Suisse

58720 — c.1930. Oblong 4to. 21 x 29.5 cm. Contemporary black morocco style cloth with title of 'The Castalian Album' and vignette gilt to upper cover. 110 images on 16 thick leaves final 8 pages are blank comprising 101 sepia photographs of varying sizes and 9 black & white postcards. The spine is rather worn and loose and split down the front joint contents in excellent conditon. An album with 108 photographs take by a party of four intrepid ladies travelling through the alpine glaciers of Switzerland and northern Italy in the 1930's. Photographs include Basel Lucerne and its Lake the View from our Window at Beau Sejour Gersau Andermatt Pontresina Roseg Glacier San Moritz The Bernina Pass Tirano Muottas Muraigl The Schofberg 8966 feet To the Roseg Glacier The Tschiervahutte 8070 ft On the Roseg Glacier The Morteratsch Glacier The Boval Hutte 8060 ft The Maloja Pass We Ascend Piz Languard 10722 ft The Albula Bahn Down from Piz Languard. Baedeker's Guide for Switzerland 25th English edition 1913 notes that "with improved facilities for travel the number of visitors to Switzerland has greatly increased of late years and mountaineering ambition has been proportionally stimulated. Summits once deemed well-nigh inaccessible are now scaled annually by travellers from all parts of the world. and even ladies now frequently vie with the stronger sex in their deeds of daring." An interesting piece of women's social history. The 30s saw a period of increased independent travel of women: the infamous feud between the U.S. State Department and feminist journalist Ruth Hale was over passport rights and in the UK women could be included under their husbands passports until August 1988. The Ladies' Alpine Club established in 1907 to cater to female Alpinists à la the original The Alpine Club saw an explosion of popularity especially after Queen Margherita of Italy accepted the position of Honorary President. Female Alpinists were both trendy and transgressive. Acclaimed president of The Alpine Club Captain J. P. Farrar remarked: "It is possible that some unconscious feeling let us say of the novelty of a woman's intrusion into the domain of exploration so long reserved to man may in some quarters have existed. there tended to arise. an atmosphere shall we say of aloofness". The women in the present album seem to have been keen hikers with key details noted regarding their excursions: the page regarding their ascension of Piz Languard's 10722ft makes mention of their rising at 5am start at 6:20am and reaching of the summit at 10:30am. Photos of 'view to Italian border' as well as 'views of Austrian Tyrol'. Also illuminating from an ecological perspective; numerous photos serve as a glimpse into the Alps removed from contemporary accelerated climate change. As an example the photos of Roseg are an hour away from Corvatsch which notably went from a prime summer skiing location to impossible to ski from around 1992. [c.1930] hardcover