Back issues of Historical Diving Societies' journals

[David Wilson]

All credit to the Historical Diving Societies of America, France, Italy and Sweden for providing free downloads of back issues of their respective journals:

Historical Diver/The Journal of Diving History, USA (1993-2013): Browse by Issuing Agency - Aquatic Commons
Ichtyosandre, France (2004-2013, some issues missing): L'Ichtyosandre - Ichtyosandre
HDS Notizie, Italy (1995-2015): HDS NOTIZIE | The Historical Diving Society Italia
Signallinan, Sweden (2009-2015): Signallinan

It's a shame that no editions of Skin Diver magazine are archived anywhere, except for its first issue of December 1951, which can be downloaded from here: http://tinyurl.com/oo24y2c

I'd love to be able to access similar scanned issues from the 1950s and 1960s to study the articles and the ads and to establish timelines for certain uncatalogued items of equipment. Such files would make an invaluable source of information about diving history, accessible to all, not just to the few.

 

[trapezus]

Mondo Sommerso (Italy ) ????

 

[David Wilson]

Mondo Sommerso (Italy ) ????

Any scanned issues available online (other than on eBay)? If so, where can I access them? If not, I agree Mondo Sommerso would be an equally good candidate for online archiving alongside Neptune and Triton in my own country.

 

[trapezus]

I was subscribe to this magazine (Mondo Sommerso ) for many years I have large collection. now old issues sold high prices in ebay.it

 

[Mike Lev]

Who would have the time to downloads mags on line. It would take months. The skin diving museum site had access to skin diver mags with the passwords.Now it is in legal proceedings.

 

[David Wilson]

Two British diving magazines with 1950s issues now online

Only the first issue of "Skin Diver" may be available for free download online (http://tinyurl.com/oo24y2c), but I'm delighted to report my discovery that two further magazines, both British, have complete issues, not just front covers and starting from the 1950s, posted on the Web:

1. Royal Navy Diving Magazine, Volumes 1-16 (July/Sept 1951-December 1970). Volume 1 Number 1 is 5 months older than the first issue of "Skin Diver"! Location: RN Diving Magazines


2. The London Diver, Volumes 1-2 (May/June 1959 - Sept/Oct 1960). 8 issues. Location: Historical Chronicles of London No. 1 Diving Club


Both have great ads and stories from the pioneer era of diving! Very helpful to the diving historian too. It's brilliant that a few generous people have taken the trouble to make such publications available to a wider audience.

 

[regulator bj]

David
Thanks for the links will spend a few hours over the coming weeks gleaning details of the period

john

 

[trapezus]

Collezione Annate Mondo Sommerso dal 1967 al 1971
250 €

Nettuno

 

[trapezus]

L'aventure SOUS-MARINE

,

 

[David Wilson]

Thank you, Trapezus, for drawing our attention to the collections of Il Mondo Sommerso that are around.

I only have one Italian diving magazine in my own collection, namely the August/September 1977 Anno V Numero 51-52 issue of Il Subacqueo:

I bought it in Rome during one of my annual continental European trips in the 1970s. I can still remember the thought process underlying my purchase. The photograph on the front cover of the magazine may have immediately identified the periodical as diving-related, but what interested me more than the colourful photography at the time was the table of contents inside:

In this case, however, the topics listed would not have persuaded me to part with my 1200 lire. What did was the announcement on page 78 advertising a series of booklets brought out recently by the publishers of Il Subacqueo:

The penultimate title on the page focused my attention because of my interest in basic diving gear, which was still being manufactured in European countries back then. Italy in particular had many diving equipment manufacturers in those days, making all their products within that country. So I bought the magazine and went on to locate the booklet in a large bookstore close by:

The title roughly translates to "Guide to the purchase of underwater equipment" and its table of contents confirmed that the booklet was exactly what I was looking for:

The full gamut of gear from masks, fins and snorkels to watches and depth gauges was covered in the illustrated guide, which now stands on my bookshelf next to a German title of the period with similar content. I now had an interesting Italian take on equipment selection. On my return from Italy I discovered that my Il Subacqueo magazine had great ads too, one of them for Cressi:

This two-pager focused on Cressi's fins and included a glimpse of Jacques Mayol completing a record freedive using a pair of Cressi's elongated blades. The ad also provides valuable information about the chronology of Cressi's fin models, important as Cressi catalogues appear to be hard to come by.

This has been a longer message than I originally intended to write, but I wanted to reinforce my general point that the front cover of a diving magazine isn't always the most helpful part of the publication if the reader is looking for something other than good and imaginative colour photography. As a rule, the table of contents is more helpful to people like me who enjoy reading about changes in diving practice over time.

However, it's often the ephemera such as ads that proves to be the most revealing and interesting aspect of a magazine when it has been preserved for decades, not least because through them it's possible to date the introduction and demise of items of gear in the absence of catalogues. American diving equipment companies tended to issue catalogues annually, while European companies often issued catalogues irregularly in the 1960s and 1970s and more often than not they didn't even bother to print the year when the catalogues were compiled. The Skin Diving History website has a vast collection of such diving ephemera from an American context. Sadly, there appears to be no European equivalent.