Frederick Burlingham

Frederick Harrison Burlingham (January 18, 1877 – June 9, 1924) was an American journalist, explorer, cinematographer, and producer of numerous travelogues in the silent era. His most notable works are his films depicting Alpine landscapes and his mountain-climbing expeditions in Europe between 1913 and 1918, his explorations of Borneo in 1920, and his excursions to various sites in the United States and Canada in the early 1920s. He was also an accomplished still photographer and book author, publishing in 1914 How to Become an Alpinist, which is illustrated with his photographs. Burlingham initially produced films while working in London for the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company, but he later developed his films independently and released them under contract with licensed distributors. Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1877, Frederick was the second of four children of William and Lillian (née Brooks) Burlingham. The federal census of 1880 documents that the Burlinghams were still living that year in Baltimore, where Frederick's father worked as a mechanic or, as identified in that record, a "Pump maker". Frederick's first jobs were as a grocery boy and a bookkeeper, and his musical talent as a pianist earned him a scholarship to Peabody Institute, a prestigious conservatory in Baltimore. By the late 1890s, Burlingham began to focus on a career in journalism, which afforded him opportunities to write and, more importantly, to travel. He relocated to New York City, where he worked for the Evening Post, Commercial Advertiser, the American, and The Evening World. Then, following brief stints as a reporter and editor with other newspapers in Virginia and West Virginia, he sailed to London in 1904. There he obtained jobs with news outlets before moving to Paris, where he continued his career in journalism and where by 1909 he was described by some citizens in the French capital as "A 'Back-to-Nature' Tramp".