Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston, MA
617.267.9300
www.mfa.org
View From Above: The Photographs
of Bradford Washburn
November 24, 1999 - April 30, 2000
Mountain climber,
explorer, cartographer, aerial photographer, Bradford Washburn (born 1910)
was director of Boston's Museum of Science for 40 years. Washburn began
climbing and photographing in the French Alps in his teens, and spent much
of his adult career exploring Mount McKinley and the Alaska Range as a climber,
mapmaker and photographer. The exhibition, which consists of a gift from
the Washburn to the Museum of some 80 black-and-white photographs, covers
50 years of his photographic career. While these photographs of high peaks,
glaciers and the Grand Canyon were made for purposes of exploration and
mapping, the sublime beauty of their spaces, their light and the force of
their abstract patterning make them glorious works of art that capture an
epic landscape as well as a modern vision. This is the first major exhibition
of Washburn's work in an art museum.
An Essay by Clifford S. Ackley, Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro
Curator of Prints and Drawings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mountain climber, explorer, cartographer, aerial photographer,
Bradford Washburn has always been rather reluctant to discuss his photographs
in aesthetic terms, as art. Yet anyone who sees the sweeping views of saw-toothed
mountain chains or stately glaciers that he had already begun to make in
his teens will have no such hesitation. It is a commonplace of the history
of art and of the history of collecting and museums that something initially
made for a purely practical or functional purpose is over time rediscovered
for its sheer beauty of form or image. So it is with Washburn's photographs.
They have not lost their historical documentary value, but we can also appreciate
them for their surprising or dizzying spaces, for the intricate interplay
of light and shadow over pristine blankets of snow, or their revelation
of natural textures and patterns of startling abstract beauty. Some of these
photographs give us a sense of infinity, of an exhilarating, god-like overview
of vast spaces while others, lacking a horizon, are tantalizingly disorienting
with regard to their scale or even their identity.
Aerial photography has long been singled out by those wanting
to establish a relationship between the worldviews of modern science and
technology and those of modern art. The view from above results in images
that can be of great use to the military, to ecologists or city planners,
but which are also satisfyingly abstract in character. It is therefore not
surprising that abstract painter and experimental photographer Gyorgy Kepes,
who for many years was Professor of Visual Design at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, should have used some of Washburn's aerial photographs in
his 1956 book The New Landscape in Art and Science. This should not be regarded
as an attempt to make Washburn into an "abstract" photographer
like Aaron Siskind, whose close-ups of lava flows were made with the intention
of discovering metaphorical imagery (here billowing draperies) in these
petrified forms, but only to point out that similar abstract or metaphorical
values can be discovered in Washburn's work alongside its obvious descriptive
function.
The modular repeated elements or marbled organic patterns
that Washburn's camera isolates in drifted snow or glacial flows are difficult
not to relate to principles of modern design. As recorded by Washburn's
airborne camera, glaciers would appear to be numbered among our leading
abstract artists.
Washburn (born 1910) is an archetypal New England achiever,
not content merely to discover and understand, but equally driven to share
and explain. For forty years director of Boston's Museum of Science, he
was already publishing in his teens on mountain climbing (Among the Alps
with Bradford, 1927; Bradford on Mount Washington, 1928). Washburn's father
was Dean of the Episcopal Theological Seminary at Harvard. His mother, an
avid amateur photographer, presented him with a camera when he was thirteen.
He first sought out high altitudes in New England to alleviate the symptoms
of childhood hayfever. At age sixteen he made his first Alpine climb, Mont
Blanc. In subsequent years he was guided at Mont Blanc and introduced to
Alpine photography by Georges Tairraz, member of a family of guides and
innkeepers that had been catering to climbers in Chamonix ever since the
late eighteenth century. At this time, in the second half of the eighteenth
century, the fashion for Alpine climbing developed alongside a new Picturesque
and Romantic sensibility that experienced a pleasurable thrill of awe and
terror when confronted with the sublime grandeur and danger of the heights
and depths of the Alps. Alpine paintings by early nineteenth century Romantic
artists such as J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) were succeeded in the second
half of the nineteenth century by photographs that provided souvenirs of
such famous tourist attractions as the great Alpine glacier, the Mer de
Glace, or the vicarious experience of climbing the high slopes around Mont
Blanc.
In America, in the second half of the nineteenth century,
photographers documented the newly acquired grandeurs of the Western American
landscape, often in large scale prints. Some of them accompanied federal
survey expeditions as official photographers or were commissioned by the
new railroads to record the more spectacular sights to be experienced along
the rails. These imposing photographs, many of which hung framed in New
England parlors, identified American greatness (and economic potential)
with the sublime vastness of the undeveloped landscape. In our own time,
the dramatic Western photographic landscapes of Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
have extended this tradition.
Washburn's principal subject, high mountains, whether the
French Alps or Mount McKinley and the Alaska Range, has in all cultures
been associated with the divine: the Greek gods dwelling on the heights
of Olympus, Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law on Sinai, or the mountain
itself, in the case of Mount Everest, as a deity incarnate. In pious nineteenth
century America the beauty and scope of the American land was seen as evidence
of the Divine presence: Yosemite was the American Garden of Eden. Today,
in a more secular society, it is perhaps not far-fetched to observe that
contact with unspoiled nature-increasingly rare-is regarded as a fulfilling
religious experience in itself.
The act of scaling treacherous mountains or the capturing
of remote high places with the camera is clearly a test of skill, endurance
and organizational abilities. Should such actions be seen in terms of man's
conquest of nature-the desire to set foot or record where no human foot
or eye has gone before-or as a desire to retreat from the blight and confusion
of civilization into the pristine and unspoiled, or both at once?
Aerial photography, first practiced from balloons in the
nineteenth century (Nadar photographing Paris from the air in 1858 or Black
photographing Boston in 1860), comes into its own in 1914 with its military
application in World War I. Bradford Washburn began making aerial photographs
as early as 1933. His most recent aerial mapping project was a series of
flights over Everest in 1981-84, a masterpiece of diplomacy as well as of
cartography, which involved obtaining permission from both the Chinese and
Nepalese governments. In Washburn's lifetime almost every uncharted corner
of the globe has been explored by foot or camera. Satellite photography
for weather reporting or military surveillance is now a commonplace and
our focus has been transferred to the moon and planets, as with the recent
mapping of Mars by remote-controlled spacecraft.
No matter how strange and unfamiliar geologically or dramatically
patterned in an abstract sense Washburn's aerial images may be, one thing
they are not is flat. They are bold relief maps captured in extreme raking
light. Washburn's optimum times for aerial photography are one and one-half
hours after sunrise or one and one-half hours before sunset. The earth becomes
a living relief map sculpted by the light with a magical precision.
Not all of Washburn's photography is airborne, of course.
The numerous Alaskan expedition albums he has put together since the Thirties
are full of carefully sequenced picture essays that detail the organization
of supplies or camp conditions. The precise and factual close-ups of supplies
and equipment often become striking modern still lifes. The albums include
portraits of expedition members such as his wife, Barbara, who has been
a key participant in many of the major climbs and mapping expeditions. They
also document colorful characters and situations encountered along the way.
Perhaps the central visual message of Washburn's aerial
photographs is the revelation of how the earth works. This is at once good
science and expressive art. All the earth's secrets, its geological movements,
its upheavals and erosions, the slow march and retreat of glaciers, the
essential inter-connectedness of the earth's bones, veins and muscles is
laid out before us with exemplary clarity.
Essay reprinted from Bradford
Washburn: Mountain Photographs (The Mountaineers, 1999)
Ed.: To see dozens of photos by the artist archived by
Panopticon click
here. To see the MFA article of the artist click
here.
Bradford Washburn Chronology
1910
- Born June 7, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Edith Buckingham Hall and
Henry Bradford Washburn
1916
1919
- Authors article, "Fishing, What a Boy Thinks," for The
Churchman
1921
- Climbs Mount Washington (6,288 ft.), New Hampshire, for the first time
with cousin Sherman Hall
1923
- Makes first airplane flight in a Seaplane (received trip as a gift
for his thirteenth birthday) with his parents, Revere Beach, Massachusetts
1925
- Climbs Mount Washington twice
1926
- Joins Appalachian Mountain club
- Climbs Mount Blanc (15,780 ft.), Monte Rosa (15,217 ft.), and the Matterhorn
(14,690 ft.)
- Writes a guidebook, Trails and Peaks of the Presidential Range published
by his uncle, Charles Washburn
- Makes a winter ascent of Mount Washington with his father, brother,
and classmate Waters Kellogg
1927
- Authors "A Boy on the Matterhorn" for Youth's Companion
magazine
- Climbs Mont Blanc and makes a number of first ascents with his brother
and guides Alfred Couttet and George Charlet during two-month vacation
in Chamonix
- Makes his first aerial photographs on a flight around Mont Blanc
- Works with photographer Georges Tairraz of Chamonix to produce a 14mm
movie, The Traverse of the Grands Charmoz and Grepon
- Writes Among the Alps with Bradford, for the "Books by Boys for
Boys" series, published by G.P. Putnam and Sons
- Begins public lecturing on Alpine climbs
1928
-
- Undertakes many climbs in the White Mountains of New Hampshire
- Writes Bradford on Mount Washington, his second book for the "Books
for Boys by Boys" series
1929
- Graduates cum laude from the Groton School
- Becomes a member of the Groupe de Haute Montagne of the French Alpine
Club
- Makes many major ascents including first ascent of the North Face of
the Aiguille Verte in Chamonix
- Makes a 35 mm film, "The Traverse of the Grepon with Georges Tairraz"
- Documents his climb with a "4 x "6 Ica Trix camera
- Enters Harvard College
- Joins Harvard Mountaineering Club
1930
- Lectures on the Alps with Buxton Holmes at Symphony Hall in Boston,
the Carnegies Halls in New York and Pittsburgh, the Academy of Music in
Philadelphia, and Orchestra Hall in Chicago
- Gives his first lecture for the National Geographic Society in Washington,
D.C.
- Leads a six-man expedition to explore the southern and southwestern
approaches to Mount Fairweather (15,330 ft.) in the Alaska Coast Range
- Publishes Bradford on Mount Fairweather, his last book for the "Books
for Boys by Boys" series
1931
- Spends most of the summer in Chamonix, completing a 35 mm film, "The
Ascent of Mont Blanc" for Burton Holmes
- Elected to membership in the Explorers club (proposed by polar explorer
Anthony Fiala and seconded by his publisher G.P.Putnam, who earlier that
year had married Amelia Earhart
1932 - 33
- Helps organize Skiing Program at Harvard College
- Graduates from Harvard College (cum laude in French history and literature)
1934
- Begins graduate studies in surveying and aerial photography of Harvard's
Institute for Geographical Exploration, where his principal teacher is
Captain Albert W. Stevens (the following year Stevens makes world record
balloon flight 72,395 ft.)
- Learns to use 8"x10" Fairchild K-6 and K-38 aerial cameras
- Acquires his first aerial camera, a 5"x7" Fairchild F-8
- Makes his first solo flight in a Fleet biplane at Boeing Field in Seattle
- Passes flight exams for private flying license at Roosevelt Field,
Long Island
- Leads Harvard/Dartmouth Alaskan Expedition to explore and map Mount
Crillon (12,728 ft.); during this expedition Richard P. Goldthwait makes
the first geophysical depth determinations of an Alaskan glacier; the expedition
was also notable for being among the first to use high-frequency (56 megacycles)
radio for inter-camp communications and air drops to supply upper camps
- Becomes a member of the American Alpine Club and president of the Harvard
Mountaineering Club
- Makes detailed aerial photographs of Alaskan Coast Range glaciers
1935
- Writes an article for National Geographic magazine on the first ascent
of Mount Crillon
- Leads the National Geographic Society's Yukon Expedition, which makes
the first crossing of the Saint Elias Range from Canada to Alaska in the
dead of winter
- Receives telegram from King George V of England congratulating the
expedition
- Instructor at Harvard's Institute for Geographical Exploration
1936
- Completes first chart of Squam Lake, New Hampshire, based on series
of aerial photographs taken in 1935
- Authors an article on the Yukon expedition for National Geographic
magazine
- Leads a series of flights around Mount McKinley (20,320 ft.), sponsored
by the National Geographic Society; the team succeeds in making the first
large-format photographs of the highest mountain in North America
- Lectures on the Yukon expedition of the Royal Geographical Society,
London, England
- Interviews for position of navigator on Amelia Earhart's around-the-world
flight; withdraws from consideration due to lack of adequate radio for
the Pacific leg of the flight
1937
- Makes (with Robert Bates) the first ascent of Mount Lucania (17,150
ft.), the highest unclimbed peak in North America. As part of the effort,
brush pilot Bob Reeve completes the highest airplane landing (8,750 ft.)
ever made in the Yukon. The climb is described in an eight-page article
in LIFE magazine
- Makes second photographic flight over Mount McKinley for the National
Geographic Society
1938
- Photographs Bermuda from the air for Pan-American airways
- Makes first ascents of Mount Marcus Baker (13,250 ft.) and Mount Sanford
(16,200 ft.) in Alaska; Sanford is the highest unclimbed peak on the continent
- Makes national Geographic Society flights over the western glaciers
of the Saint Elias Range; team photographs thousands of square miles of
unmapped country and discovers one of the largest ice fields on earth outside
of the polar regions
- Field-tests 8' x 10" color film for Kodak Research Laboratories
and first ASA 100 aerial film, Agfa Ultra-Pan, for Agfa Corporation
- Receives the Cuthbert Peek Award from the Royal Geographical Society
of London
- Authors (with Harvard geology professor Kirtley F. Mather) article,
"The Telescopic Alidade and Plane Table, as used in Topographic and
Geologic Surveys", for publication in the Denison University Bulletin
- Publishes article on 1936-37 Mount McKinley photographic flights in
National Geographic magazine
1939
- Appointed director of the New England Museum of Natural History in
Boston (later renamed the Boston Museum of Science)
1940
- Awarded the Franklin L. Burr Prize by the National Geographic Society
- Marries Barbara T. Polk of Boston
- Makes first ascent of Mount Bertha (10,182 ft.) in Alaskan Coast Range
- Undertakes extensive aerial photography of Glacier Bay and the Fairweather
Rang
1941
- Daughter, Dorothy Polk Washburn, born
- Makes first ascent of Mount Hayes (13,740 ft.) in Alaskan interior
- Completes two photographic flights over the Hayes Range
- Serves as consultant to U.S. Army cold-weather group, reevaluating
all U.S. equipment for Arctic and sub-Arctic warfare; group included Sir
Hubert Wilkins, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, L.L. Bean, Robert Bates, and Bestor
Robinson, all of whom had long experiences in cold weather exploration
and survival
1942
- Son, Edwards Hall Washburn, born
- Serves as consultant on cold-climate equipment for the Army Air Forces
- Leaves museum for three and a half years to undertake wartime duties
for the U.S. Air and Ground Forces
- Represents Army Air Forces on U.S. Army's Alaskan Test Expedition
- Takes part in the third ascent (his first) of Mount McKinley (20,320
ft.) and lives for nearly three weeks above 15,000 ft.
- Transferred to Washington, D.C. and appointed Special Liaison between
the Quartermaster General and General S.B. Buckner of the Alaskan Defense
Command
- Investigates problems related to operation of winter equipment on the
new Alaska-Canada (Alcan) Highway
1943
- Makes second investigation of Alcan Highway equipment at temperatures
as low as 63°F below zero
- Transferred to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio (at the request of Commanding
General H.H. "Hap" Arnold) to help reorganize the Army Air Forces'
flyingclothing and personal equipment program
1944
- Receives a personal commendation from the U.S. Army Air Forces for
"exceptional services" rendered in the winter investigation of
the crash of an Air Transport Command plane on Mount Deception just east
of Mount McKinley
- Spends ninety days testing Army Air Forces Arctic emergency and rescue
equipment under winter conditions in Alaska
1945
- Leads Army Air Forces expedition in Alaska, conducting final field
tests of new Arctic equipment
- Resumes peacetime position as director of Boston Museum of Science
1946
- Daughter, Elizabeth Bradford Washburn, born
- Decorated for "exceptional civilian service" by the Secretary
of War
1947
- Leads a scientific expedition to Mount McKinley to observe cosmic rays
from the highest position yet undertaken; the expedition is sponsored by,
among others, the U.S. Coast Guard and Geodetic Survey, the Physics Department
of the University of Chicago, and the National Park Service
- Becomes the first person to complete two ascents of Mount McKinley
- As a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, participates
in founding a popular program of high-school science fairs in New England
- Barbara Washburn becomes the first woman to climb Mount McKinley
1948
-
- Visits Shanghai, Nanking, and Peking and spends three months in eastern
China as scientific director of the Chinese-American Expedition to Amne
Machin
- Designated an Honorary Member of the Appalachian Mountain Club
1949
- Directs expedition for the Office of Naval Research, charged with surveying
Mount McKinley in connection with possible further high-altitude cosmic
ray research
- Directs first helicopter landings on Muldrow Glacier, Mount McKinley
1950
- Directs fundraising and construction of East Wing of the Boston Museum
of Science, first building in the museum complex of at Science Park
1951
- Receives an honorary degree, Doctor of Philosophy, from the University
of Alaska in recognition of outstanding contributions in the field of public
science education
- Raises fund for the Boston Museum of Science Planetarium
- Serves as co-leader of the first ascent of the West buttress of Mount
McKinley
- Plans and executes, with Dr. Terris Moore, President of the University
of Alaska, the highest ever ski-plane landings in Alaska (at 10,000 ft.)
on the Kahiltna Glacier
- Publishes Mount McKinley and the Alaska Range in Literature (Boston
Museum of Science), the most complete descriptive bibliography of Mount
McKinley yet compiled
- His aerial photograph Banard Glacier and Mount Natazhat from the
South, Alaska is selected as one of the best pictures from the first
fifteen years of LIFE magazine and shown in an exhibition at the Museum
of Modern Art in New York
1952
- Elected a Fellow of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences for "distinguished
work in exploration, research in climate and climate effects, and for outstanding
work done as a museum director and educator"
1953
- Continues field observations for a large-scale map of Mount McKinley
- a long term project started in 1945; a new altitude for Mount McKinley
established as 20,320 ft. (previously though to be 20,300 ft.) by these
and the 1949 and 1951 observations
- Makes second ascent to date of Mount Brooks (11,950 ft.)
- Uses helicopters extensively in his field work for the first time
- Publishes article in National Geographic magazine on the first ascent
of the west Buttress of Mount McKinley
1954
- Appointed by the Explorers Club to write citations of honor for Sir
John Hunt, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Tenzing Norgay on the occasion of the
Club's 50th Anniversary Dinner
- Publishes article on exploration and mapping of Mount McKinley in The
Illustrated London News
1955
- Elected to six-year term as Overseer at Harvard College
- Leads five-man expedition to map and photograph the southeastern approaches
to Mount McKinley
- Begins long-term field studies that ultimately prove Dr. Frederick
A. Cook never reached the top of Mount McKinley
- Elected a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences
1956
- Elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well
as Honorary Member of both the American Alpine Club and the Alpine Club
of London
1957
- Gives commencement address at Tufts University and is awarded an honorary
degree, Doctor of Science
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Science, by Colby College
- Publishes article on Mount McKinley and the Alaska Range in The Mountain
World (Zurich)
- Receives foundation grant to visit and study the exhibition programs
of twenty-four museums of science and natural history in England, France,
Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, and Sweden
1958
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Science, by Northeastern University
- Serves on the National Science Planning Board, World Science-Pan Pacific
Exposition
- Serves on the board of directors, Massachusetts Audubon Society
- Makes a series of flights from Sion, Switzerland, to photograph Mont
Blanc, the Aiguilles of Chamonix, and the Matterhorn
1959
- Awarded the Gold medal of the Harvard Travelers Club
- Revisits Mount McKinley to make final field checks for McKinley map
- Elected to a five year term as chairman, Massachusetts Committee of
Selection for the Rhodes Scholarship
1960
- Completes his "Map of Mount McKinley," the object of all
his Alaskan expeditions since 1945; map is published under the auspices
of the Boston Museum of Science, the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research,
and the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences
- Elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science
- Completes graduate degree, Master of Arts in Geology at Harvard University
1961
- Serves as chairman of the Committee on Arts and Sciences, 8th National
Conference of the U.S. Commission for UNESCO
- Appointed an Honorary Fellow of the American Geographical Society
1962
- Publishes article on frostbite and its treatment in the New England
Journal of Medicine
- Elected to the board of trustees, Smith College
1963
- His photographs are included in the exhibition The Photographer
and the American Landscape at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York
1964
- Elected to the board of U.S. National Armed Forces Museum
- Serves as Eastern Vice-President, American Alpine Club
- Makes two photographic flights over Mount McKinley
- The Bradford Washburn Award is established and endowed by a gift to
the Boston Museum of Science (the first recipient is Dr. Melville Bell
Grosvenor, President and Editor, National Geographic Society)
1965
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts, by Suffolk University
- Leads National Geographic Society-Museum of Science Expedition to map
and make first ascent of Mount Kennedy in the Yukon Territory, Canada;
as a result receives Franklin L. Burr Prize from the National Geographic
Society
- Publishes article on Mount Kennedy in National Geographic magazine
- Works are included in a photographic exhibition The World from the
Air at the Kodak Pavillion, New York's World Fair
1966
- Receives the Richard Hopper Day Medal from the Academy of Arts and
Sciences of Philadelphia
- Lectures at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., and
the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in Ottawa on the exploration of
Mount Kennedy
- Serves on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Council
- Makes aerial photographic flights in the Mount Kennedy area in Alaska
and in the Yukon for the National Geographic Society
1968
- Collaborates with the National Geographic Society in final production
of a new map of Mount Kennedy
- Completes new large scale chart of Squam Lake, New Hampshire
- Undertakes further high-altitude aerial photographic flights around
Mount McKinley
1969
- Serves on National Advisory Board, World Center for Exploration
1971
- Awarded a Certificate of Honor by the National Conference on the Humanities
- Publishes A Tourist Guide to Mount McKinley
- Makes two trips to the Grand Canyon for the National Geographic Society
and maps eighty square miles in the heart of the canyon
1972
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Science, by the University of
Massachusetts
- Makes three trips to the Grand Canyon, creating maps of the north rim
and the eastern edge of the canyon for coverage
1973
- Spends two weeks in Alaska photographing for a book of photographs
of Mount McKinley to be published by Harvard University Press
- Makes three mapping trips to the Grand Canyon
- Spend three weeks on photographic safari in Kenya and Tanzania
- Elected a Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America
- Publishes an award-winning map of the Squam Range, New Hampshire
1974
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, by Boston College
- Elected to Honorary Membership in the Groupe de Haute Montagne, French
Alpine Club (this is the highest mountaineering award accorded by France);
only non-European of sixteen honorary members
- New main lobby of Boston Museum of science named in honor of Dr. and
Mrs. Washburn for thirty-five years of service to the museum
- Completes four years of field work for the National Geographic Society's
large-scale map of the "Heart of the Grand Canyon"
1975
- Awarded a Blue Ribbon for Squam Range map by the U.S. Congress on Surveying
and Mapping
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, by Harvard University
1976
- Four photographs chosen for international show The Land at the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London
- Serves on organizing committee for the national convention of the American
Association of Arts and Sciences at Boston
- Serves on committee to plan the Boston celebration of the 100th Anniversary
of the Telephone
- Develops unique window on the Learjet (with assistance from the Roland
Institute of Science) that allows high-quality photographs to be taken
from a regular commercial jet at high altitude and in extreme cold
- Takes part in a two week expedition to Alaska to set up laser/theodolite
control for mapping the Muldrow Glacier and the northern approach to Mount
McKinley from Wonder Lake
- Elected to honorary Membership in the Mountaineering Club of Alaska
- Speaks at First Conference on Scientific Research in the National Parks,
New Orleans
1977
- Makes winter photographic flights over the Alaska Range by both Learjet
and Jet Ranger helicopter (over a period of several week)
- Spends two months in Alaska completing field work for the map of the
Muldrow Glacier
1978
- Member, U.S. National Commission for UNESCO
- Completes editing work on the Grand Canyon map (published by the National
Geographic Society); the map is the result of five seasons of field work
and two years of laboratory and cartographic artwork in Washington, D.C.,
and Bern, Switzerland
- Grand Canyon map displayed at the Annual Exhibition of the Society
of Illustrators, New York
- Begins field work on large scale map of Mount Washington, New Hampshire,
in collaboration with the Mount Washington Observatory
- Makes two flights over Mount McKinley at 45,000 ft., taking large-format
color photographs for National Geographic magazine
1979
- Awarded Blue ribbon for Grand Canyon map by the U.S. Congress on Surveying
and Mapping
- Makes high-altitude photographs of Mount McKinley, Logan , Saint Elias,
and Fairweather, using the new Learjet optical glass window
- Awarded the Gold Research Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical
Society (with Barbara Washburn)
- Continues field survey work for Mount Washington map
1980
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, by Babson College, Wellesley,
Massachusetts
- Retires after nearly forty years as director of the Boston Museum of
Science
- Named Honorary Director, the Explorers Club, New York
- Honored as one of 350 "Distinguished Bostonians" on the 350th
anniversary of the founding of the city of Boston
- First recipient (with Barbara Washburn) of the Alexander Graham Bell
Award of the National Geographic Society
1981
- Elected an Honorary Fellow of the Technical Association of the Graphic
Arts, Rochester, New York
- Publishes a large-scale map of the Bright Angel Trail, the world's
most famous footpath, which leads to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
1982
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Science, by Curry College
- Continues negotiations (begun in 1981) with Nepal and China for permission
to make aerial photographic flights over the Everest area
1983
- Makes seven flights around the Nepal Himalayas (on oxygen with door
removed) at altitudes from 20,000 ft. to 22,000 ft. to make the first color
stereo-photography of the area west of Mt. Everest
- Photographs included in the exhibition History of Mountain Photography
at the International Center for Photography in New York
- Invited (with Barbara Washburn) to White House to attend a state dinner
in honor of the King and Queen of Nepal
1984
- Awarded the Explorers Medal by the Explorers Club, New York
- "Map of the Muldrow Glacier" published by the Museum of Science
and the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, Zurich
- Serves as consultant to Swissair Photo Surveys in connection with planning
and completing new maps of Mount Everest and the Presidential Range of
New Hampshire
- Organizes flights from Nepal (in conjunction with Swissair and the
National Geographic Society) to carry out first photo-mapping (at 39,000
ft.) of over 383 square miles of Nepal and Tibet (China) centered on Mount
Everest; mapping images are coordinated with photographs taken from the
U.S. space shuttle, 140 miles above the earth
1985
- Photographs included in exhibition of aerial photography at the Center
for Creative Photography and the Arizona Bank in Tucson
- Represents the National Geographic Society at the 100th Anniversary
of the National Parks of Canada
1986
- Completes eight years of field work (with Barbara Washburn) on large-scale
map of Mount Washington and the Presidential Range
1987
- Aerial photographs included in the exhibition Nine Masters of Photography
at the Photographic Resource Center, Boston University
1988
- Map of Mount Washington and the Presidential Range published by the
Boston Museum of Science and distributed by the Appalachian Mountain Club
- Map of Mount Everest (begun in 1984) printed by the National Geographic
Society and circulated to 10.6 million members in the November issue of
National Geographic magazine; creation of this map involved cooperation
by individuals from eleven nations
- Elected to honorary membership in the Chinese Association for Scientific
Expeditions, People's Republic of China
- Awarded Cherry Kearton Medal by the Royal Geographical Society, London
- Receives (with wife) the National Geographic Society's Centennial Award
1989
- Delivers an address on mapping Everest at the International Conference
on the Evolution and Trends of Photography, Bangkok
- Makes 50th trip to Alaska
1990
- Bradford and Barbara Washburn celebrate their 50th anniversary
- Elected to honorary life membership on the Mount Washington Commission
of the State of New Hampshire
- Present at signing of agreement with the government of Nepal for a
Global Positioning System Survey of the Himalayas
1991
- Elected an Honorary Member of the Tenth Mountain Division Association
- Serves as co-planner (with Dr. Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado)
for a U.S./Nepal/China expedition to carry out the GPS survey
- Plans an expedition (in conjunction with the University of Alaska's
Geophysical Institute) to the Great Gorge of Ruth Glacier (Mount McKinley)
to determine ice depth (discovered to be 3,800 ft.) and speed of movement
(one meter per day)
- Publishes (with David Roberts) Mount McKinley: The Conquest of Denali
(Harry Abrams, New York), a comprehensive history of Mount McKinley
and Denali National Park
- One-person exhibition of photographs at the International Museum of
Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
- One-person exhibition of photographs at the International Center of
Photography, New York City
- Participates in Public Broadcasting Service television show on the
history of mapping Mount Everest
1992
- Present at the completion of the first laser measurements locating
the top of Mount Everest by American mountaineers and Nepal's Survey Department
- Completes laser observations on Muldrow Glacier, determining that movement
amounts to 0.49 ft/day
- Receives (with Barbara Washburn) a special Distinguished Service Award
from American Alpine Club
1993
- Elected an Honorary Member of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology
- Guest (with Barbara Washburn) of the Alpine Club and Royal Geographical
society, London, at celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of first
ascent of Mount Everest
- One-person exhibition of photographs, Sixty Years on High, at
the Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Alaska
- Chairs meeting of Italian and American geodetic experts at the National
Geographical Society, Washington, D.C.
- Participates in Public Broadcasting Service television show on the
life of Amelia Earhart
1994
- Receives, with Sir John Hunt, the first King Albert Awards of Switzerland
1995
- One person exhibition of photographs at the George Sherman Union Gallery
at Boston University
1996
- Receives a Special Award from the American Geological Institute
- Awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Science, by Boston University
1997
- Receives a Special Commendation from the Government of Canada
- One-person exhibition of photographs at the Museo Nazionale della Montagna,
Torino, Italy. Companion catalog published
1999
- Makes 66th trip to Alaska
- One-person exhibition of photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Receives the Massachusetts Commonwealth Award (with wife) the
highest honor that the state confers on its citizens
- Travels to Milan, Italy, with wife to receive awards honoring them
as two of the 100 most distinguished mountaineers of the last 100 year
Chronology reprinted from Bradford Washburn: Mountain Photographs
(The Mountaineers, 1999)
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