George W. Martin Mountaineering

Dublin Core

Title

George W. Martin Mountaineering

Description

The George Martin Collection contains digitized information from the vertical files of the existing print George W. Martin Collection of Mountaineering Literature housed at Haselwood Library, Olympic College, Bremerton, Washington. It also contains new digital objects such as video interviews.

George W. Martin was the registrar at Olympic College from 1949 until his retirement in 1966. He started the Outdoor Education Program at the College and was instrumental in forming the Olympic Mountain Rescue after the death in 1948 of Bob Thorson, a Bremerton High School student, from a fall on the Brothers peaks. Disturbed by the senselessness of the accident involving inexperienced, untrained climbers and the inadequacy of the rescue effort, Martin convinced the Olympic College administration for the benefits of offering a mountaineering course. The program started in 1950 with the class and grew to four more classes.

He authored articles for many national magazines and handbooks on camping and compiled several maps of the North Central Cascades and the Olympic Mountains, collaborating with OC graduates and artists Richard A, Pargeter and Frank Dippolito. The digitized collection focuses on items by or about George Martin and about Olympic College's outdoor program.

The print George W. Martin Collection of Mountaineering Literature was opened on November 15, 1965, and formally dedicated on April 1, 1966. Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mt. Everest, spoke at the dedication. The collection was set up by three Olympic College instructors, Robert Keller who was the chairman of the Martin collection committee, Robert McMahon, and Ruth Jewell. The collection opened with about 600 books and included autographed donations from William O. Douglas, Stewart Udall, Bob and Ira Spring, Jim Whittaker, and members of the American Everest expedition. The print collection now contains about 1,000 books and over 900 issues of 17 periodical titles from the beginning to the end of the 20th century. Two notable titles are The Alpine Journal published by the Alpine Club of London, with issues from 1863 to 1970, and The Fell and Rock Journal published by the Fell and Rock Climbing Club of the English Lake District, with issues from 1939 to 1961. The print collection is open to the public

George W. Martin was born on June 24, 1901, and died on September 7, 1970, at Harrison Memorial Hospital. He lived at 1804 Chester Avenue in Bremerton from 1940 until his passing.

Collection Items

Ideas for feeding You, the climber;
Early handout from the climbing class. Recipes and suggestions for "...the overnight outings so the student climber would have enough food for the duration of the climb." The front side contains Recipes and Miscellaneous type-written on a manual…

Menus for weekend climbing trip;
Menus for Saturday breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Sunday breakfast and dinner, and Monday breakfast. Title supplied by cataloger;

Suggested mountaineering equipment list;
Mountaineering equipment list with six categories: equipment to wear, equipment to carry, group equipment, special equipment, overnight equipment, and optional;

Olympic College's camp craft workshop;
Mailer inviting the public to join the camp craft workshop. Includes reproduction of handwritten Gloria's Diary, a participant of the 1951 camp craft course;

Test from Olympic College climbing class;
Test consists of 84 terms and 80 difinitions, the objective being to match them. An explanatory 6x4 inch post-it note signed by Art Filion and dated 2/18/04 is attached to the verso. Title supplied by cataloger;

Development of outdoor education classes at Olympic College;
Brief four-paragraph description of the history and purpose of Olympic College's outdoor education classes;

Rope leader's handbook;
Handbook written by Charles Maiden and Philip Ager and edited by George Martin. Consists of 12 unnumbered pages with illustrations. On cover: Olympic College Rope Leader's Handbook Bremerton Washington;

Class schedule for basic mountaineering class, P.E. 140 - spring 1964:
Class schedule for the Olympic College basic mountaineering class taught by Dave Sicks and Ruth Jewell in spring quarter 1964. Title supplied by cataloger;

Olympic College outdoor education summer 1964;
Trifold mailer addressed to Dear Friends promoting the Outdoor Education summer 1964 classes;

Olympic College outdoor education, summer, 1965;
Handout addressed to Dear Friends promoting the Outdoor Education summer 1965 classes and listing the annual schedule of 9 classes.
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