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1927-1930

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  5. 1927-1930

A Hike through Yosemite: The Journey of Alice Ring Smythe

First page of Alice Ring Smythe’s journal, August 26, 1927. Transcription of quote: “God of the open air, behold my heart! My love of these is not a thing apart From all their homage rendered unto thee.” MC352 Alice Ring Smythe Photograph Album, Archives and Special Collections.

Alice Ring Smythe (1882-1975) was born the daughter of a bookseller in Columbus, Franklin, Ohio. She lived in San Luis Obispo, California, for the later part of her life until she passed at the age of 93.

This photograph album details her hiking trip through Yosemite in the late 1920s. The album leaves an impression through Alice’s expressionist writing and picturesque captures of her journey through Yosemite. Even though the majority of the photographs are of the Yosemite wilderness, her witty captions add a personal touch to the scenes she captured.

Left: “Inserted by request” Center: “Home” Right: “The Cornerstone”
Left: “The Canopy”
Right: “This is the story that a little puddle in our camp had to tell.”
Pages 9 and 10 of the scrapbook documenting the beginning of Alice’s hike.
MC352 Alice Ring Smythe Photograph Album.

For example, in the photographs included below of a bear and her cub, she captions it “Goldilocks points her camera.” This is a nod to her literary background and a glimpse into the type of person she is.

Left: “Yosemite Reflections Mirror Lake Mt. Watkins” Center: “When Mama Bear says, ‘Woof!'”
Top left: “Morning Mood” Caption between right images: “Goldilocks points her camera.”
Pages 24 and 25 of the scrapbook, mostly featuring bear encounters.
MC352 Alice Ring Smythe Photograph Album.
Left page: Uncaptioned [photographs of a woman (Alice?)]
Right page left: “After pouring itself forth in ecstasy over Nevada and Vernul Falls, the river of Mercy sings its way into the valley.”; Right page center: “Mt. Clark from the trail.”; Right page, top right: “Here beginneth the trail to the top of Yosemite Falls.”; Right page, bottom right: “Leaving the valley we begin the ascent, and soon find ourselves above the blue wraiths of smoke from early camp fires.”
MC352 Alice Ring Smythe Photograph Album.
Caption: “We leave the ruddy warmth of the cedars behind, and ascend into the dominion of the rugged pines. Half Dome begins to recede, and the hardy manzanita clings to the granite with gnarled, fantastic fingers.” MC352 Alice Ring Smythe Photograph Album.

Alice also includes two humorous manuscript “certificates” at the end of her photograph album made out to “Alice Ring Smythe” from the “Department of the Hike Sierra.”

The first certificate reads: “Alice Ring Smythe has successfully and honourably completed the Kindergarten Course in Hikeology and is hereby qualified for admission into the Elementary Department. Signed and Sealed [with a Yosemite pine sprig encased in wax] June, 1930.”

The other certificate is her report card for the hike, where she earned a 150+ in behavior and a 200+ in enthusiasm, although only a 69½ in appetite (“improvement looked for”) and a 50 in “tree-gonometry.”

Certificate 1 (left) and Certificate 2 (right) included at the end of the scrapbook, documenting the completion of Alice’s hike through Yosemite and grading her experience.
MC352 Alice Ring Smythe Photograph Album.

Alice’s journey was overall successful, with an “Average 84.84% Glacier Points” for her experience hiking through Yosemite. These moments in time are memorialized in this photograph album, and her journey reveals the activities women in this time were capable of.

View the collection:

MC352 Alice Ring Smythe Photograph Album

1901 1936-1943