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Reminiscences of McKinley, the Matterhorn and Everest

Bradford and Barbara Washburn: April 5, 2002; Running Time: 01:36:00

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

The Washburns tell of their amazing journeys scaling McKinley, the Matterhorn and Everest.

Lecture Details

Location: Room 10-250

About the Speaker

Bradford and Barbara Washburn

Founder, MIT Museum of Science

Happily married for 61 years, Brad and Barbara are legends in Boston. As explorers, mountaineers, and cartographers they have led mapping expeditions ranging from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Together they pioneered aerial photography, beginning with early surveys of Mount McKinley from the open door of a Bellanca skiplane in the 1930's, and culminating with the Learjet ortho-photography of Mount Everest. The definitive maps of the Grand Canyon and Mount Washington are among their achievements. Brad and Barbara are the parents of the modern Boston Museum of Science. Brad led the museum for nearly 40 years. It was the first in the world to bring together natural history, physical sciences, medical sciences, and a planetarium under one roof. The Boston Museum of Science became the progenitor of the modern science museum. Barbara is a veteran of numerous major ascents and wilderness trips is the first woman to climb Mount McKinley. Brad is renowned as one of the greatest landscape photographers of all time and his work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In 1998, the Washburns shared the National Geographic Society's Centennial Award for a lifetime of exploration, discovery, and cartography.

Brad Washburn died in January 2007.