Katharine Fowler-Billings lantern slide collection

This collection includes 88 lantern slides, documenting Katharine Fowler-Billings’ 1937 geological expedition to Russia and Japan for the 17th International Geological Conference; this trip is described in her 1995 autobiography, Stepping-stones: the reminisces of a woman geologist in the twentieth century. According to the lantern slides’ labels, the photographs were taken by Fowler-Billings, Dr. Armin K. Lobeck (a geologist from Columbia University), Florrie Holzwasser (an assistant professor of geology at Barnard College), George Bain (an economic mineralogist at Amherst College), and an unidentified person referred to as “Harrison.” In her autobiography, Fowler-Billings explains that she lost her camera on the trip and therefore had to “rely on generous friends for pictures ofthe places we visited.” The slides include photographs and maps of Siberia and the Black Sea, a Caucasus horseback trip, Japanese villages and volcanoes, shots of Manchuria and Korea, and various scenes of Russian archaeological sites, workers, villages, and landscapes. The slides all have handwritten labels, presumably all recorded by the same person, some of which are written in French.

The first box of slides, which has been re-housed, originally included two handwritten notes reading, "This Box: 1937 Geological Expedition in Russia..." and "All these were blown up for book." The page numbers included in some of the slides' titles may reference the books that the maps were originally taken from.

The second box of slides was originally housed in a box with the initials “JWL” on its lid, presumably referring to Fowler-Billings’ first husband, James W. Lunn. The box has deteriorating black leather straps; the buckle has detached and is housed separately.

The third box includes misceallenous notes and papers, of unknown date and origin, that were originally included with the slide boxes, as well as the original slide boxes.