Historic Outdoors: A Preservation Initiative
FAIN: PG-262249-19
Appalachian Mountain Club (Boston, MA 02129-3740)
Rebecca Maxwell Fullerton (Project Director: April 2018 to March 2021)
The purchase of high density shelving units for
the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Library and Archives collections, which offer a
rich history of mountaineering from the 19th century to the present. A 10,000 photographic slide collection
visually documents the club’s early history, recreation gear, trails, as well
as wilderness camps, cabins, and alpine mountain huts in the White Mountain
region of New Hampshire. Additional
collections include the writings, correspondence, and scrapbooks of Thelma
Bonney Hall Towle, a journalist and rock climber who chronicled her experiences
in the 1930s and 40s. Institutional
records dating from the club’s founding in 1876 document hiking trails, such as
the 230-mile Bay Circuit Trail circumnavigating Boston, programmatic and
education programs, and partnerships with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and
Northern Forest Alliance.
The project will focus on Appalachian Mountain Club’s (AMC’s) Library & Archives Special Collections and Institutional Records. These materials range from outdoor photography from 1870s, manuscript collections of outdoorspeople of the 19th through the 21st centuries, and complete business records of the nation’s oldest outdoor recreation and conservation organization. Our primary and secondary source materials document over 140 years of the wilderness experience in this country through the lens of history, writing, visual arts and culture. Our specific goal within this project to is to upgrade our storage capabilities to meet modern standards of preservation by incorporating high density shelving into our new Archives location.