Lage Wernstedt photographs

Lage Wernstedt photographs, circa 1916-1935

Overview of the Collection

Creator: Wernstedt, Lage
Title: Lage Wernstedt photographs
Dates: circa 1916-1935 (inclusive)
19161935
Quantity: 1 linear ft.
Collection Number: XOE_CPNWS0259Wernstedt (collection)
Summary: Lage Wernstedt photographs include photographs and glass plate negatives of mountains, glaciers, rivers, and lakes in the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Wernstedt was a surveyor and cartographer for the U.S. Forest Service in the early and mid twentieth century.
Repository: Western Washington University, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies
Goltz-Murray Archives Building
808 25th St.
Bellingham, WA
98225
Telephone: (360) 650-7534
cpnws@wwu.edu
Access Restrictions: This collection is open to the public.
Languages: English.

Historical NoteReturn to Top

Lage Wernstedt, born in 1878 in Sweden, attended the Royal Technological School in Stockholm before immigrating to the United States in 1902. He earned a master’s degree in Forestry at Yale University and then moved to the west coast and took a job in 1908 with the United States Forest Service. For 25 years he worked as a surveyor and map-maker throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Almost single-handedly he mapped the Columbia National Forest (now the Gifford Pinchot). He also did mapping in the Willamette, Umpqua, Mt Baker, Deschutes and Chelan Forests and the Pasayten Wilderness. While engaged in his employment he became a noted photographer and mountain climber who was the first to summit many peaks in the Pacific Northwest.

In addition, Wernstedt was proficient in photogrammetry, silviculture, geography, botany, horsepacking, and parachute-assisted firefighting. He also invented aerial stereoscopic photography to produce contour maps.

Wernstedt married Adele (Dot) Wilcox in 1919 with whom he had one son, Frederick, and one daughter, Doris. The Wernstedts lived in Portland, Oregon until Lage's retirement in 1942 when they moved permanently to their summer home on Waldron Island and then Guemes Island. Wernstedt died in 1959 at the age of 81.

References: Geof Childs, “A Ridge Too Far,” Northwest Mountaineering Journal [accessed 6/18/07 http://www.mountaineers.org/nwmj/06/061_SilverStar.html ]. Lewis A. McArthur and Victor H. Flach, "We Present: Lage Wernstedt: Pioneer in Photogrammetry," Journal of Forestry, Vol. 43 (Feb. 1945).

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The Lage Wernstedt Photograph collection documents some of the mountains, glaciers, rivers, and lakes in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska from 1916 to 1935. The collection primarily consists of glass plate negatives, although there are three photographs. The locations of the majority of the images are unknown; however some have been identified. They include Multnomah Falls, Oregon; the Columbia River Gorge; Reid Glacier and White River Glacier, Oregon; Mt. Hood, Oregon; Mt. Baker, Washington; Adam’s Glacier and Mount Adams Wilderness, Washington.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Preferred Citation

Lage Wernstedt photographs, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA 98225-9123.

Alternative Forms Available

Images from this collection have been digitized and can be accessed online as part of Western Libraries' Digital collections. See: https://mabel.wwu.edu/islandora/object/wwu%3A32664.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Arrangement

The Lage Wernstedt Photograph collection is organized in accordance with the following series arrangement:

Series I: Photographs and Negatives, circa 1916-1935.

Acquisition Information

Donated by John Scurlock, 2006

Processing Note

Archival TIFF images were created by scanning images at 300 dpi.

Processing Note

About Harmful Language and Content

To learn more about problematic content in our collections, collection description and teaching tools (including how to provide feedback or request dialogue on this topic), see the following Statement About Potentially Harmful Language and Content

Bibliography

Childs, Geof. "A Ridge Too Far." Northwest Mountaineering Journal. http://www.mountaineers.org/nwmj/06/061_SilverStar.html. Accessed 18 June 2007.

McArthur, Lewis A. and Victor H. Flach. "We Present: Lage Wernstedt: Pioneer in Photogrammetry." Journal of Forestry, Vol. 43. 1945 February.

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Series I : Photographs and Negatives , circa 1916-1935 Return to Top

Container(s)	Description	Dates
	Subseries 1 : Original glass plate negatives and photographs Images from this collection have been digitized and can be accessed online as part of Western Libraries' Digital collections. See: https://mabel.wwu.edu/islandora/object/wwu%3A32664.	1916-1935
Box
1	Sixty-one glass plate negatives of the North Cascades	circa 1930s
Box/Folder
2/1	Mt. Baker	1935
2/2	Mt. Baker	1935
2/3	North Cascades including description	1929
	Subseries 2 : Scanned Images	1928-1935
Box/Folder
2/4	Aerial photographs on two CDs	1928-1935

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

Glaciers--Oregon--Photographs
Glaciers--Washington (State)--Adams, Mount--Photographs
Mountains--Alaska--Photographs
Mountains--Northwest, Canadian--Photographs
Mountains--Northwest, Pacific--Photographs

Geographical Names

Baker, Mount (Wash.)--Photographs
Cascade Range--Photographs
Columbia River Gorge (Or. and Wash.)--Photographs
Hood, Mount (Or.)--Photographs
Mount Adams Wilderness (Wash.)--Photographs
Multnomah Falls (Or.)--Photographs

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