AMC 1922 White Mountain Guide...for free

Has anybody stumbled across this? Apparently you can download the entire 1922 AMC "Guide to Paths in the White Mountains and Adjacent Regions" in pdf form off Google. This is the 5th edition of the guide - pretty cool!

Here's the link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=DJ8SAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=a.m.c+white+mountain+guide#PPP1,M1

Update: Here's the link to the revised 2nd edition (1917):
http://books.google.com/books?id=kZ...1900-1919&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES

roadtripper said:

Has anybody stumbled across this? Apparently you can download the entire 1922 AMC "Guide to Paths in the White Mountains and Adjacent Regions" in pdf form off Google. This is the 5th edition of the guide - pretty cool!

Here's the link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=DJ8SAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=a.m.c+white+mountain+guide#PPP1,M1

Update: Here's the link to the revised 2nd edition (1917):
http://books.google.com/books?id=kZ...1900-1919&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES

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Oh nice, thanks so much for letting us know. I really know nothing about the White Mountains, so I wonder how up-to-date and relevant any of the information would be. Neat find!

Great Find !, As for roadtrippers question, regard it as a historical artifact rather than a source of usefull information. Probably 80% of the trails still exist but the remaining 20% could get someone in a lot of trouble!

I am impressed by this posting and I've been very impressed lately by what you can find on Google Books, and there's more and more all the time.

So as not to hijack this thread, check out this new thread: new thread.

It's about an 1881 travel guide to the White Mountains which I found on Google Books a few days ago while searching for something else.

Ain't computers neat?

Wow! Mega-thanks for sharing this remarkable “find”! Just did the download for both of the links and have these gems tucked away on a thumb drive.

Looks nice...

FYI, I found some problems with the pdf. If you start at the back you will find some blank sections on some pages (within ~10 pages of the end). If you look at the online version, the blank sections have fully readable text in them.

Doug

DougPaul said:

FYI, I found some problems with the pdf. If you start at the back you will find some blank sections on some pages (within ~10 pages of the end). If you look at the online version, the blank sections have fully readable text in them.

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Doug, probably I’m simply not looking at my downloaded PDF documents closely enough. However, it appears to me that my downloads (both 1917 and 1922 WMGs) are identical to the online PDF version. I did pay special attention to comparing the ~10 pages toward the end.

I trust that you’re seeing what you’re seeing (or not seeing, as the case might be), and so this is just an FYI, for what it’s worth! I’ll take a closer look at my PDF downloads when I have more time, and maybe then I’ll see the issue that you’ve raised.

EDIT: see the next post. The problem appears to be in my pdf viewer.

1HappyHiker said:

Doug, probably I’m simply not looking at my downloaded PDF documents closely enough. However, it appears to me that my downloads (both 1917 and 1922 WMGs) are identical to the online PDF version. I did pay special attention to comparing the ~10 pages toward the end.

I trust that you’re seeing what you’re seeing (or not seeing, as the case might be), and so this is just an FYI, for what it’s worth! I’ll take a closer look at my PDF downloads when I have more time, and maybe then I’ll see the issue that you’ve raised.

Click to expand...

On the 1922 pdf, check pages 42, 48, 479, 490, 494, 498, and 502. (There may be more--I didn't check 50--478, but this should be enough.) The page numbers are the numbers at the top of the page images, not the numbers from my pdf viewer.

Note: these are blank sections of pages, not totally blank pages. There were totally blank pages that I did not list.

I compared some of the above pages to the online viewer and found the online images to be better than the pdf images.

Doug

1HappyHiker:
Thanks for the datapoint...

Looks like it may be a false alarm: the problem only shows up with my standard pdf viewer (xpdf). If I convert it to ps (the ps file is ~3 GB) and view it with my ps viewer (gv) page 42 is ok. However, the spot which disappears in xpdf looks a bit smudged online and in gv, so something odd/unusual is going on. (The images look the same online and in gv.)

Unfortunately viewing the file with gv is too slow to be practical. (Yes, I know that gv can also view pdf files, but it was so slow that I gave up before even one page came up.)

Doug

I belive it is Harvard that began digitizing these a few years back, which is when I first started using them. They are all out of copyright. I especially like the search function, a researcher's dream come true, particularly older researchers who remember doing all this by hand, so to speak.

Hysteria and Homesickness in the Woods

In the 1922 edition I really like the paragraph on "Hysteria and Homesickness" in the chapter in 'Emergencies in the Woods".
There's also found the formula on making Bug-Dope. The "Rectified oil of Tar" might be a little hard to find. (the formula calls for "1/2 drachm") What's a drachm?

My, has Hiking (tramping) changed in less then a hundred years.

Thanks for the post on this great find.

HikeSafe...Walker

walker said:

What's a drachm?

Click to expand...

A few seconds with a search engine will give you the answer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dram_(unit)
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/drachm

Doug

That's awesome

What the...

How come I'm the only one who can't download this ?! I only see an about this book page...but no download link like this thread...Help !!!!

Motabobo said:

How come I'm the only one who can't download this ?! I only see an about this book page...but no download link like this thread...Help !!!!

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If you use the link in the original post, first, make sure you are in the "Read This Book" tab not the "About This Book" tab (it should come up that way). Then there is a download link (it says "Download PDF xx.x M") in the upper right under the search box.

The availablility of these old Guides (and of Moses Sweetser's even older "White Mountain Guide" from 1876), in full, searchable, text, is a tremendous boon for all of us with any interest in the history of New Hampshire hiking and trails.

As a random example, searching "Ossipee," I found the following nugget:

The west portions of the Ossipee range, including the former Ossipee Mountain Park, have recently passed into private hands, and have undergone extensive changes, including the laying out of well graded roads to the summits, and the erection of observatories on Mt. Shaw (2,950 ft.) and Black Snout (2,700 ft.).

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The "private hands" must have been Tom Plant's, who constructed his "Lucknow" (a/k/a Castle in the Clouds) in what had been Ossipee Mountain Park in 1913-14. Moses Sweetser dismissed Black Snout as a tedious bushwhack to a viewless peak in 1876, and so it remains today. Fascinating to learn that in between, for at least a few years, it had an observatory (of which I detected no traces when I 'whacked up there this summer).

Papa Bear said:

If you use the link in the original post, first, make sure you are in the "Read This Book" tab not the "About This Book" tab (it should come up that way). Then there is a download link (it says "Download PDF xx.x M") in the upper right under the search box.

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I do not see this tab, the only tab I have is about this book with an index table...I'm blocked or what ?!

Amicus said:

Moses Sweetser dismissed Black Snout as a tedious bushwhack to a viewless peak in 1876, and so it remains today. Fascinating to learn that in between, for at least a few years, it had an observatory (of which I detected no traces when I 'whacked up there this summer).

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I'll bet the 1922 book was talking about the "Black Snout" S of Shaw with a carriage road (which is still called that in more recent editions) as I doubt Plant ever owned the other one. Don't you hate people who mix up mountain names

RoySwkr said:

I'll bet the 1922 book was talking about the "Black Snout" S of Shaw with a carriage road (which is still called that in more recent editions)

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Not necessarily...we have other descriptions of Black Snout, I believe from my 1930s guide, that discuss the ascent from Mountain Road, which would indeed be referring to Black Snout, not Black Snoot.

Motabobo said:

How come I'm the only one who can't download this ?! I only see an about this book page...but no download link

Click to expand...

Maybe get J to try on her computer...it's possible that for various reasons Google books are only viewable in USA?