American Alpine Club - Library

Library

The AAC Library was established in 1916 by a gift from American mountaineer Henry Montagnier, whose collection was added to over time by various early club members. The Library was initially focused primarily on the Alps. Beginning in 1929, the Library was housed in the New York Public Library, which devoted an entire room to the AAC. During this time, the Library grew to include contributions from many members, as well as cultural artifacts from their various expeditions to the Himalaya and elsewhere. In 1941, the AAC purchased a renovated firehouse in Manhattan to house the growing Library.

When the AAC moved its permanent headquarters to Golden in 1993, the Library, too, moved to its current location in the basement of the American Mountaineering Center, the Henry S. Hall Jr. American Alpine Club Library. Soon after this move, AAC member John Boyle – part of the American expedition that first ascended Mt. Everest’s Kangshung Face in 1983 – donated the John M. Boyle Himalayan Library, which included 2,500 books, 400 expedition reports, and 100 videos and films. Many items are autographed by the expedition members who wrote them. Most recently, in 2008, a private collector donated 30,000 bound volumes of the Central Asia Library. Many of the Library’s original volumes are housed in the current Library’s Rare Books Room.

Today, AAC members can search the Library’s website for literature and guidebooks and have items shipped to them from Golden. The Library also features an online Guidebook Finder which allows users to search for climbing guidebooks by location.