Amazing Photographs of Hostelling History: Part 1

For the past week I have had the pleasure of sifting through the pictures, trip reports and memoirs of Helen Pomerance Johnson. The hostel was fortunate enough to have Helen donate these resources from her time traveling around the world as a participant on hostelling trips, a trip leader and representative of American Youth Hostels from the 1940's to the 1970's. We have selected about 300 photos out of many more hundreds as an excellent representation of her experiences and her eye for photography. The pictures, which you can now see in their entirety on Flickr,  here, were sent away as slides to be digitally converted for us to share with the world. And what a gift they are! I easily found myself lost among the breathtaking images from history, searching the folders of itineraries, memoirs, and letters we received from Helen to find any descriptions that I could. Wherever we had information on the scenes we have included that information in the description.

With close to 300 pictures scanned to digital, I separated them into sets by years of Helen's travels. I encourage you to take the same journey I did and make your way through all of them. Helen's photos are truly a beautiful look into our world's history, the history of travel and especially of hostelling after WWII. Helen often included pictures of maps marking her routes throughout different countries, pamphlets she received and title slides to her image slide shows.

As a taste of what you will find in the collection on flickr, I chose a few representatives from the sets to share with you here, along with words from Helen herself. Enjoy!

Thank you Helen for this window back in time.

Hostelling around the World 1947-1949
Travels include: England (1947), Czechoslovakia and Italy (1948), Scandinavia and Sweden (1949)

Helen in Italy, 1948

Sweden, 1949

Clock Tower in Amsterdam, 1948

Hostelling around the World 1950-1953

Travels include: Hawaii (1950), Ireland, France, Germany, Netherlands (1951), England and Scotland (1953) 

"My trip this summer was different than any other I have taken. We traveled as a group for four weeks through Northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Then we all separated and went our own ways. I went alone to Germany and Austria. Two of the girls remained in Paris and sailed home early. One boy went to live in Israel. The other five girls and two boys all went in six other directions. It was a wonderful reunion on the ship going home" - excerpt from Europe - 1951 memoir

Big Island, Hawaii, 1950

Leaving Hawaii, 1950

Biking through France, 1951

"We sailed on the TSS Columbia...we docked in Cherbourg June 29th and cycled 775 miles by the time we reached Paris four weeks later on July 28th" - Helen 

Mont St Michel, France, 1951. Lunch on Salt Flats

*Written by Intern Jess Scherer