The Bob and Ira Spring Photographs

Bob Spring (left), writer Byron Fish (center) and Ira Spring (kneeling) select photographs for one of their historic picture books, circa 1960. University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, Bob and Ira Spring Photographs, Negative #25732.
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[size=12pt]The Bob and Ira Spring B&W Photographs are now in UW Special Collections.[/size]

For mountaineers who came of age in the latter half of the 1900s, the photographs of Bob and Ira Spring have captured some of the most memorable and iconic images of our Northwest mountains.

In later years, the Spring brothers were best known for their 100 Hikes series of guidebooks. But early in their careers, many of their photographs illustrated mountaineering and skiing adventures.




Upper left: Joan Burton ski touring near Mt Rainier, c1958 (print #17276). Upper right: Forest fire fighters in the Cascades, c1958 (print #17884). Lower left: Hikers explore the Paradise Ice Caves on Mt Rainier, c1958 (print #18063). Lower right: Climbers at White Rock Lakes on the Ptarmigan Traverse, 1957 (print #16500).
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Through a collaboration between the Spring family and the Mountaineers History Committee, the Bob and Ira Spring B&W photographs have now been indexed and transferred to UW Special Collections, where they can be accessed and enjoyed by the public.

A preliminary finding aid can be seen on the Mountaineers Archives website here:

mountaineers.org/history/findaids/spring-bw-photos.html

Eventually, the University will create the its own finding aid, which will reside on the Special Collections website:

www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/

The Spring photographs cover much more than just mountaineering. During their long careers, Bob and Ira Spring photographed every corner of the Northwest, from ocean beaches to dry scab-lands and from bustling cities to rugged logging camps. The collection also includes thousands of photographs from Alaska, Canada, the western U.S., and much more.

Working with the Spring family and the University to make these photographs accessible has been a long and rewarding experience. I hope this donation opens a new chapter in the appreciation of these wonderful and historic images.




Upper left: "Valley pounder" at Klapatchie Park, c1955 (negative #5275). Upper right: Fred Beckey climbing Lighthouse Tower, 1949 (negative #3410-x02). Lower left: Morton Loggers Jubilee, 1955 (negative #13625). Lower right: Gary Rose ice climbing on Mt Rainier, c1953 (negative #9128).
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Really great, Lowell. Thank you!

It's incredible these things are available to the public. I hope they are respected and treated with great care. What a treasure trove for the right person or people. I can imagine future good work coming out of this collection once someone taps into it. Or maybe that's already underway?

Wonderful. Many of their books are in my book collection. Old photographs really appeal to me, especially because they are of so many places I have become familiar with. Awesome to see it will be preserved and shown to all.

The quality of the scans is amazing. I bet the equipment used by UW doesn't look anything like my home copy/fax/scan unit.

The quality of the scans is amazing.  I bet the equipment used by UW doesn't look anything like my home copy/fax/scan unit.

Hi Mike,

Actually, those scans are mine, made on my home scanner (an Epson V700).  The UW hasn't scanned anything yet. I gave the UW 1000+ scans made during my indexing work. I imagine that UW will make a few more, but I've provided plenty of material to get their finding aid started.

Remarkably, Ira did not have a written index for these photos. The index was in his head.

When I interviewed Ira in 2001, I asked about using some of his pictures in my ski history book. He was agreeable, but he passed away before we could connect on that. Volunteering to help the family prepare the collection for donation was a mutually beneficial arrangement. I got to review the collection in far more depth than would be practical after they were donated, and the Springs and UW got hundreds of hours of free labor indexing and scanning. Everybody's happy in the end.

I scanned a lot more than just skiing pictures. The ones in this post are a few favorites.

Thanks so very, very much for your efforts on both behalf of preserving the Spring photographs, but for all of your other work in annotating, preserving and creating a record of exploration and recreation in our Cascades. One of the joys of growing up in Seattle was regularly seeing the Sunday Times Rotogravure (sp?) section (now renamed the PacificNW section), the cover of which featured the Springs' fantastic photos for many years. Those pictures really inspired us to get out to the coast, onto the water and into the mountains!
Gerry Haugen