Skip to main content My Account Off-Campus Access Give Meet with a Librarian Directory Library Services Technical Support Submit a Digital Sign Give Newsletters Social Media

1927-1930

  1. Home
  2. Visit & Study
  3. Exhibits
  4. Bound in Time: Exploring Women’s Journeys through Scrapbooks and Photo Albums
  5. 1927-1930

A Hike through Yosemite: The Journey of Alice Ring Smythe

A scan of the first page of the photograph album.
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.

A scan of Page 9 of the photograph album that includes 3 black and white photographs. Only one is a photograph of a person (Alice) the rest are of nature.
Left: “Inserted by request” Center: “Home” Right: “The Cornerstone”
A scan of Page 10 of the photograph album with two black and white photographs of nature.
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.

A scan of Page 24 of the photograph album with three black and white photographs. Two are of bears, one is of a lake.
Left: “Yosemite Reflections Mirror Lake Mt. Watkins” Center: “When Mama Bear says, ‘Woof!'”
A scan of Page 25 of the photograph album with four black and white photographs of nature. Three of the photographs contain bears, one is of a body of water.
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.
A scan of a page of the photograph album with three black and white photographs of a woman in nature.
A scan of a page of the photograph album with three black and white photographs of nature.
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.
A scan of a page of the photograph album with three black and white photographs of nature.
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.”

A scan of a certificate made by Alice.
A scan of a report-card certificate made by Alice.
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