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Date Permissions Signed

5-12-2017

Date of Award

Spring 2017

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Environmental Studies

First Advisor

Rossiter, David A.

Second Advisor

Seltz, Jennifer

Third Advisor

Darby, Kate J.

Abstract

Spaces and landscapes are actively made, remade, and struggled over through social practices. Constructions of landscape and space matter because they define how they can be used, who may occupy them, and who cannot. This study examines the Northwest’s mountain spaces and the social class background of the Mountaineers, a Seattle-based alpine club that influenced the construction of these landscapes. From its founding in 1906, the club shaped these spaces through summer outings, an annual journal, and skills courses. Early on, the Mountaineers produced spaces for upper class socializing and scientific study, but individual club members struggled over the meanings of these activities. In the 1930s, young club members, who were mostly men, led a cultural revolution and promoted a more physical sport and an embodied experience in the mountains, which was also increasingly part of a larger consumer culture that started to endow recreation landscapes with significant economic value. This study reveals a tension within the Mountaineers’ production of space, where the representational divide between urban spaces and mountain spaces grew wider, but in practice, the club strengthened the cultural and economic links between Seattle and the mountains.

Type

Text

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25710/q678-qh55

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

988352488

Subjects – Names (LCNAF)

Mountaineers (Society)--Social aspects--History

Subject – LCSH

Mountaineers (Society)--Economic aspects--History; Mountaineers--Social aspects--Washington (State)--History; Mountaineers--Economic aspects--Washington (State)--History

Geographic Coverage

Washington (State)

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.

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