This collection contains scrapbooks chiefly containing narratives, snapshots, and clippings documenting summer canyoneering and camping trips to the American Southwest, the Colorado River, and the Canadian Rockies by Mildred E. Baker (1899-1987) in the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as some volumes related to Baker's activities and interest in bookbinding, poetry, and the Woodcraft League of America in upstate New York with bookbinder John F. Grabau (1878-1948).

Mildred E. Baker (later Mildred McVey) (December 23, 1899-March 20, 1987), also known as "Millie," was a secretary for an investment firm and a botanist for the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York. During summers in the 1930s and early 1940s, Baker took extensive camping and canyoneering trips with two friends: teacher Florence A. Huck (1895-1980) and social worker Katherine Crisp, also of Buffalo. In 1940, she took part in the "Nevills Expedition," with Norman Nevills, rafting down the Green and Colorado Rivers from Wyoming to Lake Mead; she became one of the first women to successfully travel the full length of the Colorado River. In the 1940s, she became friends with Otis Marston, river-runner and historian of the Colorado River and Green River regions, and communicated with him about her travel experiences in the American Southwest. In the 1940s, Baker married Philip Rosa, but they later divorced. Around 1948, Baker moved to Encinitas, California, and married Chester Lee McVey (1894-1968) in 1959. They later lived in Laguna Hills, California.

13 volumes in 6 boxes

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