William Mathews
Encyclopedia
- For the baseball player, see William MatthewsWilliam Matthews (baseball player)William Calvin Matthews was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played briefly for the Boston Red Sox during the 1909 season. He was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania....
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
mountaineer
Mountaineer
-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...
, land agent
Estate agent
An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting or management of properties, and other buildings, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent...
and surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
, who first proposed the formation of the Alpine Club
Alpine Club (UK)
The Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857 and was probably the world's first mountaineering club. It is UK mountaineering's acknowledged 'senior club'.-History:...
of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1857.
Founding of the Alpine Club
Mathews had corresponded with F. J. A. Hort about the idea of founding a national mountaineering club in February 1857 and took the idea up with E. S. KennedyE. S. Kennedy
E. S. Kennedy can refer to :* Edward Shirley Kennedy, alpinist and writer* Edward Stewart Kennedy, historian of science...
on an ascent of the Finsteraarhorn
Finsteraarhorn
The Finsteraarhorn is the highest mountain in the Bernese Alps and the highest mountain in the canton of Berne. It is also the highest summit in the Alps lying outside the main chain, or watershed. The Finsteraarhorn is the ninth highest and third most prominent peak in the Alps...
on 13 August 1857 (the fifth ascent of the mountain and the first British ascent).
- For the baseball player, see William MatthewsWilliam Matthews (baseball player)William Calvin Matthews was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played briefly for the Boston Red Sox during the 1909 season. He was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania....
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
mountaineer
Mountaineer
-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...
, land agent
Estate agent
An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting or management of properties, and other buildings, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent...
and surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
, who first proposed the formation of the Alpine Club
Alpine Club (UK)
The Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857 and was probably the world's first mountaineering club. It is UK mountaineering's acknowledged 'senior club'.-History:...
of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1857.
Founding of the Alpine Club
Mathews had corresponded with F. J. A. Hort about the idea of founding a national mountaineering club in February 1857 and took the idea up with E. S. KennedyE. S. Kennedy
E. S. Kennedy can refer to :* Edward Shirley Kennedy, alpinist and writer* Edward Stewart Kennedy, historian of science...
on an ascent of the Finsteraarhorn
Finsteraarhorn
The Finsteraarhorn is the highest mountain in the Bernese Alps and the highest mountain in the canton of Berne. It is also the highest summit in the Alps lying outside the main chain, or watershed. The Finsteraarhorn is the ninth highest and third most prominent peak in the Alps...
on 13 August 1857 (the fifth ascent of the mountain and the first British ascent).
- For the baseball player, see William MatthewsWilliam Matthews (baseball player)William Calvin Matthews was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played briefly for the Boston Red Sox during the 1909 season. He was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania....
.
----
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
mountaineer
Mountaineer
-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...
, land agent
Estate agent
An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting or management of properties, and other buildings, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent...
and surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
, who first proposed the formation of the Alpine Club
Alpine Club (UK)
The Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857 and was probably the world's first mountaineering club. It is UK mountaineering's acknowledged 'senior club'.-History:...
of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1857.
Founding of the Alpine Club
Mathews had corresponded with F. J. A. Hort about the idea of founding a national mountaineering club in February 1857 and took the idea up with E. S. KennedyE. S. Kennedy
E. S. Kennedy can refer to :* Edward Shirley Kennedy, alpinist and writer* Edward Stewart Kennedy, historian of science...
on an ascent of the Finsteraarhorn
Finsteraarhorn
The Finsteraarhorn is the highest mountain in the Bernese Alps and the highest mountain in the canton of Berne. It is also the highest summit in the Alps lying outside the main chain, or watershed. The Finsteraarhorn is the ninth highest and third most prominent peak in the Alps...
on 13 August 1857 (the fifth ascent of the mountain and the first British ascent).Finsteraarhorn at stnet.ch (accessed 7 January 2008): On this ascent Mathews and Kennedy were accompanied by J. C. W. Ellis, John Frederick Hardy, Benjamin St John Attwood-Mathews, and by four guides, Auguste Simond and Jean Baptiste Croz, of Chamonix
Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...
, Johann Jaun the Elder, of Meiringen
Meiringen
-References:...
, Aloys Bortis, of Fiesch
Fiesch
Fiesch is a municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Nearby Fiescheralp is administered by Fiesch and is accessible by the Eggishorn lift....
, and by one porter, Alexander Guntern. Ad-hoc meetings at Mathews's house near Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
proceeded during November,Claire Engel, Mountaineering in the Alps, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1971, p. 112. Mathews and Kennedy approached John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
to become a member, but he declined. p. 113. and the meeting at which the Alpine Club was founded took place on 22 December 1857 at Ashley's Hotel in London, chaired by Kennedy.
Mathews was the fifth President of the Alpine Club, serving from 1868–1871.
First ascents
- Grande CasseGrande CasseThe Grande Casse is the highest mountain in the Vanoise Massif in the Graian Alps.The first ascent was by William Mathews with guides Michel Croz and E. Favre on 8 August 1860.-External links:*...
with guides Michel CrozMichel CrozMichel Auguste Croz was a French mountain guide and the first ascentionist of many mountains in the western Alps during the golden age of alpinism...
and E. Favre on 8 August 1860 - CastorCastor (mountain)Castor is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Valais, Switzerland and the Aosta Valley in Italy. It is the higher of a pair of twin peaks , the other being Pollux, named after the Gemini twins of Roman mythology. Castor's peak is at an elevation of , and it lies between Breithorn...
with F. W. Jacomb and Michel Croz on 23 August 1861 - Monte VisoMonte VisoMonte Viso or Monviso , is a mountain in the Cottian Alps in Italy close to the French border. Monte Viso is well known for its pyramid-like shape, and because it is higher than all its neighbouring peaks by about 500 m it can be seen from some distance, from the Piedmontese plateau and the...
with F. W. Jacomb and Michel Croz on 30 August 1861 - Grandes Rousses with Thomas George BonneyThomas George BonneyThomas George Bonney FRS was an English geologist.-Career:Bonney was the eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Bonney, master of Rugeley Grammar School...
, and Michel Croz with his brother Jean-Baptiste Croz in 1863
Publications
- 'Mechanical properties of ice, and their relation to glacier motion', by William Mathews, President of the Alpine Club, in NatureNature (journal)Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
, March 24, 1870History of Science and Technology at wisc.edu (accessed 8 January 2008) - The Flora of Algeria: considered in relation to the physical history of the Mediterranean region and supposed submergence of the Sahara (London: Edward Stanford, 1880)