Frederick Harrison Burlingham (January 18, 1877 – June 9, 1924) was an American journalist, explorer, cinematographer, and producer of numerous travelogues in the silent era. His most notable works are his films depicting Alpine landscapes and his mountain-climbing expeditions in Europe between 1913 and 1918, his explorations of Borneo in 1920, and his excursions to various sites in the United States and Canada in the early 1920s. He was also an accomplished still photographer and book author, publishing in 1914 How to Become an Alpinist, which is illustrated with his photographs. Burlingham initially produced films while working in London for the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company, but he later developed his films independently and released them under contract with licensed distributors.
Early life and journalism
Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1877, Frederick was the second of four children of William and Lillian (née Brooks) Burlingham. The federal census of 1880 documents that the Burlinghams were still living that year in Baltimore, where Frederick's father worked as a mechanic or, as identified in that record, a "Pump maker". Frederick's first jobs were as a grocery boy and a bookkeeper, and his musical talent as a pianist earned him a scholarship to Peabody Institute, a prestigious conservatory in Baltimore.
By the late 1890s, Burlingham began to focus on a career in journalism, which afforded him opportunities to write and, more importantly, to travel. He relocated to New York City, where he worked for the Evening Post, Commercial Advertiser, the American, and The Evening World. Then, following brief stints as a reporter and editor with other newspapers in Virginia and West Virginia, he sailed to London in 1904. There he obtained jobs with news outlets before moving to Paris, where he continued his career in journalism and where by 1909 he was described by some citizens in the French capital as "A 'Back-to-Nature' Tramp". Finally, after years of working for an array of newspapers, Burlingham in 1912 turned away from traditional print media and decided to study cinematography, to use the motion-picture camera to record his travels and to share his experiences with audiences in a far more visual, dynamic way.
Film career
Burlingham left Paris near the end of 1912 and returned to London, where he was soon hired by the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company. In 1913 the company assigned him to travel to Switzerland to film ski-jumping, curling, sleighing, and other Alpine winter sports around St. Moritz. Equipped with a bulky hand-cranked movie camera, a half-plate still camera, and a set of tripods, he also recorded his trek at higher elevations through deep snow at the Bernina Path, as well as ascents of the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, and the Jungfrau. He continued from those sites to southern Italy, capturing additional scenic footage as he traveled to Mount Vesuvius. There he filmed on December 21, 1913, a deep descent into the volcano's interior. Burlingham and his three Italian assistants were nearly asphyxiated by sulphuric fumes as they used ropes to lower themselves down over 1200 feet "to the bottom of the cone". In addition to releasing Burlingham's films The Ascent of the Matterhorn and Descent into the Crater of Vesuvius, the British and Colonial Company between the latter half of 1913 and August 1914 distributed to English cinemas 21 much shorter travelogues shot by him. Most of those short subjects, which averaged only about seven minutes in running time, consisted of tourist-style depictions of the countryside and resorts in southern France, Switzerland, and in the lake district of northern Italy.
At the time British and Colonial hired him, Burlingham already had experience as a mountaineer. He had traveled to the Alps and was familiar with members of the French and Swiss mountain-climbing communities, which included his future wife Léontine, whom he met in Paris and married in London in 1912. He shared memories of some of his climbs in a volume he published in London in 1914, How to Become An Alpinist. In addition to being a basic guide on mountaineering, the book also features a chapter that introduces readers to the "galaxy" of women climbers in the sport and to their accomplishments in that period.