{{short description|Oldest mountaineering journal}} {{Infobox magazine | title = Alpine Journal | image_file = 2015 cover Alpine Journal.jpg | category = Climbing, Mountaineering | website = {{URL|http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk}} | publisher = The Alpine Club | country = United Kingdom | firstdate = 2 March 1863 | frequency = Annually | issn = 0065-6569 }}
The '''''Alpine Journal''''' ('''''AJ''''') is an annual publication by the Alpine Club of London. It is the oldest mountaineering journal in the world.<ref name=goodwin>{{cite web|url=https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/60/1/the-alpine-journal-a-century-and-a-half-of-mountaineering-history/|title=The Alpine Journal : a century and a half of mountaineering history|publisher=The Himalayan Journal, Volume 60|date=2004|last1=Goodwin|first1=Stephen}}</ref>
== History == The journal was first published on 2 March 1863 by the publishing house of Longman in London, with Hereford Brooke George as its first editor. It was a replacement for ''Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers'', which had been issued in two series: in 1858 (with John Ball as editor), and 1862 (in two volumes, with Edward Shirley Kennedy as editor).<ref>''Peaks, Passes and Glaciers'', ed. Walt Unsworth, London: Allen Lane, 1981, p. 15</ref>
The journal covers all aspects of mountains and mountaineering, including expeditions, adventure, art, literature, geography, history, geology, medicine, ethics and the mountain environment, and the history of mountain exploration, from early ascents in the Alps, exploration of the Himalaya and the succession of attempts on Mount Everest, to present-day exploits.
==Online access== Journal volumes since 1926 (bar the current issue) are freely available online.<ref>[http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Background/Project.html ''Alpine Journal'' Digitisation Project]</ref> Digital scans of earlier volumes of the ''Alpine Journal'' from 1863 to 1929 have been made by academic libraries and are available online.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Internet Archive issn:0065-6569 |url=https://archive.org/search.php?query=issn%3A0065-6569 |access-date=2022-08-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=HathiTrust Catalog Alpine Journal |year=1863 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000518530 |access-date=2022-08-05 |last1=Yeld |first1=George |last2=Butler |first2=Arthur John |last3=Conway |first3=William Martin |last4=Freshfield |first4=Douglas William |last5=Stephen |first5=Leslie |last6=Alpine Club (London |first6=England) }}</ref>
== Notable editors == The following people have edited the journal: * Leslie Stephen (1868–1872)<ref name=goodwin /> * Douglas Freshfield<ref name=goodwin /> (1872–1880) * Arthur John Butler (1890–1893)<ref>A. T. Quiller-Couch, revised by Nilanjana Banerji, "Butler, Arthur John (1844–1910)", in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 2007)</ref> * George Yeld (1896–1926)<ref name=goodwin /> * John Percy Farrar (1920–1926, co-editor)<ref name=goodwin /> * Edward Lisle Strutt (1927–1937)<ref name=goodwin /> * T. Graham Brown (1949–1953)<ref name=goodwin /> * Johanna Merz (1992–1998)<ref name=goodwin /> * Ed Douglas (1999–2023)<ref name=band> {{cite book|author=George Band|title=Summit: 150 Years of the Alpine Club|date=2006|publisher=Collins|location=London |isbn=9780007203642|page=237}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official website|http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk}} including an online archive of back issues 1863 to 2021, with ''Peaks Passes and Glacier''s * [https://archive.org/search.php?query=issn%3A0065-6569 Alpine Journal back issues 1863 to 1929], online at the Internet Archive * [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000518530 Alpine Journal back issues 1863 to 2002], full text or limited search, online at HathiTrust {{Climbing}} {{Authority control}} Category:1863 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:Alpine Club (UK) Category:Annual magazines published in the United Kingdom Category:Sports magazines published in the United Kingdom Category:Climbing and mountaineering magazines and journals Category:English-language magazines Category:Magazines published in London Category:Magazines established in 1863