The papers of Charles Houston, high altitude researcher and mountaineer, document his medical and high altitude expedition career from 1945-2009. The materials include correspondence, research from the Operation Everest I and II, high altitude medical research investigations, Peace Corps materials, writings, photographs and audiovisual materials.
Charles Houston Papers, 1906 - 2009 (MSS 716)
OFF-SITE STORAGE: COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.
Restrictions: Original audiovisual media formats are restricted. Viewing/listening copies may be
available for researchers. Correspondence containing medical information in Boxes
19-20 and 71 is restricted until 2095.
Extent: 35 Linear feet (72 archives boxes, 4 record cartons, 2 card file boxes, and 1 flat box)
Charles Snead Houston, born in 1913 in New York, was an American physician, mountaineer, high-altitude investigator, and former Peace Corps administrator. He was educated at Harvard University and earned a Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Houston practiced internal medicine in Exeter, New Hampshire and Aspen, Colorado. Later, he joined the faculty at the University of Vermont as Professor of Medicine. He retired from the faculty in 1979.
In 1936, Houston was a member of an expedition led by the British climber H.W. Tilman to the top of Nanda Devi in India, the highest mountain climbed at that time. In 1938, he led the first American Karakoram expedition to K2. In 1953, he organized an expedition return to K2 and although he did not reach the summit, his party mapped a route to the summit that was accomplished by the Italian team in 1954. Houston published K2, the Savage Mountain (1954) about the expedition.
Houston began his study of the effects of high altitude as a naval flight surgeon in World War II. He was in charge of Operation Everest (1947) in which four subjects were taken to a simulated altitude of 8850 m over 34 days in a compression chamber. The studies demonstrated that acclimatization would allow pilots to fly unpressurized planes to altitudes of 15,000 feet and higher. Houston continued similar studies of human biological responses at extreme simulated altitudes in the high altitude chamber during Operation Everest II in 1985.
From 1962 to 1965, Houston served as the first Country Director of the Peace Corps for India under the directorship of Robert Sargent Shriver. He was instrumental in developing the medical doctors' division within the Corps. Additionally during the 1960s, Houston was involved with early attempts to construct an artificial heart. Consequently his designs influenced the design of the Jarvik artificial heart.
Even after his mountaineering days of climbing discontinued, Houston continued the investigation of altitude sickness and was the first to document high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). The culmination of his work was executed on the grant funded research study on Mount Logan in the Yukon territory in Canada. Houston was the director of the Arctic Institute on Mount Logan in 1968.
Additionally, Houston was a major benefactor for establishing the Colorado Altitude Research Institute (CARI), now known as the Altitude Research Center. Under the leadership of Dr. Houston, the institute studied how hypoxia affects health and performance and included the largest survey performed in the United States into incidences of acute mountain sickness.
Charles Houston died on September 27, 2009 in Burlington, Vermont.
The papers of Charles Houston, high altitude physiology researcher and mountaineer, relate to the medical research and investigation of high altitude climates and illnesses. Notable portions of the collection are Houston's studies of high altitude simulated environments: Operation Everest I and II, Mount Logan High Altitude Physiology Study, and the Mount Washington study. Houston's research resulted in numerous published books, mountaineering accounts, and writings. The papers also include correspondence, materials related to other significant mountain expeditions, professional affiliations documents, additional grant and research projects, and biographical materials. A modest portion of the collection represents Houston's tenure as the first Country Director for Peace Corps for India, as lead medical teaching doctor. The collection also includes audio and visual recordings.
The papers are arranged in nine series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 3) PEACE CORPS OF INDIA, 4) HIGH ALTITUDE RESEARCH, 5) WRITINGS, 6) GRANTS AND RESEARCH, 7) LECTURES AND CONFERENCES, 8) PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS, and 9) IMAGES AND RECORDINGS.
A small selection of materials in the Charles Houston papers had significant water damage, therefore photocopy reproductions replace the originals in portions of the papers.