W. A. B. Coolidge

W. A. B. Coolidge (August 28, 1850 – May 8, 1926), full name William Augustus Brevoort Coolidge, was an American historian, theologian and mountaineer.

Coolidge was born in New York as the son of Frederic William Skinner, a Boston merchant, and Elisabeth Neville nee Brevoort of the Netherlands.

Coolidge studied history and law at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and at Exeter College, Oxford.

In 1870 at the age of twenty he was made a member of the Alpine Club.

In 1875 he became a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. From 1880 to 1881 he was professor of British history at Saint David's College in Lampeter and in 1883 he became a priest of the Anglican church.

Coolidge was one of the great figures of the so-called silver age of alpinism, making first ascents of the few significant peaks in the Alps that hadn't been climbed during the golden age of alpinism. On many of these climbs he was accompanied by his aunt, Meta Brevoort, and a pet dog, Tschingel, given to him by one of his guides, Christian Almer.

In 1885 he moved to Grindelwald, Switzerland, where he died in 1926.

First ascents in the Alps

• Piz Badile, 27 July 1867, with F. and H. Dévouassoud
• Ailefroide, 7 July 1870, with Christian Almer and Ulrich Almer
• Central peak of La Meije, 1870, with Meta Brevoort and three guides
• Unterbächhorn, 1872
• First winter ascent of the Jungfrau, January 1874, with Christian and Ulrich Almer
• West summit of Les Droites, 16 July 1876, with Christian and Ulrich Almer
• Pic Coolidge, July 1877 with Christian and Ulrich Almer
• Les Bans, July 14 1878, with Christian and Ulrich Almer
• Scherbadung, 1886

References

• Ronald W. Clark: An Eccentric in the Alps: The story of W. A. B. Coolidge, the Great Victorian Mountaineer. Museum Press, London 1959

External links

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