Uphill! A collection of books, brochures and folders on mountaineering

UPHILL! A collection of books, brochures and folders on mountaineering [MOUNTAINEERING]. [A collection of brochures and folders on mountaineering]. [Austria and Switzerland, ca. 1920- ca. 1980]. Ca. 653 brochures (including a few duplicates and variant issues). With: [A collection of books relating to mountaineering]. [Various places, ca. 1830- ca. 2000]. Ca. 875 books (including a few duplicates and variant issues, and several multiple-volume titles). An extensive and wide-ranging collection of brochures, folders and books on climbing, hiking and other subjects related to mountaineering, mainly concerning the Central European mountainous areas. The brochures and folders concentrate on the decisive factor in that far-reaching process: the emergence of tourism. This part of the collection, comprising 653 rare and beautifully designed travel brochures and folders, gives a colorful and fascinating overview of summer tourism in the central European mountainous areas (mainly the Austrian and Swiss Alps) as it developed beginning in the 1920s: from an exclusive hiking and climbing area for the European elite during the first half of the 20th century to the very popular and well facilitated commercial centers that we know today. Many of these were designed by well-known poster and other graphic artists such as Herbert Matter (especially interesting for the photomontage techniques used), Hubert Mumelter, Martin Peikert, Franz Stümvoll, Hans Thoni, and contain numerous photographs by leading photographers as well as various panorama's and maps by Josef Rueb, Heinrich Caesar Berann, Max Bieder, Füssli, Wolfgang Hausamann and A. Klopfenstein. The collection of ca. 875 books provides a comprehensive overview of climbing on all continents, most prominently in the Alps, the Andes, the Himalaya and the Karakoram. After numerous, well-documented narratives of climbing expeditions to unexplored summits and other ascents in remote and little-known mountain wildernesses since the 1850s, the collection zooms in on a broad range of related subjects. These include the mental and technical aspects of climbing, climbing equipment, the art of planning and following available routes and determining their degree of difficulty, climbing accommodations and mountain huts, as well as risk and safety. But also detailed physical and socio-geographical descriptions of the various mountainous regions, their peoples, customs and architecture, and the gradual opening up of the terrain. This exceptional collection was brought together by the Dutch amateur mountaineer Bastiaan Cornelis Pieter Hendrik van Baak, a fanatical climber and hiker since the early 1930s, fascinated and inspired by the overwhelming and ever challenging mountain world.