The Backpacking Revolution, Gear Pioneer Companies, 1945 to the Present (US focused)

http://www.oregonphotos.com/Backpacking-Revolution1.html

Innovation for Extremes Gear Timezone (outdoor industry history, from 1700's onward, with United Kingdom and European focus)

http://innovation-for-extremes.net/gear-timezone/

Outdoor Industry Underground: Alan Tabor's ode to Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs and other US firms, using first person recollections

http://outinunder.com/

Scott Hampton's photographs of covers from his impressive collection of 800 outdoor catalogues

https://picasaweb.google.com/mshampton2/CampingCatalogs#

(Scott advises he unfortunately doesn't have time to scan the contents of these catalogs)

Outside Magazine's pictorial article,The Most Influential Gear of All Time (beware it does have a healthy dollop of inaccuracies)

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/The-Most-Influential-Gear-of-All-Time.html

Melbourne Bushwalkers - Fifty years along the track (1940-90) Chapter 13 - Gear (by Doug Pocock)

http://mbw.org.au/history/MBW_history_125.php

Classic Camp Stoves: Vintage camp stoves such as those made by Primus, Optimus, Radius, Svea, etc

http://www.spiritburner.com/fusion/index.php

Kai Larson's small collection of scanned outdoor catalogs (including the 2001 "Cloudwalker by Jeff Lowe")

http://www.larsonweb.com/vintagegear/

Vintage Cannondale. (A collection of PDFs of Cannondale catalogs, back to 1973, when this iconic bike brands were heavily into Backpacking)

http://www.vintagecannondale.com/catalog.html

Rohantime (a blog reminiscing about the early Rohan days from 1974 to 1989. UK based)

http://rohantime.com/

Rohantime Photos on Flickr (accompanying photos of Rohan outdoor and travel clothing from that period)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohantime/

Boondocker's Vintage Gear Museum (collectable outdoor and ski gear for sale, with pix and descriptions)

http://www.boondockers-used-sports.com/vintage-gear-museum.html

The Outdoor Universe. (graphic depiction of who owns whom in the outdoor industry, strong North American focus., circa 2008)

http://www.thepiton.com/the-consolidating-univers.html

40 Years of The North Face (flash-based museum of TNF designs by Goldwin, their Japanese licensee)

http://www.goldwin.co.jp/tnf/40th/

Vintage Gear Outfitters (sell mostly authetic old jackets and pants from The North Face)

http://www.vintagegearoutfitters.com/index.html

The Backpacking Technology blog looks at patents of early outdoor gear

http://backpackingtechnology.com/

History of outdoor businesses, predominately climbing focused (in Polish only )

http://wksg.internetdsl.pl/dozent/sprzet/historie_firm.htm

Record of historic US outdoor product, with photos (in Japanese only )

http://monoblog.555nat.com/

Ezlife : potted history of lightweight tents (in Chinese only)

http://www.ezlife.com.cn/print.php/7426

Scanned images of Chouinard catalog, circa 1968 (and so much more ...)

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=382806&msg=383206

Scans of the entire Chouinard 1972 catalog

http://www.climbaz.com/chouinard72/chouinard.html

Find Me a Tent (an online tent database, with photos of some older tents)

http://www.findmeatent.com

Funding Universe (various company histories, mostly US, including some big name outdoor firms)

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/r.html

Retro Outdoor Gear (photos of old outdoor gear)

http://www.pbase.com/mad_monte1/_retro_outdoor_gear&page=all

Classic Outdoor Designs ("Remembering Classic British Outdoor Equipment, telling their story and bringing them back to life.")

http://vintageoutdoor.blogspot.com/

Backpacking Light (User Forum discussing retro outdoor gear)

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=8875&disable_pagination=1

More of the same from Backpacking Light (as above)

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=8948

British Mountain Heritage Trust

http://www.mountain-heritage.org/

Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection (SMHC): an assortment of mountain memorabilia from Scotland and around the world.

http://smhc.co.uk/index.asp

Invisible on Everest: Innovation and the Gear Makers, 2002 book by Mike Parsons and Mary Rose (mostly UK and European focus)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Invisible-Everest-Innovation-Gear-Makers/dp/0970414358

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman book by Yvon Chouinard. An autobiographical history of Patagonia, the

company.

http://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessman/dp/1594200726

The Hippie Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder & Other Mountains: How JanSport Makes It Happen book by Skip Yowell on history of

Jansport

http://www.amazon.com/Hippie-Climbing-Corporate-Ladder-Mountains/dp/1595558527

The Neptune Mountaineering and Ski Museum (private collection of climbing and skiing equipment, from mid 1800’s to last half of 20th

century)

http://www.neptunemountaineering.com/neptune/dept.asp?dept_id=500

SNEWS Special: Industry Trailblazers (a series of articles looking back at USA outdoor brand personalities)

http://www.snewsnet.com/Special%20Sections/Outdoor%20History/Outdoor%20Industry%20Trailblazers

[ If above link doesn't work, go to http://www.snewsnet.com and click on Industry Trailblazers link -  at very bottom of page.]

Vertical Devices : Gary Storrick's visual collection of over 1,550 abseiling (rappelling), ascending and belay devices

http://www.storrick.cnc.net/VerticalDevicesPage/VerticalHome.shtml

Pitons: Analogy on the Historical Origins of Rock Pitons

http://www.mrpiton.com/

Carabiner Development : Tracking developments in rockclimbing technology

http://crabdev.blogspot.com/

The Nuts Museum : history of rockclimbing protection (an absolute gold mine of historical product photos, catalog covers, commentary, etc.)

http://www.needlesports.com/nutsmuseum/nutsmuseum.htm

Vintage Climbing Gear Collection (excellent and extensive photographic collection of superseded climbing gear)

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/563596945KdFnFj?start=0

History of Crampons Timeline (potted history by Climbing Magazine of crampon evolution 1500's to 2001)

http://www.climbing.com/print/equipment/226history/