The Thad Thorne Ski Room contains More than 1380 skis, mostly as pairs, some as singles.  The skis are arranged by date, as can best be determined.

The Museum owns 415 pairs of ski boots, over 200 ski bindings, and 77 waxes.

The Museum owns over 2,600 items of ski clothing. This large collection of vintage and antique ski wear fills an entire room. This room was supported by a gift from the Waterville Valley Black and Blue Trail Smashers.

The Museum owns about 3,100 books and 390 titles of ski periodicals which amount to 108 linear feet of periodicals. The majority of ski books and periodicals are housed in the Robert J.A. Irwin Library at the Paumgarten Center; a much smaller collection can be found at the Wilkinson-Greenberg Library in the North Conway Museum branch.

The Museum’s oldest item is a book published in 1555 that contains the first known printed images of skiers. Titled Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus—or A Description of the Northern Peoples in English—it was written by Olaus Magnus, a Swedish Catholic bishop, and published in Rome. The book’s woodcut illustrations were based on secondhand descriptions, as the artist had never actually seen a skier. Despite their imaginative details, these early depictions remain the first known printed images of skiing.

The Museum owns approx. 1500 ski posters; many of them housed in the Robert J.A. Irwin Library at the Paumgarten Center.

Our collections include over 26,000 photographs, negatives, postcards, and prints.

The New England Ski Museum holds an incredible collection of scrapbooks—handmade albums filled with photos, race results, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia. Some were created by Olympic skiers in the 1930s, others by clubs or families documenting their favorite ski areas and local events. These one-of-a-kind books offer a personal and visual record of skiing’s people, places, and moments—preserving stories that might otherwise be lost.

Scrapbooks are differentiated between those assembled mainly with newspaper clippings, like one from Walter Prager, and those with photographs.

We’ve collected over 26,000 photographs, negatives, postcards, and prints.

There are over 3,500 reels of ski-related film in the collection (2361 films, 273 DVDs, 834 VHS/ other films) which we hope to get digitized soon.

The John Jay Collection includes 2,040 reels, each 100 feet in length, that served as the raw material for the filmmaker’s well-known films.

Donated by John and Alice Pepper, our Pepper Art Collection is located at the Paumgarten Center. It contains many paintings from Dwight Shepler and other great artists.

We have archived oral histories of the following ski history figures:

The New England Ski Areas Council Board Room is useful for researchers to spread their work out, and is used for quarterly meetings of the Board of Directors. 

Holdings of the Museum include collections of various types of material assembled and/or donated by the following individuals or organizations, in order of date of donation:

• Fred Harris
  4 news clip scrapbooks and one photo album; two wooden boxes of glass lantern slides; all relating to the Dartmouth Outing Club and the Brattleboro Outing Club.
•  US Eastern Amateur Ski Association
  Minutes, Conference Reports, Notebooks of the Executive Director (Roger Peabody), periodicals, large quantity of photographs used in publication of Skier and Ski Annual
• Roland Palmedo
  Correspondence file ca 1944-1947, with letters to and from Charles Lord, J. Negley Cooke, Abner Coleman re: Mt Mansfield and search for a new ski area in the Green Mountains that became Mad River Glen; and still photographs and photo album.
• Lowell Thomas
  Books (a complete collection of his writings); skis; ski pants; photographs.
• Aurele Legere
  News clip scrapbook compiled by Everett Martin re: Legere, Nordic skiing in Rumford ME.
• Ski Club Hochgebirge
  News clip scrapbooks with articles relating to SCH.
• Roger Langley
  Master’s thesis, Survey of Skiing in the United States; papers relating to publication of American Ski Annual.
• Christine L. Reid
  Large quantity of photographs; news and magazine clips.
• Charles Trask
  Large quantity of photographs, chiefly in Cannon and Mt Washington regions.
• Cannon Mountain
  4 news clip scrapbooks; large collection of films; one record storage box with materials on the 1967 World Cup races at Cannon.
• Donald McBrien
  18 record storage boxes of material relating to USSA races, results, and early computerized race timing.
• Walter Prager
  News clip scrapbook; still photographs; clothing and equipment.
• Anna McIntyre
  4 record storage boxes of material relating to the first USSA snowboard races and teams; and World Cup and other races held at Waterville Valley.
• Seldon Hannah
  16 record storage boxes of material relating to his career as a ski area consultant; still photographs and ink-jet copies from photo albums in the possession of his family; clothing.
• Sno-Engineering
  3 record storage boxes, numerous slides, and ca. 45 maps relating to ski resort planning.
• John W. McCrillis
  6 record storage boxes of material relating to skiing in general, his film of the Moosilauke Down-Mountain race, Dartmouth Outing Club, and his book co-authored with Otto Schniebs.
• Fred Moore
  2 record storage boxes of material relating to Eastern Interclub Ski Club League, race officiating, including 1967 Cannon World Cup.
• Hans Thorner
  Collection of books,  films, Swiss ski periodicals, color transparencies, news clippings, and typescripts relating to donor’s career as ski instructor, filmmaker, writer and founder of Magic Mountain, VT.
• Toni Matt
  36 ski racing trophies, 1 photo scrapbook, 1 clipping scrapbook, 3 3/4″ videotapes. 4 1/2″ videotapes, 3 audiotapes, 8 photographs, newspaper clippings, 2 books, literature, and identification documents.
• John Jay
  14 boxes of film created by John Jay.  Total collection includes approximately 2,046 reels of film (mostly 16mm 100′ reels in boxes) and 27 audiotapes, dating from 1949 to 1963.
• Robert J. A. Irwin
  Collection of books, periodicals, papers and artifacts assembled by the donor: 401 volumes of books, 3 framed prints, single Tubbs ski pole, large collection of mounted and unmounted prints and artwork.
• Richard Nelson
  Collection of four boxes of US Eastern Amateur Ski Association and US Ski Association records.
• Albert Jackman
  3 folders of papers, one folder of photographs and assorted ski equipment.
• Malcolm McLane: One record storage box of papers relating to Wildcat Mountain Corporation.
• Skiing Magazine
  11 record storage boxes with collection of historic photographs, slide transparencies, and negatives assembled by Skiing Magazine.
• William Luitink
  Collection assembled by/about Sgt. William Luitink of Co A, 85th Mountain Infantry, including: photo album with photographs of Camp Hale; 8 loose photographs; Purple Heart certificate; 3 letters re: grave site; and US memorial certificate signed by President Roosevelt.
• Ruth & Stanley Brown
  Collection of memorabilia assembled by Ruth Ziegler and Stanley C Brown, operators of Blandford Ski Area, including books, periodicals, postcards, posters, photographs and archives.
• Herbert Schneider
  3 news clip scrapbooks with material relating to his family’s relocation to the US in 1939 and their early years in the US; ink-jet photographs copied from donor’s collection and returned to him; suitcases used by his father on his 1939 journey to US; two pairs of skis used by his father.
• John Litchfield
  Collection of seven albums containing photographs, clippings, articles, letters and photocopies relating to the donor’s career as a competitive skier at Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine and at Dartmouth in the 1930s, with some references to his time at Sun Valley, Idaho and Aspen Colorado. The collection includes one folder with photocopies, one desk set award engraved with the name of the donor’s father, Norman Litchfield, and clippings, recent ski history periodicals, and one 2002 Winter Olympic press kit.
• Ann Bonfoey Taylor
  Collection of material assembled by the donor’s mother, Ann Bonfoey Taylor (1909-2007). Nicknamed “Nose Dive Annie” in the late 1930s when she lived in Stowe and was married to James Negley Cooke, she was known for her rapid ski ascents on climbing skins and expert ski technique on that ski trail. After her marriage to Cooke ended, she was a clothing designer in Stowe before marrying Vernon (Moose) Taylor, Jr. They moved to Denver and later Vail, where they built one of the earliest residences. The collection includes two ladies jackets, two sweaters (one of the donor’s design), racing bibs (one from the 1939 Nationals), 6 helmets, 10 clear eyeshields fixed to headbands, climbing skins, belts, poncho, commemorative booklet, and one photograph.
• Leland Sosman
  Collection of papers, Programs, Results, USEASA, WVBBTS, USSA and FIS archive material, TD reports, Rules, posters, pins, race bibs, and memorabilia assembled by Dr. Leland Sosman.
• Arthur Doucette
  Collection of skis that belonged to the donor’s father, J. Arthur Doucette, who was trained as a ski instructor by Benno Rybizka in 1936. Doucette trained under Hannes Schneider at St. Christoph, Austria in 1937, and in North Conway after Schneider’s arrival in 1939. He later ran the Jackson Branch of the Hannes Schneider Ski School, then became director of the Arthur Doucette Ski School at Black Mountain, NH.
• SE Group
  Collection of 44 boxes of archival material regarding ski area and resort planning, investing, legal and environmental issues. Some of the staff and associates involved included: Jim Branch, Rob Fernald, Sel Hannah, Joe Cushing, Bill Kane, Dick Dobberstein, Mel Borgersen, Timothy Beck, Clby Russell, Jere Peabody, Terry Granger, Ted Farwell, Chester Winter, Richard McHugh, James Westfall, Peter Alford, George Sharpe, William Malcolm, Ford Hubbard, and Bill Malcolm.
• Wildcat Mountain
  Collection of slides, negatives, prints, film, and scrapbooks assembled by Wildcat relating to its history.
• Tyrol Ski Area
  Collection of Tyrol ski area scrapbook; Tyrol ski area photographs, slides and negatives depicting Tyrol ski area lifts, instructors, racing, Tyrol scenery and people; clippings including articles and advertisements for Tyrol.
•  Mount Greylock Ski Club
  Collection of five boxes of Mt. Greylock Ski Club records & periodi
• Henry “Swampy” Paris
  Collection of letters, papers, photographs, periodicals, pins, patches and albums assembled by Henry ‘Swampy’ Paris regarding Mt. Washington Volunteer Ski Patrol, National Ski Patrol, and Tuckerman Ravine.
•  Dick Smith
  Photographs , negatives, color transparencies, slides, and a film of Tuckerman Ravine, aerial views of Mt. Washington, ski areas past and present, skiing personalities, and Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway all taken by North Conway, NH professional photographer Dick Smith.
• Sandra Heath
  Ski parkas and jackets, sweaters, pants, one-piece ski suit, dirndl w/ apron, and pin, ca. 1940s – 1980s, collected by Sandra Heath.
• A.L. Washburn
  Collection of photographs, pins, and patches from 1920s & 30s; belonged to Dartmouth ski team member and 1936 Olympian Albert Lincoln Washburn.
• Sherman Howe: Photographs, negatives, photocopies, and clippings re: Woodstock, VT skiing and winter sports.
• John Fry: Collection of research material: donor used in writing “The Story of Modern Skiing”; donor compiled on ski area growth & decline; lift expansion; wholesale/retail of skis & boots; cross-country industry; injuries; Ski Magazine reader studies, demographics, etc.; biographical information re. historically significant skiers.
• Morten A. Lund: Books: 57 ski related; Photographs: people, places and events related to skiing; Research Papers; total of 23 boxes.
• Lawrence Young: Collection of books, pamphlets, notebook, magazines, and a DVD regarding skiing safety, trauma, and sports medicine.
• Sylvia Dowst: Collection of slides and photographs taken primarily in the 1970s and 1980s during the construction of the new Cannon Mt Aerial Tramway and the Mt Washington Sherman Adams Summit Building, photographed by donor’s husband Robert B Dowst, NH Director of Public Works & Transportation and Construction Supervising Engineer; Report: Mt Washington – A Ten Year Master Plan by Mt Washington Commission 1969-1970.