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 531 - 540 of 918 Records

Glen Ellen Lodge with Mount Ellen in the background
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    • Date Created: 1931-08-03 00:00:00
    • Description: One of the men pictured may be Joseph Battell.
    • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


    Where the Long Trail ferry crosses the Winooski River
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      • Date Created: 1935-08-07 00:00:00
      • Description: The elevation at this point of the Long Trail is 338 feet. A bridge has since been built.
      • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


      Bingham Falls - lower Smugglers' Notch
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        • Date Created: 1920-08
        • Description: Pictured is Leverett T. Smith.
        • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


        Harold Snyder, Gilbert, and Kent Smith leaving from Lake Pleiad Lodge
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          • Date Created: 1921-07-31 00:00:00
          • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


          Haystack Mountain and Somerset Reservoir from the trail north of the Arlington-Wardsboro Road
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            • Date Created: 1921-08-25 00:00:00
            • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


            Theron Dean winter hiking with pack in Glen Ellen
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              • Date Created: 1917-02-17 00:00:00
              • Description: Slide colored by Mrs. Perry on March 26, 1929. Original notation for the slide's coloring stated: "Elevation 3430 ft. Had red and black blaid mackinaw. Blue or black cap. Brown tote bag. Leather straps over shoulders can make white or red tops to stockings."
              • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


              Map of the Long Trail
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                • Date Created: 1920-05
                • Description: This edition is from May 1920.
                • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


                Mountain and clouds
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                  • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


                  Lyman Burnham approaching the Oldin Paris Gallery on Burnt Rock Mountain
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                    • Date Created: 1917-09
                    • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs


                    Trail building 4: the cleared trail
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                      • Date Created: 1919
                      • Description: This image is the fourth in the series of "Trail Building" photos by Herbert Wheaton Congdon. There are four others in the collection.
                      • Parent Collections: Long Trail Photographs