Large Archive of Early Sierra Club Conservation and Ansel Adams's Formative Publications: Sierra Club Bulletin, 1926-1954

Ansel Adams John Muir Sierra Club

Archive

Sierra Club Bulletins, Issues from 1926-1929, and later issues from 1954, documenting the organization's transition from a California mountaineering society into a national voice for wilderness preservation, scientific exploration, and outdoor recreation. Issued during the formation of the American conservation movement established by John Muir and the Sierra Club, this archive records annual expeditions through Yellowstone, the Canadian Rockies, and the Athabasca region while bringing together leading climbers, scientists, naturalists, and park administrators. The two annual numbers for 1928 and 1929 also contain an extensive body of early photographs by Ansel Adams, published only a few years after his first appearance in the Sierra Club Bulletin and at the beginning of the collaboration that would make his photography inseparable from the visual language of American conservation.

Sierra Club Bulletin. San Francisco and Berkeley: Sierra Club, 1926 to 1954. Thirteen issues, comprising five copies of four annual and numbered issues from 1926 to 1929, including two copies of Vol. XII, No. 3, and eight smaller monthly bulletins from 1954. 1920s Bulletins are 6 x 9½ inches, each approximately ½ inch thick.
[1&2] Sierra Club Bulletin. Vol. XII, No. 3. San Francisco, 1926. Pages 213-332. Includes Bertha Clark Pope's "The High Trip of 1925," F. E. Matthes on Kings River Canyon and Yosemite Valley, Walter L. Huber's account of the first ascent of Mount Powell, Horace M. Albright's "The Trails of the Yellowstone," Francis P. Farquhar's "Reading Up on the Yellowstone," and Fritiof M. Fryxell's "The Medicine Bow Mountains of Wyoming." Contemporary advertisements promote Union Pacific excursions to Yellowstone, Yosemite Park & Curry Company, Hamilton's Stores in Yellowstone, and Southern Pacific transcontinental travel.
[3] Sierra Club Bulletin. Vol. XII, No. 4. San Francisco, 1927. Pages 333-444. Includes Vernon Bailey's "Animal Life of Yellowstone Park," Elsie M. Zeile's "Wild Flowers on the Yellowstone Outing," Ernest Dawson and Norman Clyde on climbing the Grand Teton, George W. Stewart on the Yukon Indians of the Kawaeh Region, Jesse B. Agnew's "Ducking Trails Around the World," and additional Yellowstone material documenting the Sierra Club's 1926 outing. Advertisements feature Union Pacific, Yosemite Park & Curry Company, and Yellowstone concessionaires.
[4] Sierra Club Bulletin. Vol. XIII, No. 1, Annual Number. February 1928. 106 pages. Includes Howard Palmer's "The Mountains of Tonquin Valley," Jessie M. Whitenead's "With the Sierra Club in 1927," Thomas M. Hills on the Upper Kern Canyon, Samuel Merrill's personal recollections of John Muir, Norman Clyde on climbing the Sierra Nevada from Owens Valley, Francis P. Farquhar's "Spanish Discovery of the Sierra Nevada," Walter L. Huber's "Longs Peak," and eleven photographs by Ansel Adams, including the frontispiece. Contemporary advertisements include Canadian National Railways promoting travel to Jasper National Park and the Canadian Rockies, together with Matson Line's Hawaiian excursions aboard the S.S. Malolo.
[5] Sierra Club Bulletin. Vol. XIV, No. 1. February 1929. 106 pages. Includes Walter L. Huber's "The Sierra Club in the Land of the Athabaska," Marion Montgomery on Mount Robson, Norman Clyde's ascent of Mount Geikie, Lowell Whittemore on Mount Whitehorn, Francis P. Farquhar's "The Story of Mount Whitney," Oliver Kehrlein's ascent of North Palisade from the Glacier, Aurelia Henry Reinhardt on Sierra Square, and fourteen photographs by Ansel Adams, including the frontispiece, documenting the Club's 1928 Canadian Rockies expedition.
[6-14] Vol. 39, No. 3. March 1954; Vol. 39, No. 4. April 1954; Vol. 39, No. 5. May 1954; Vol. 39, No. 7. September 1954; Vol. 39, No. 8. October 1954; Vol. 39, No. 9. November 1954; Vol. 39, No. 10.

Published while the Sierra Club expanded its annual outings beyond California into Yellowstone, the Tetons, Jasper National Park, Mount Robson, and the Canadian Rockies, the early issues record a conception of wilderness preservation that joined recreation, scientific investigation, photography, and public advocacy. The 1928 and 1929 annual numbers belong to the formative stage of Ansel Adams’s publishing career and preserve photographs reproduced from original printing plates beside contributions by Norman Clyde, Francis P. Farquhar, Walter L. Huber, Horace M. Albright, Vernon Bailey, and other central figures in western exploration and conservation. The 1954 bulletins extend that history into the period when the Club mobilized members against dams in Dinosaur National Monument, conducted a statewide park survey, reported on Himalayan mountaineering, expanded its chapter structure, and used film, radio, and print to organize public support. The advertising in the 1920s issues documents the expanding infrastructure of western tourism through Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Canadian National Railways, Yosemite Park & Curry Company, Matson Line, and Yellowstone concessionaires, showing how organized wilderness travel became intertwined with the preservation movement during the interwar years. Wrappers with edge tears, chips, scattered stains, and moderate spine losses; duplicate 1926 issue with a torn and partly detached wrapper and text block coming loose; 1954 bulletins with light handling wear and occasional creasing; interiors generally clean and photographic plates well preserved. Overall good condition. A documentary sequence linking Ansel Adams’s early Sierra Club photography to the organization’s later campaigns for parks, wilderness, and national conservation policy.

Item #23699

Price: $785.00