The Photographs of Bradford Washburn; essay by Clifford S. Ackley (original) (raw)

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

Visits the Grand Canyon

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 Blan_c"_ 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 Geographicmagazine

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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