“The Association Shall Be Called the Appalachian Mountain Club” – by Becky Fullerton, AMC Archivist

An AMC outing in the 1880’s or 1890’s

“DEAR Sir,

You are hereby invited with your friends to attend a meeting of those interested in mountain exploration to be held at the Institute of Technology on Saturday, January 8th, at 3 P.M.

Yours truly,

E.C. PICKERING”

This is the text of the famous postcard sent out January 1st, 1876, by Professor Edward Charles Pickering to anyone in the Greater Boston area he thought might want to start a club for mountain lovers.

Three preliminary meetings of the yet unnamed venture were held in the Rogers Building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, starting on January 8th. According to the Boston Evening Transcript, “Thirty or forty gentlemen were present” at the first meeting. Two more preliminary sessions followed on January 12th and 26th, to discuss what the group wished to accomplish, draft a constitution, and give the society a name. Several names were proposed to varying degrees of enthusiasm. Some favored an Alpine Club, while others wanted a New England Geographical Society or even the Mountain Exploration Society. At one point the New England Mountain Club was unanimously recommended. However, “it was afterwards maintained that but one person took part in this vote, no one else being bold enough, on so important a question, to venture even informally to express what he thought!”

Knowing that mountains were to in some ways be the center of their world for study and enjoyment, the scientists among the group steered in a geological direction. They settled on the Appalachian Mountain Club since it highlighted their nearest mountain system and provided a wide scope in terms of territory, stretching across the East Coast. However, they did not feel bound by the Appalachian chain of mountains alone. In terms of their objectives of mountain exploration and scientific observation, everything from the Himalaya to the mountains of the moon were fair game.

The first “Regular Meeting” of the Appalachian Mountain Club was held on February 9th. Here thirty-five people were voted in as Original Members and officers were elected to form a Council. Leading up to the second meeting on March 8th, the Council published a notice about the new club in local papers. Professor Charles E. Fay made the specific suggestion that invites be sent to “ladies as well as gentlemen.” From the public invitation, two hundred men and women showed up. Attendees dove into discussions of mountains and science, hearing lectures on geography, geology, and an adventurous day on Mount Tripyramid. Two types of mountain barometers used in measuring mountain heights were displayed and explained. Additionally, they took the time, since many women had shown up, to vote in favor of admitting women to membership.

The first set of club Officers and Councillors (as committee heads were known) hailed from the tight-knit New England scientific and academic community. Almost all of them had connections to Harvard, MIT or Tufts. Pickering, as the instigator of the whole venture, was naturally elected President. His role, as laid out in the club’s first Constitution was to preside meetings and “prepare for the annual meeting an address upon some appropriate subject, with a review of the operations of the Club the previous year.” His team included a Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer, plus five Councillors to chair committees on Natural History, Topography, Art, Exploration and Improvements.

With officers and committee heads in place, the club could move forward with the work they had set out for themselves and for growing the membership. Clubwide meetings were scheduled for the second Wednesday of each month from October to June, with an Annual Meeting in January, and summer meetings booked as the Council saw fit. Eleven members were required to form a quorum for business. New members were elected through sponsorship and an open vote. Should one wish to join AMC, two current members had to write nomination letters. The club Secretary delivered nominations to the Council, which voted on each nominee. Next, nominees were announced at a club meeting. Members had time to mull them over and vote on the nominee at the next meeting. Once that gauntlet was run, new members had to pay a two-dollar annual membership fee and sign the club constitution.

Through five committee (or ‘departments of work’ as they were often called): Natural History, Topography, Art, Exploration and Improvements; Council members committed to “carry on a systematic exploration of the mountains of New England and adjacent regions, publishing its results from time to time, and will collect books, maps, photographs, sketches and all available information of interest or advantage to frequenters of the mountains. It will also encourage the opening of new paths, clearing of summits from which views may be obtained, and other improvements.”

In return, the club requested active engagement from its members in these activities. Members were asked to collect all facts they could about the mountains, from special places that should be visited and where to stay, to “all such information as would be of interest to the artist, pedestrian or student.” Through these first proclamations, invitations, and entreaties, the club set out for itself an infinite number of tasks and pursuits. The industrious Council got to work immediately, discussing the composition of a map of the White Mountains, planning exploration trips to be made, and demonstrating and discussing the latest equipment in mountain climbing and documentation.

First Field Meeting 

Since the whole idea of a mountain club was to get out and climb some mountains, the next step for AMC was to organize a trip and their beloved White Mountains were the obvious destination. One enthusiastic founding member, Reverend John Worcester of Newtonville, Massachusetts, offered up the study of his summer residence in North Conway, New Hampshire as a summer rendezvous of the club. With an official place to meet, the first White Mountains outing occurred between July 26th and 28th, 1876. The party spent the first day pleasantly engaged in hearing about what the club had accomplished thus far and making resolutions about the proper methodology for naming mountains. On Thursday, July 27th a group of thirty ascended Mount Pequawket (also known as Kiarsarge and later Kearsarge North). The following day about 175 people rode the train through Crawford Notch to the Fabyan House at Bretton Woods. The train stopped long enough at the Crawford House for some of the group to ascend Mount Willard. Overall, it was a successful Field Meeting and proof that the new club could organize grand adventures outdoors.

First Year’s Reports of the Councillors: What did they accomplish? 

At the end of 1876, the five Councillors were requested to give a report on what they had accomplished that first year. Only two departments reported their progress. The Councillor of Improvements William G. Nowell shared his department’s endeavors in reopening, clearing, cutting, marking and scouting new trails in the White Mountains. Its first accomplishment was improving an existing path up 2,234-foot Boy Mountain in Jefferson, New Hampshire. The trail led from the Mt. Adams House, a 60-guest hotel, to a low, wooded summit. This was promptly cleared to allow for views out over the neighboring peaks of Mount Madison, Mount Prospect and Mount Starr King. One might think that a group of nature-lovers would leave the trees as they were, but the activity of clearing summits to obtain views was quite common among early AMC parties.

Councillor of Exploration, John Rayner Edmands, reported on his own puzzlement about what his department should be doing and how to go about it. He admitted that no one in his department had been out exploring places of interest in the White Mountains, but a few officers and members of the club climbed several trailless peaks. Charles E. Fay and Gardner C. Anthony climbed Sandwich Dome. William H. Pickering and a friend climbed Mount Webster and Mount Jackson, Mount Crawford, Mount Resolution and Giant’s Stairs over the last two days of August. Edward C. Pickering and B.P. Moore climbed Mount Liberty by first climbing up through the Flume Gorge at the beginning of August. And John B. Henck climbed Mount Tremont in early September. All wrote long and detailed reports about their routes, the time it took, and things they saw.

Although Councillor of Art Charles E. Fay had lofty goals and long lists, he freely admitted that there were as of yet no artists among the membership who could contribute to the Art Department and had little to report until early the next year. He suggested that members contribute paintings, prints, photographs and other visuals they might collect on their summer trips to start off a collection. He had more to say in 1877 when the committee held an art exhibition at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was a three-day show that consisted of forty-seven paintings, studies and sketches, more than half of which were by women. They included many views of Mount Washington and other well-known spots around the White Mountains. Among some of the more prominent artists to display work were Benjamin Champney, Frank Shapleigh, and Samuel Lancaster Gerry.

At the start of 1876, Councillor of Topography Charles H. Hitchcock discussed plans for a map of the White Mountains, but he did not report success at the end of the year. An 1875 sketch map by J.B. Henck, Jr. was published in the first issue of Appalachia, but it did not include topographic lines, altitudes, or the level of accuracy that the club craved. Although it included every stream, road, railroad, and path (plus proposed trail routes) the map was mostly meant to “indicate the relative positions of summits which are incorrectly given in previous charts.” Therefore, Hitchcock’s committee spent the first two full summer seasons in survey work, aiming for a more detailed map in the future. The club ultimately would not publish its own full map of the White Mountains until 1887.

Councillor of Natural History Thomas Sterry Hunt seems to have been in the same data collection mode as Hitchcock, imploring in his first few reports that members observe, collect and share information on the natural world. As a geologist, he was especially interested in any data on and unique specimens of rocks that members could supply. However, he did ask that hikers make observations on plant and animal species, particularly on the highest elevations at which these things were found. He also hoped members would “record the location of remarkable or rare trees.”

Summation of the First Year-Plus 

The first full year (plus a few months) of AMC was marked by enthusiasm and energy. During his address at the club’s first Annual Meeting in January 1877, Edward C. Pickering notes that the “present condition of the Club is highly satisfactory.” Although he notes that most of the work, recruitment of new members, and presentation of papers at meetings was done by members of his own Council, he held high hopes that the general membership would take part in keeping their own club running. He applauded the fact that meetings and outings were well attended. At the start of the second year of the club, the membership was 134.

The mapping and trail building work of the first summer season was paying off as more visitors to the White Mountains took to well-marked paths. It is not to say that people were not climbing peaks in the White Mountains before AMC was founded, but the Council’s simple urging to gather information and the opportunities to explore with others certainly caused an uptick in the number of “trampers” on the trails. Additionally, AMC was providing a place for scientists, academics, science hobbyists, explorers and recreationists to come together, exercising their curiosity and bodies in cultivating their love of the outdoors. The combination of recreation and knowledge seeking prevented the club from becoming what Charles E. Fay dreaded might be “simply one more learned society, leading a cold and possibly precarious existence” rather than the “vigorous, full-blooded, ardent club” he saw it become.