BMC to Launch Digital Archive of Historic Mountaineering Images

© Alpine Club

As reported on BBC News Scotland, a National Archive of Historic Mountaineering Images is to be launched at the end of this year by the British Mountaineering Council.

Related image: Siegfried Herford and George Mallory at Pen y Pass, December 1913  © Alpine Club Photo Library
Related image: Siegfried Herford and George Mallory at Pen y Pass, December 1913
Geoffrey Winthrop Young
© Alpine Club Photo Library

Initiated by former BMC President and keen photographer Rab Carrington, the searchable digital archive will be unveiled at the Kendal Mountain Festival this November and will include images taken over 160 years ago using glass plate photography.

The collection features photography by Lake District brothers George and Ashley Abraham in the late 19th Century and images of Britain's first female mountain guide, Gwen Moffat,  climbing in the 1950s. Photographs have also been contributed from various climbing clubs, such as the Alpine Club, the Climbers' Club and the Fell and Rock Climbing Club.

Curators are now hoping to expand the collection with contributions from private individuals depicting Himalayan achievements from the 1970s right up to getting cutting edge first ascents from 2010s.

Rab told the BBC: "The archive will show how styles of climbing have changed over the last 150-160 years, from the use of hobnail boots to plimsolls and bare feet to the footwear worn by today's climbers."

Source: BBC News Scotland


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13 Sep, 2016
This is fantastic, looking forward to it
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