Scope and Contents: Approximately 16,000 photo prints and approximately 100,000 images on microfilm, hundreds of glass plates, and other related photographic materials are included in the collection.  In 1932, William O. Field began collecting glacier photographs to create an inclusive collection for the use of glaciologists.  Originally stored in the office of Lawrence Martin, then chief of the division of maps at the Library of Congress, the collection was financed through the Research Committee on Glaciers of the American Geophysical Union  where it was named the AGU Collection.  When Martin retired the collection was sent to the American Geographical Society and was managed by Field and renamed the AGU/AGS Collection.  In 1957, during the International Geophysical Year, the AGS was named the World Data Center A for Glaciology due to the growing collection of glaciological materials held there.  In 1970, the WDC-A for Glaciology was transferred to Project Office Glaciology of the U.S. Geological Survey in Tacoma, WA, incorporating the aerial glacier photograph collection of Austin Post.  In 1976, the WDC-A was transferred from USGS to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and was moved to the University of Colorado in Boulder.  In 1982, NOAA created the National Snow and Ice Data Center where the collection is currently held.