. — An example of the Maw's "open door policy." Images courtesy Joan Maw and the Utah State Historical Society.