VITTORIO SELLA. Crevasses of Glacier Blanc, Grande Sagne, and Les Ecrins (horizontal view), c. 1879-1892, Sella number AI 517. 11.3x15.3" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 13x16.6" heavy gray board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps / Crevasses of Glacier Blanc, Grande Sagne, and Les Ecrins / I517. Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner. Inscribed in pencil on mount verso: Loan 29.

The Barre des écrins (4,102 m) is a mountain in the French Alps with a peak at 4102m altitude. It is the highest peak of the Massif des écrins and the Dauphiné Alps and the most southerly alpine peak in Europe that is higher than 4,000 m.
The Barre des écrins is the highest peak in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region including all of Occitania and the Southern Alps. It is located in the commune of Pelvoux and is situated near the Drainage divide between the Durance and the Vénéon. This divide passes 250 metres west of the summit, along the ridge that leads to the summit of the sub-peak Dôme des écrins (4088 metres). The south face of the mountain is rocky while the north face is ice as it is the starting point of the Glacier Blanc.

Sella lived in an era when geographical societies, exploration and mountaineering clubs, and mercantile (research) libraries proliferated in many towns and cities. The Sella family had helped found the Italian Alpine Club in 1863; a European equivalent of the AMC co-founded in 1876 by Charles E. Fay. The Alpine Club fraternity was a small, international network modeled after the first club of its type founded in London in 1857. Members corresponded with each other, sharing publications and information about guides, porters, and climbs in foreign lands. Such clubs provided scientific, ethnographic, and intellectual materials that were a valuable cultural asset for professionals and amateur enthusiasts alike. In their lecture's photographers, naturalists, explorers, and artists often used photographs and printed illustrations as a means of disseminating information about the latest artistic and scientific ventures.

This sale of lots from this auction will directly benefit the Appalachian Mountain Club Trails Protection Fund; Conservation Research and Climate Action; and the Modernization and Preservation of the AMC Library and Archives.

Good: Moderate wear, abrasions, spots and surface dirt. 1/2" tear in print on lower L edge; 2 small tears on middle and upper L edge. Mount is dirty and worn.