Mountaineering in the Pacific Northwest: Ascents of Mt. Rainier

These papers include accounts of the Mt. Rainier climb by A.L. Brown in 1886 and the Little Tahoma ascent by J.B. Flett in 1895, as well as Van Trump's address to the Mountaineers in 1911 describing his ascent of Mt. Rainier.

This digital collection contains albums and textual material from Mountaineer outings, as well as digitized images of the Mountaineers which list participants and give descriptions of the society's annual outings.

Tolmie was the first white man to attempt to climb Mt. Rainier, and recorded his expedition in his journal. A copy of this journal entry is in this accession in Box 2, Folder 6

In 1888, Arthur Churchill Warner was engaged by John Muir to join a Mount Rainier climbing expedition. His personal account of the first historic use of the camera on the upper slopes and at the summit of the mountain was published in The Mountaineer (1956). Only portions of collection pertain to Mountaineering, predominately boxes 7 & 8.

This accession includes many important source documents pertaining to Meany's book "Mount Rainier, A Record of Exploration." There are interviews with early explorers of the mountain, such as Edward S. Ingrham and David Longmire, in addition to other original or unique documents. It also includes the H.M. Sarvant and Talbot ascent in 1894, Sluiskin's warning regarding climbing Mt. Rainier by Kautz (1857) from the Overland Monthly (May 1875), and Bailey, Ford, and Edgar's ascent of Mount Rainier in August 1852.

Harry M. Myers was one of the early climbers of Mount Rainier. He collected documentation of early ascents of the mountain, mainly between 1905-1935.

Arthur Churchill Warner, a photographer and mountaineer, was born in 1864 and died in 1943. He was a professional photographer and, in 1888, was the first to photograph the summit of Mt. Rainier. This collection includes correspondence concerning John Muir and an account of the ascent of Mt. Rainier in 1888.

Everett Smith's "A Vacation on Mt. Rainier" describes his party's unsuccessful attempt, under the leadership of Edward Ingraham, to climb Mr. Rainier via the Carbon River and the Winthrop and Emmons Glaciers. A photocopy includes footnotes which clarify locations. Another item, "On Mt. Rainier, July 1887," is Agnes M. Greene's account of her party's unsuccessful attempt via the same route.

This collection documents Sarvant's time on and around Mount Rainier. The first section is from an album showing scenes primarily of Mount Rainier and its vicinity. The photographs were made by Sarvant between 1892 and August 1913. Among these items are approximately 25 photographs taken by Sarvant's friend, Alvin H. Waite, who was a Tacoma landscape photographer and mountain climber. Most of the photographs in the first section chronicle the trips Sarvant took to Mount Rainier and show early settlements in the area, including Longmire Springs, the Kernahan's cabins, and Haines Mill. Also included in the collection is a short sequence entitled "Scenes from the Northern Pacific Railroad," which documents a trip Sarvant took in August 1903 to other Northwest locales.

Waite was an outdoorsman and traveler. His photographs of the Mount Rainier area, made in 1893, may be among the first ever made of the region. In fact, Waite may have been the first photographer to carry a camera on an ascent of the mountain. The collection contains nitrate and glass plate negatives recording climbing trips in Northwest mountains and other places in the Northwest. Included are images of scenic and mountaineering views in Mount Rainier National Park locations such as the Tatoosh Range and the Longmire area, bicycling, and Snoqualmie Pass in Washington's Cascade Range. All photographs were made by Alvin H. Waite unless otherwise indicated. A copy of the photographer's detailed logbook is available for viewing. It includes a detailed description of each image, the location of the person or object depicted, and information on the date, time of day, and weather conditions for each photograph. Also included are materials unrelated to mountaineering.

This collection contains George H. Braas's photographs of Mountaineers Society excursions to Mt. Rainier. They include scenes of valleys and waterfalls of the Nisqually and Paradise Rivers, the Cowlitz and Nisqually Glaciers, the Tatoosh Mountains, Mt. Adams, and groups of climbers.

Rodney Glisan was an active member of the Mazamas club, a Portland based mountaineering club founded in 1894, and served as the seventh president of the organization. In the early 1900s, the Mazamas hiked up Mount Rainier. This collection contains two albums with thirty-six black and white prints depicting a Mount Rainier climbing expedition, probably c. 1910. It also includes images of glaciers, crevasses, and ice formations.

"Mount Tacoma: the story of its first successful ascent" is the title of this undated manuscript (c. 1912) containing a personal account by Philemon Beecher Van Trump of his historic 1870 climb of Mount Rainier with Hazard Stevens.

This collection consists of promotional photographs which document the various tourist activities associated with Mount Rainier National Park. Also included are photographs of Paradise Inn and numerous scenic views of the mountain itself and the surrounding parkland. Most of the photographs appear to be from the 1920s-1930s.

These papers contain writings (typescripts) about two summer outings of the Mountaineers: one in 1930 to Mt. Rainier and the other in 1931 to Garibaldi Provincial Park.

Molenaar was an American mountaineer and author who wrote the definitive climbing history of Mount Rainier ("The Challenge of Rainier"). These papers include twelve of Molenaaar's climbing diaries ("Fuhrerbuchs"), correspondence, published landform-relief maps, black and white negatives of mountains and expeditions, and the unpublished manuscript "High and Wide with Sketchpad." Correspondence and questionnaires relating to Molenaar's research on the history of mountaineering on Mt. Rainier, circa 1930-1987, are also in these papers.

These photographs of Mount Rainier (1932-1935) were for use by Henry in planning a new ascent of Mount Rainier, which in the end was not attempted by him.

Born in Seattle at the turn of the century, Dwight Watson was an amateur nature photographer, skier, and mountain climber. The collection includes photographs of the Cascades and other Western mountains. It includes images of Mount Rainier National Park, Mount Baker National Forest, North Cascades National Park, Wenatchee National Forest, Olympic National Park, Mount Adams, Glacier Peak, hiking, mountaineering and skiing. Also included are photographs taken by Bert Huntoon, H. Ulrichs, Ray Atkeson, L.D. Lindsley, and Dagleish.