Long Trail Photographs
The Long Trail Collection includes over 900 images of the oldest long-distance hiking trail in the United States: Vermont’s Long Trail. The collection is mainly comprised of black-and-white and hand-colored lantern slides derived from photographs taken between 1912 and 1937. It documents the Green Mountain Club’s building of original trails and shelters and illustrates the enthusiasm for the Long Trail project (and hiking in general) at the turn of the century. These images chronicle the views and landscapes seen by early hikers of the Long Trail and provide an historical record of people associated with the Green Mountain Club’s formative years.
The images in this collection were captured by Green Mountain Club members Theron S. Dean and Herbert Wheaton Congdon, both of whom were early contributors to the trail’s development. Congdon surveyed and mapped a large portion of the early trail including a fifty mile stretch from Middlebury Gap to Bolton. Congdon, along with Leroy Little and Clarence Cowles, is also credited with the first winter ascent of Mount Mansfield on February 21, 1920. Dean is perhaps the most prolific documenter of the Long Trail’s development. Dean traveled throughout Vermont presenting slideshows and giving talks about the Long Trail, often to hundreds of people. A number of the original lantern slides in this collection were used by Congdon and Dean in their Long Trail presentations. Dean in particular meticulously cultivated his lantern slide collection and displayed these slides during his many talks.
The original slides can be viewed in the Dean and Congdon collections at the University of Vermont Silver Special Collections Library. More information about the Long Trail can be obtained from the Green Mountain Club. The slides were scanned by the University's Landscape Change Program with the generous support of the National Science Foundation. The digitized photographs also appear in the Landscape Change image database at: http://www.uvm.edu/landscape/
Showing 21 - 30 of 33 Records
Caretaker on Couching Lion (Camel's Hump) preparing to cook a porcupine
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- Description: "Couching Lion" is the previous name for Camel's Hump.
- Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs
Men with horse and buggy
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- Description: The original image image contains a note stating that the original image is from Robert Wilkinson of Montpelier, Vermont.
- Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs
Monroe Party leaving the Atkins House
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- Date Created: 1917-08-31 00:00:00
- Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs
Man, woman and dog on top of rock ledge
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- Description: The man in this image may be Herbert Wheaton Congdon
- Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs
Oxen hauling supplies for the building of the Battell Trail
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- Date Created: 1917-08-31 00:00:00
- Description: These oxen are pictured on the Battell Road hauling supplies for trail builders.
- Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs
Mrs. Davis, unknown, oxen, Mr. Herr, and Mr. Henry Davis
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- Date Created: 1924-05-21 00:00:00
- Description: Pictured are: Mrs. Davis, unknown, oxen, Mr. Herr, and Mr. Henry Davis.
- Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs