The AC Archives contain a wide-ranging collection of documents going back to the earliest days of mountaineering, and as such form an invaluable resource for researchers.

Archive Contents

Archive contents include:

• Diaries, personal accounts of expeditions and ascents, and correspondence, including, for example, the first letter to be written from the summit of Mont Blanc, and Mallory's last letter to Odell from Camp 6 on Everest.
• The original Fuhrerbucher/Carnets of leading alpine guides.
• The archives of the Ladies' Alpine Club
• Newspaper cuttings from the mid 19th century to the present time.
• Minutes of Alpine Club meetings and newsletters from the foundation of the Club in 1857 to the present day (restricted access)
• Membership application papers (restricted access)
• Presidential and Secretarial papers (restricted access)

Access to material

There is an electronic catalogue of the Archives, accessed through the Hon. Archivist and/or Librarian, and also through the National Archive Discovery site.

The Archives are normally open two days a week (Tuesday and Thursday). If you wish to visit please check first with the Hon Archivist, and copied to the Librarian. The Hon Archivist and Librarian can also be contacted by telephone on +44 (0)207 613 0745.

We can provide photocopies or scanned images of archive documents on request.

The Eileen Healey Diaries

Eileen Healey was a very active climber, a member of the Ladies Alpine Club, and subsequently of the AC. After her death in 2010 her family discovered boxes in the attic containing a remarkable series of climbing diaries, starting with family holidays with the Holiday Fellowship in the 1930s, through to her honeymoon in Norway in 1958. They had not previously known of their existence. The diaries include detailed descriptions of her rock climbing in the UK, and also of climbing in the Alps starting in the late 1940s, soon after the Alps became accessible again following the war.

The family presented the diaries to the AC, and we scanned them. Eileen’s husband Tim arranged for them to be transcribed, and their son Jamie edited them into their current form. It was a condition of the gift to the AC that the diaries be made as accessible as possible, and you can read them all here.

Eileen was a member of the all-female expedition to Cho Oyu in 1959, and we also have archive material from this expedition, including a film made by Eileen.

Mandalay and Beyond

Produced for publication by Cathy Woodhead and Charles' wife Denise Evans, 'Mandalay and Beyond: An Army Doctor’s Diary' chronicles the experiences of Charles Evans as a newly qualified doctor in Burma (now Myanma) during the 1944-1945 conflict.

Unusually observant and perceptive, Evans writes with humour and compassion in a simple, direct style.

 
Read Mandalay and Beyond

Charges

For personal visitors to the Archives we suggest a minimum donation of £10 per visit, (free for AC members).