Archival Field Trip - Ross Lake

Photos by Rick Gersbach

Friend of Archival Rick and I took off last weekend for Ross and Diablo Lakes in Washington's North Cascades. We spent a blissful three days paddling around, catching some massive bull trout, fighting headwinds, and addressing the issue of bourbon remaining in the bottle. No complaints - we had perfect weather, the scenery was incredible, and the Grumman canoe performed admirably.

Mountain Summer

For those of you working through the summer, I recommend shopping from the Glenbow Museum Archives for surrogate vacation snaps of the Canadian Rockies from the 1920s and 1930s. If you're too pressed for time, here is my summary of an ideal summer spent hiking, reading, rowing, dining, fishing, swimming and climbing - in perfect archival attire.

Archival Vacation - Hawaii

I'm here in Hawi, HI with Lynn & friends. Though I love Hawaii I find it difficult to document. Every scenic view has already been reprinted in postcard form. In lieu of a traditional AC field report, I'm posting a few placeholder images from Flip Schulke's DOCUMERICA. Though Flip documented the retirement communities of Key West, Fla., in the 1970s, his photographs do well to capture the highlights--and best snaps--from my own tropical vacation.

Suggested Mobile Housing

Lloyd Kahn is one of my heroes. His book Shelter has been a guide and comfort through many, many years of dreaming of building my own home somewhere.

His blog is highly recommended for lots of pictures and great writing about structures and the people who build them. And he's still skating at 70+! This short documentary has some footage of Lloyd's amazing home.

Check out this gorgeous converted school bus that he recently featured; maybe it's just because I'm from a world vortex of converted school busses, but it got me thinking about long road trips, woodstove cooking, and making do with a little less.

Archival Holiday: Coney Island 1885

Since I'll be landlocked over the holiday weekend, I'm going to substitute these seaside images (courtesy the Brooklyn Musuem flickr photostream) as placeholders for my archival jaunt to Coney Island. As someone who loves warm weather but loathes summer apparel, I admire the way the folks in these photos maintain a high standard of dress (jackets, vests, caps) in such close proximity to sun, sand and water.

Archival Vacation

Back in one week. Our web shop is open.

Jantzen Knitting Mills, Portland, Oregon