Bradford Washburn
Explorer, mountaineer, mapmaker, photographer, filmmaker, and pilot, Bradford Washburn (1910 - 2007) was Museum director from 1939 to 1980. Under his leadership, the Museum became the first to unite natural history, physical, applied and medical science, and a planetarium into a single science center recognized for its engaging, accessible, and interactive exhibits and vibrant programs.
Washburn climbed Mount Washington -- his first peak -- at age 11. He also scaled some of the world's most challenging mountains, including Alaska's Mount McKinley and the Matterhorn in the Alps. An expert on Mount Everest, his cartography has been acclaimed by the National Geographic Society and the Swiss Federal Institute of Topography. His stunning naturalist photographs have been exhibited worldwide.
Washburn always "climbed with a purpose. It was not to show off or set records—there was almost always some science involved," he said in Bradford Washburn: An Extraordinary Life: the Autobiography of a Mountaineering Icon (2005). After he retired in 1980, Washburn produced five maps of Everest. Joined by his wife, Barbara, an accomplished climber in her own right, Washburn made three trips to Nepal and China to gain permission to make high altitude photo mapping flights in a specially equipped Learjet. These flights, directed by Washburn and sponsored by the Museum and the National Geographic Society, resulted in the first precise,
large-scale map of the world's tallest mountain. Eleven million maps were distributed worldwide in National Geographic. From this map, Washburn directed production of a dramatic 12-by-15-foot, large-scale relief model of Everest now on display at the Museum. Over his lifetime, he created 23 maps and published at least 10 books.
Asked on retiring what the focus of his life had been, Washburn said: "A fascination for discovery. A love of high and distant places. The joy of sharing natural beauty and scientific information with others in ways that made this sharing as vivid as possible... The top of Mount McKinley was thrilling, but there's nothing on Earth more exciting than the eyes of a youngster at the instant of discovery."