Women mountaineers

Date: February 1997 to March 1998

By: Gallagher, Jennie, 1957-

Reference: OHColl-0423

Description: Interviews nine women and a man about climbing during this period when women began unguided climbing. Interviewees are Katie Leggoe, Gillian Jackson, Doreen Murie, Betsy Anderson, Anne Hall, Ngaira Cox, Margaret Fyfe, Dorothy Smith, Andrew Anderson and Susie Ward Interviewer(s) - Jennie Gallagher Quantity: 56 C60 cassette(s). 8 printed abstract(s). 10 interview(s). Finding Aids: Abstract Available - other Abstracts for Andrew Anderson and Katie Leggoe.

Date: 1879

From: Green, William Spotswood, 1847-1919 :[Journey to New Zealand and the attempt on Mount Cook, November 1881 to March 1882, and] Dodging about Switzerland in 1879.

By: Green, William Spotswood (Rev), 1847-1919

Reference: E-581-q-050

Description: Green with his wife and daughter, and two male companions walking in the base of Mount Schilthorn Inscriptions: Album page - bottom right - title in pencil Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour, 125 x 175 mm

Date: 1955-1964

From: Pascoe, John Dobree, 1908-1972 : Papers

Reference: 75-241-093

Description: Scripts and correspondence relating to `The way to Erewhon' which was probably broadcast as `The valleys into Erewhon' (for map of the area see MSI-Papers-8199-200); also material relating to `Women in the mountains'. Quantity: 1 folder(s). Physical Description: Mss, typescripts and printed matter

Date: 1850-1890

By: Harper, Arthur Paul, 1865-1955; Moberly, Patricia, active 1990s

Reference: PA1-f-207

Description: Album probably compiled by the mountaineer and explorer, A P Harper. Harper was also probably the photographer for many of the prints, especially those of mountains and mountaineering. There are Harper and Ackland family photographs which include interior and exterior views and views of the garden, of Ilam, the family mansion in Christchurch. The other main group of photographs relate to A P Harper's activities as a mountaineer and explorer in the Fox and Franz Joseph glacier regions. Some of the climbers active in the Southern Alps during the 1880s and 1890s are depicted. W S Green and his two Swiss guides, and at least one photograph taken by Green during his unsuccessful attempt to reach the summit of Mount Cook in 1882. Fitgerald, Zurbriggen, Mannering, and Dixon were all men that Harper was associated with as a mountaineer. As an explorer he was associated with Charles Douglas, and there are photographs of Douglas, Leonard Cockayne the botanist, and John Roberts of the Westland district survey. There are also many photographs of the mountains, glaciers, rivers, and gorges of the Southern Alps. Some of the English photographs at the beginning of the album may be associated with A P Harper's brother Charles who became an Anglican priest. He may have been the C C Harper who was at Keble College and Cuddesdon theological college, Oxford. There are two interiors of "C C Harper's room at Keble College", and a number of photographs of family groups taken in the grounds of the vicarage at Patea where Charles Harper was vicar from 1894 to 1900. The album ends with A P Harper and his house at Thames, and more British photographs, in particular several pages of Jersey taken about 1897 Quantity: 1 album(s) Album(s).

Date: 1879

From: Green, William Spotswood, 1847-1919 :[Journey to New Zealand and the attempt on Mount Cook, November 1881 to March 1882, and] Dodging about Switzerland in 1879.

By: Green, William Spotswood (Rev), 1847-1919

Reference: E-581-q-047

Description: A man and a woman at the summit of a mountain looking at Breithorn mountain in the distance. Other Titles - Breithorn Inscriptions: Album page - bottom right - title in pencil Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 120 x 175 mm

Date: 1879

From: Green, William Spotswood, 1847-1919 :[Journey to New Zealand and the attempt on Mount Cook, November 1881 to March 1882, and] Dodging about Switzerland in 1879.

By: Green, William Spotswood (Rev), 1847-1919

Reference: E-581-q-033

Description: A woman sitting on a wooden stool close to an open fire inside a building. A man is standing nearby on her right. She is holding a [hat?] in her right hand [to shield herself from the smoke?] Inscriptions: Album page - bottom right - title in pencil Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 120 x 165 mm

Date: 1879

From: Green, William Spotswood, 1847-1919 :[Journey to New Zealand and the attempt on Mount Cook, November 1881 to March 1882, and] Dodging about Switzerland in 1879.

By: Green, William Spotswood (Rev), 1847-1919

Reference: E-581-q-032

Description: Green with his wife and daughter and two male companions. They have stopped to look at the Pennine Chain in the distance during their ascent of the Dent du Midi mountain, Switzerland. Other Titles - Pennine Chain Inscriptions: Album page - bottom right - title in pencil Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 110 x 135 mm

Date: [Between 1910s and 1930s]

From: Pascoe, John Dobree, 1908-1972 :Photographic albums, prints and negatives

By: Adamson, Jack, 1866-1951; Beken, Charles Albert, 1859-1944; Cain, Conrad, active 1910s; Kent, T R, active 1930s; Lysons, Markham Carthew, 1907-1944; Mitchell, John Wesley, 1884-1954; Nanson, Gerald Leighton, 1907?-; Odell, Robert Sidney, 1908-1992; Pascoe, Arnold Paul, 1908-1976; Porter, Harold Edward Lionel, 1886-1973; Radcliffe, Frederick George, 1863-1923; Snowden, Andrew Craig, 1897-1981; Syme, Roderick, 1900-1994; Teichelmann, Ebenezer (Dr), 1859-1938; Thompson, A F, active 1939

Reference: PA1-o-410

Description: Photographs taken by John Dobree Pascoe and others, in the Southern Alps, particularly Canterbury region. They include groups of mountaineers; routes traversing difficult slopes; views of mountains, mountain ranges and glaciers; mountain huts and life enjoyed by mountaineers. A number of images in this album have no captions, but some have been identified as having been taken by, or of, Jack Adamson in the late 1890s and possibly up to the early 1910s. A number of postcard images by F G Radcliffe are included. Other photographers and subjects include early mountaineers Kate Gardiner, Mrs Thompson, and there is one image of mountain guide Darby Thomson (who died in an avalanche on the Linda Glacier in 1914). Quantity: 1 album(s) Album(s). Physical Description: Album with black cover; "J.D. Pascoe" lettered in gold in lower right-hand corner; [197 p.]; 26.5 x 32.5 cm

Date: 1879

By: Green, William Spotswood (Rev), 1847-1919; Baldock, Belinda, -1999

Reference: E-581-q

Description: The New Zealand section shows the Cap Verde Islands, on the journey towards New Zealand, then the journey to Mount Cook, various camps on the way and the almost completed ascent of Mount Cook by Green, Kaufmann and Boss. The Swiss section of the volume begins with the lower reaches of the Rhine, then Heidelberg, "Our whole party in the Ascenstrasse" showing three women and two men, At the Zesenberg, J. B.'s first glissade (one man slipping in the snow watched by two women and another man), the Eiger, the Munch, at Murren, Schilthorn, the Breithorn, mountain flowers including an orchid, Tschingel Pass, Fall of the Kander, Ascent of Bahnhorn, ascending Zagergrat, at Linkenbad, ascent of Dent du Midi, and Mont Blanc. Most views show two and sometimes three women climbers, probably Green's daughter Agnes and her friend Sherlock Lennon, with the third woman possibly Green's wife, according to information supplied by the donor. The volume is in two sections, in tumble format, with Swiss watercolours at one end, and the New Zealand views at the other. Quantity: 1 sketchbook(s). Physical Description: 60 watercolours, tipped in on 59 pages in sketchbook with half black morocco and dark green buckram, page size 241 x 262 mm

Date: 1879

From: Green, William Spotswood, 1847-1919 :[Journey to New Zealand and the attempt on Mount Cook, November 1881 to March 1882, and] Dodging about Switzerland in 1879.

By: Green, William Spotswood (Rev), 1847-1919

Reference: E-581-q-038

Description: Green with his wife and daughter and a male companion, roped together crossing a crevasse during their ascent of Zagen Grat Inscriptions: Album page - bottom right - title in pencil Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 110 x 135 mm

Date: 1943

From: Pascoe, John Dobree, 1908-1972 :Photographic albums, prints and negatives

Reference: PAColl-5926-30

Description: Dorothy Pascoe in front of the remains of a hut built in the 1890s, at Manuka Point Station. Photograph taken John Dobree Pascoe in 1943. Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).

Date: 22 Mar 1995

From: Ophthalmological Society of NZ Oral History Project.

By: Potter, Dorothy Field (Dr), 1922-2009; Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists. New Zealand Branch

Reference: OHInt-0161/7

Description: Dr Dorothy Field Potter talks about her mother's background, her father's education and their attitudes to their children's education. Describes her love of learning and educational experiences, recalling Mary Holland of Woodford House. Mentions the first women to climb Mt. Cook by the southern route, Ed Hillary and Harry Ayres. Recalls positive and negative attitudes to women in medicine and gives her reasons for choosing ophthalmology. Talks of trachoma research, working in a glaucoma clinic and cataract operations. Mentions Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London, meeting New Zealand ophthalmologists and Ida Mann, the first woman professor of ophthalmology in Britain. Describes innovations in eye treatment, life in London and the journey to New Zealand after her father's accidental death. Talks of the farm at Masterton and tax arrangements, finding work and the constraints on women in medicine. Mentions marriage and children, childcare and attitudes to keeping her own name. Recalls joining the Ophthalmological Society of New Zealand, setting up the Glaucoma Society, the Wellington Branch of New Zealand Medical Women's Association and the New Zealand Branch of the Australian and New Zealand Aviation Medical Society. Mentions Ida Mann's New Zealand visit, eye diseases of Maori and papers on various eye conditions presented at conferences, the benefits of attending conferences and places visited. Talks of her Wellington, Auckland and Masterton practices, her CBE and medallion of the Ophthalmological Society, recalling its merger with the Australian College of Ophthalmologists, and the coat of arms. Mentions her feelings about research, her work with patients and demands of family and medicine on women, the support of other people. Abstracted by - Paula Martin Interviewer(s) - Anna Cottrell Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-009014 - OHC-009617 Quantity: 1 printed abstract(s). 4 C60 cassette(s). 4 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete OHA-2797. 9 photographs - portraits of Dorothy Potter, some coloured

Date: 1933

From: Wills, Mary Ann, 1859?-1942: [Collection of watercolours, oil paintings, and albums by Mary Wills, primarily of landscapes. 1885-1936]

Reference: A-462-029-1/2

Description: Shows two women sitting on a mountain-top, possibly within the Ruahine Range of mountains. There is very little snow on the mountain-top and the women are dressed quite lightly. The woman on the right has been cropped in half, so only her left arm and leg are visible Possibly the same two figures swimming at Westshore in A-264-016, and the same figures as painted in A-462-021 Quantity: 2 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour on two sheets of paper, each 113 x 68 mm

Date: 1933

From: Wills, Mary Ann, 1859?-1942: [Collection of watercolours, oil paintings, and albums by Mary Wills, primarily of landscapes. 1885-1936]

Reference: A-462-021

Description: Shows two women sitting on a mountain-top, possibly within the Ruahine Range of mountains. There is very little snow on the mountain-top and the women are dressed quite lightly Possibly the same two figures swimming at Westshore in A-264-016, and the same figures as painted in A-462-029-2 Inscriptions: Recto - bottom centre - The climbers. 1933 [in brushpoint] Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour on paper, 90 x 132 mm

Date: February 1948

From: Riddiford family: Harold Earle Riddiford papers relating to Garhwal Himalaya and Everest Reconnaissance

Reference: PAColl-10769-01

Description: Contains photographs showing the alpine rescue of injured mountaineer Ruth Adams, February 1948. Photographs taken by Harold Earle Riddiford. Images include various points of the rescue including on the slopes of La Perouse, camp sites and huts, various points along the Cook River Valley, and fording the Cook River. Adams is seen in her stretcher; being pulled, carried, during rests, and finally being loaded onto the back of a flat-bed truck. Members of the rescue party, which included Harry Ayres, are also photographed. There are a number of photographs showing alpine areas. One photograph shows a small aircraft flying above the photographer. Title transcribed from item. Arrangement: Arrived at Library in an envelope labelled "Ruth Adams Rescue". Envelope contained two glassine bags with the first containing prints one through to 20 and the second prints 21 through to 28. Included in the second envelope were six negatives. Members of the rescue party included Harry Ayres, Edmund Hillary, Norman Hardie, and Mick Sullivan, who are also photographed. Quantity: 28 b&w original photographic print(s). Transfers: Negatives are held at 1/4-138162-F to 1/4-138167-F.. Processing information: Negatives originally held with these prints have been separated for reasons of preservation and storage.

Date: 1879

From: Green, William Spotswood, 1847-1919 :[Journey to New Zealand and the attempt on Mount Cook, November 1881 to March 1882, and] Dodging about Switzerland in 1879.

By: Green, William Spotswood (Rev), 1847-1919

Reference: E-581-q-044

Description: Green with his wife and daughter and a male companion walking amongst ice debris from an avalanche at the Tschingel Pass, Switzerland Inscriptions: Album page - bottom right - title in pencil Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 110 x 135 mm

Date: 1931-1934

From: Duthie, Alastair Simpson, 1912-1995 :Photographs of Lincoln Ellsworth Antarctic Expedition, coast watching in Sub-Antarctic Islands, service in Pacific, 1939-1945

Reference: PA1-o-1244

Description: A record of climbing expeditions in the Southern Alps made by Alister Duthie and other mountaineers from 1931 to 1934. The first is a single group photograph of a party of eight, one of whom was A P Harper, leaving 25 Mile Hut in the Rees Valley in 1931/1932. Another copy of this print is in the collection at Photo Archive ref PAColl-8102-5-63 and it carries a caption naming each person in the party. The print in this album is surrounded by their signatures. The caption on the copy print also states that this photograph was taken on the occasion of the first New Zealand climbing camp. The second expedition recorded took place from the 4th of January to the 10th of February 1934. Initially the party comprised Alister Duthie, Lella Davidson, and Greta Stevenson. It involved climbing mountains in the general vicinity of Mount Cook. They began by crossing the Copland Pass to Welcome Flat. At Waiho the party was joined by Kurt Suter who was working as a guide at Franz Josef Glacier. The party did much climbing which included Mount De la Beche, the Minerets of Mount Drummond, Mount Spencer, Glacier Peak, Mount Lendenfeldt, ending up at De la Beche Hut on January the 24th, at which point Lella Davidson left to return to Dunedin. The remaining three continued their climbing expedition during which they made the first crossing of the Southern Alps divide by way of Clarke Saddle, a high col at nearly 10,000 feet between Teichelmann Peak and Mount Bountier. The third expedition recorded took place earlier from the 25th of December 1933 to the 2nd of January 1934 when Alister Duthie and W H W Walker made an usuccessful attempt on Mount Aspiring. They were foiled by the weather and their tent was "blown to bits." However, from the 12th to the 19th of April 1934 a party consisting of Kurt Suter, R Pinney, and Alister Duthie climbed Mount Aspiring via the north-west ridge, and also climbed Plunket Dome and Cascade Saddle. As well as photographs relating to these expeditions, the album contains many other images of mountain peaks and river vallies in the Southern Alps. An article by Alister Duthie on the first crossing of the Southern Alps divide via Clarke Saddle is housed at Photo Archive ref PAColl-8102-7. It is from The New Zealand Alpine Journal, Vol 5, June 1934. The crossing of the Southern Alps divide via Clarke Saddle was reported in the "Star." A photocopy of the report can be found in the collection at Photo Archive ref PAColl-8102-6-12. Quantity: 1 album(s).

Date: 1879

From: Green, William Spotswood, 1847-1919 :[Journey to New Zealand and the attempt on Mount Cook, November 1881 to March 1882, and] Dodging about Switzerland in 1879.

By: Green, William Spotswood (Rev), 1847-1919

Reference: E-581-q-037

Description: Green, his wife and daughter and a male companion roped together ascending Bahnhorn. Inscriptions: Album page - bottom right - title in pencil Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 110 x 135 mm

Date: [Circa 1917-1932]

From: Kennedy, William Alexander, 1865-1950 :Photographs of the Southern Alps area

By: Mitchell, John Wesley, 1884-1954; Speight, Robert, 1867-1949; Williams, Edgar Richard, 1891-1983; Frazer, William D, active 1920s-1940s

Reference: PAColl-0959-39

Description: Alpine, bush, valley and mountaineering images taken by various photographers in the South Island. While there is a typescript inventory, many of the sites are unidentified, including images numbered 1-7, 27-141. There are two major sequences, one taken by Edgar Richard Williams (signed ER) when on a trip up the Rakaia River with T.T. Gough in 1917 (information from internet) (image nos. 10-11, 14, 18-26). Some of these have notes on the back added by John Pascoe at a later date. The other main sequence shows an expedition to Mount La Perouse in 1932. This sequence was possibly taken by William D Frazer (from information on internet), although it is possible they were taken by Jack Mitchell (John Wesley Mitchell, Snr). The La Perouse expedition included mountaineers Tom Sheenan, Alex Graham, Marion Scott, Jack Mitchell, Louie Roberts (Mary Louise Roberts), and Anne Stevenson. Images numbered 6-7, show a large group of men, possibly members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club, or the New Zealand Alpine Club (either the Canterbury or the Otago branch). John Dobree Pascoe is visible standing in the middle row towards the right. Most or the men are seen in front of a mountain hut, while three men are perched on the roof. The last two images are sterescopes from an "Earthquake series" published by W.S. Smith, showing earthquake damage in San Francisco in 1906. They are No. 317 "Northeast from Fifth Street", and No. 318 "Portsmouth Square". Most of the places identified are listed above. Quantity: 150 b&w original photographic print(s). Physical Description: Silver gelatin prints. Finding Aids: Typescript inventory of this box held in Photographic Archive backfile under "Kennedy, William Alexander.".

Date: 1938

By: Beer, Dora Hallenstein de, 1891-1982

Reference: PA-Group-00677

Description: 8 August to 13 December 1938 is the time span of this record of New Zealand's first overseas mountaineering trip from Burma to China. The record begins at Myitkyina in north eastern Burma, the end of the railway line from Rangoon and not far from the Chinese Border. From Myitkyina the party made its way by mule caravan to Tengyueh (Tengueh) just across the Chinese border in Yunnan Province where there was a British Consulate. From there they travelled due east crossing the Salween (Nu Jiang) river on the way to Yungchang (Baoshan). Here they connected with a section of the China-Burma road. This took them across the Mekong (Lancang Jiang) river to the turn off to Dali (Tali) and Likiang (Lijiang) at the south western end of Lake Er hai. From Likiang they travelled 20 miles north to the upper reaches of the Yangtze Kiang (Jinsha Jiang) river where it cuts through the ranges of the Yulan Shan (Yulong Xue Shan) and Mount Sansato which was the goal of the expedition. Bad weather delayed the assault on the mountain and when the weather cleared at 19,000 ft, the intense cold drove them back to their base camp. They tried other approaches, but again were forced back by strong winds above 18,000 feet. When they decided to leave Sansato, they made an excursion to the gorges of the Yangtze Kiang, 10,000 feet below them. After this three of the party, Mary Byles, Majorie Edgar-Jones, and Mick Bowie set out for home. The other three, Dora de Beer, Kurt Suter, and Frazer Ratcliffe, returned to the mountain to try to recover the gear which had been abandoned in the snow. During this operation they also took time out to climb the 5,900 metre Mount Geena Nkoo. All of these events and more have been recorded in considerable detail by Dora de Beer. People, villages, cities, shops, inns, temples, and the countryside make it rather like a National Geographic photograph essay made just before changes in modes of transport would turn travellers into tourists. New Zealand's first overseas climbing expedition was organised by a woman, the English born Australian mountaineer, Marie Beuzeville Byles. Marie Byles had done much of her formative climbing in the New Zealand Southern Alps in the early 1930s where she met guide Kurt Suter whom she asked to lead the expedition. Suter chose Mick Bowie as the second guide after his original choice, Jack Cox, withdrew. As well as the two New Zealand guides, Marie Byles invited two of the most experienced women climbers that the Southern Alps had yet produced, Dora de Beer and Marjorie Edgar-Jones. A young Australian climber, Fraser Radcliffe (or Ratcliffe), completed the party. This expedition did not do a great deal of really hard climbing even by the standards of the day, but it remains a memorable one as it involved professional guides and three women who had learned their mountaineering skills in New Zealand. New Zealand women would not begin climbing overseas regularly until the late 1960s, and guides would not take clients away from the Southern Alps again until the late 1970s. (info. from "New Zealand's First Overseas Climbing Expedition": Colin Monteath: "Adventure" Jan/Feb 1989). The summit of Mount Sansato was first reached by a Chinese research team from Beijing in 1963. (Info from the Lonely Planet Guide to South West China, 1986) Source of title - Title supplied by Library Arrangement: Negatives housed at 1/4-083153 to 083524 Quantity: 372 b&w original negative(s). 4 b&w original transparency/ies. Provenance: After Dora de Beer's death in 1982 her brother Esmond gave this collection of negatives to Francis Russell of Christies as his family had mountaineering interests. Transfers: The original negative envelopes with Dora De Beer's captions written on them, and some supporting information photocopied from more recent publications are held in the PAColl sequence. Processing information: Archivists notes - Originally arranged and described in 1999. Reference number changed from PAColl-5874 to PA-Group-00677 in 2011.