[Photo Album]: One of the Earliest Female Ski Races Compiled by a Member of the First Organization for Women Skiers

Oblong small quarto. Measuring 8" x 6". String-tied tan wrappers with "Craftsman Album" stamped on the front board. Contains 56 sepia-toned or black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 2" x 3" and 4½" x 3", with captions. Very good album with slight spotting and edgewear with near fine photographs. An album depicting what may be the first official women's ski race, created by one of the members of The Ladies' Ski Club, the first organization for women who wanted to ski. The club was organized in Murren, Switzerland at the Palace Hotel in 1923 by three British women: Mrs. Duncan Harvey, Doreen Elliot, and Lady Mabel Lunn. Lunn was married to Arnold Lunn who founded England's Alpine Ski Club in 1908. The club did not admit women, and he encouraged his wife and the others to start their own. While we're not certain exactly when Gossage joined the LSC, since the group was formed during the timeframe of these photos, and she's seen in the album with Lady Mabel (though Gossage writes her name as "Lumb") she was one of the first members. We also found an online image showing Gossage with the LSC at the first Alpine World Ski Championships in 1931 where she placed fifth. Gossage was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Frederick Gossage, a British soap manufacturer, and the sister of RAF Air Marshal, Sir Ernest Leslie Gossage, who served in both World Wars, eventually as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Balloon Command during World War II. Well-composed pictures show fancily dressed skiers on the slopes, ski jumping, at the skating rink, and posing for group shots. One source that we located describes the first women's ski races as occurring in 1928, a team event between the LSC and the Swiss Ladies' Ski Club. The events depicted in this album occur in 1922 and 1923, with a later image from 1927, and clearly show an organized ski race between women. There's a photo of William Nassau Weech, an author and early Alpine ski advocate, along with an image of an engraved silver trophy, the "Weech Skiing Cup for Ladies" dated 1922. Several shots show the women wearing numbers at the start of the race and there's one action shot, making these images some of the earliest, if not the earliest, documentation of an organized ski race for women. A fine album documenting the dawn of women's competitive skiing.…