Glacier Photographs by Photographer

Series

Staff Only

Glacier Photograph Collection at CU Digital Library

Scope and Contents

Originally named The Glacier Photo Collection, this collection was given to the World Data Center-A (also known as the National Snow & Ice Data Center) in the late 1970’s by William Osgood Field. Field was head of the World Data Center-A for Glaciology (WDC) at the American Geographical Society where he collected photographs of glaciers and grew the center into one of three archives for glacier exploration. These photographs, including his own images from various expeditions, are all part of the Glacier Photograph Collection.

The WDC was originally housed in New York as part of the American Geographical Society archive and was maintained by the WDC until the collection was moved to the United states of Geological Survey (USGS) in Tacoma, Washington in 1970. In the mid 1970s, Field worked with Roger G. Barry, the founder of a new glaciology center in Boulder, Colorado, which later became known as the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Field arranged to have the photographic glaciology collection transferred to NSIDC. At this time the title World Data Center-A was also transferred to the Boulder location. More about World Data Center history can be found here: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/customer-support/world-data-centers