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 511 - 520 of 918 Records

Trail building 5 - painting blazes
Image nop
    • Date Created: 1919?
    • Description: This image is the fifth in the series of "Trail Building" photos by Herbert Wheaton Congdon. There are four others in the collection. The gentlemen pictured is identified in the original title as "V.", although this person looks very much like Professor Monroe. The sign in this image reads, " Whittier Ravine ."
    • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


    Lyman and Rogers Burnham at Birch Lodge
    Image nop
      • Date Created: 1917-09
      • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


      Mount Mansfield Taft Trail - a view of the nose from under the chin
      Image nop
        • Date Created: 1920-08
        • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


        Taconic Range from trail just west of Shrewsbury Pond
        Image nop
          • Date Created: 1921-08-13 00:00:00
          • Description: Pictured in the photo is Herbert Wheaton Congdon.
          • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


          Camel's Hump - southwest side near the top
          Image nop
            • Date Created: 1920
            • Description: Camel's Hump was previously referred to also as "Couching Lion."
            • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


            Mount Mansfield - summit of the nose
            Image nop
              • Date Created: 1920-08
              • Description: Pictured is Leverett Smith.
              • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


              Snowshoe trail on Mount Mansfield from the chin to Taft Lodge
              Image nop
                • Date Created: 1929
                • Description: The photo's negative was done by Louis Puffer. This photo won Second Prize Class B in the Green Mountain Club 1929 photo contest.
                • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


                Boyce Lodge
                Image nop
                  • Date Created: 1926-08
                  • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


                  Trustees of the Green Mountain Club at Shrewsbury Pond (Spring Lake)
                  Image nop
                    • Date Created: 1921-03-12 00:00:00
                    • Description: "Shrewsbury Pond" is former name for Spring Lake in the Town of Shrewsbury.
                    • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


                    Snowshoers on Couching Lion (Camel's Hump)
                    Image nop
                      • Date Created: 1915-01-03 00:00:00
                      • Description: The names of five of the snowshoers are, Dean, Paulsen, Woodriff, Arms, and Olden Paris. "Couching Lion" is the previous name for Camel's Hump.
                      • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs