In 1924, the State Board of Geographic Names named the northernmost peak of the Seward Range after Alfred Lee Donaldson, who crafted the first detailed history of the Adirondack Park. Published in 1921, A History of the Adirondacks, was a culmination of nearly a decade of extensive research by Donaldson himself. A party led by Colvin completed the first recorded ascent of the peak in October of 1870, a day before they climbed Mount Seward.

Donaldson moved to Saranac Lake as a twenty-nine-year-old in 1895 when his poor health forced him out of New York City and into the fresh air of the Adirondack wilderness. As Donaldson regained his health, he helped develop the village of Saranac Lake by organizing a national bank, a savings and loan business, and telephone company there. After his frail health forced him out of these enterprises, he turned to writing poems and short stories as a more leisurely form of work. In 1912, Stephen Chalmers encouraged him to begin writing a history of the Adirondacks, which he accomplished despite his ever-declining physical condition. Donaldson passed away in November of 1923, though his impact on Adirondack history will live on for centuries.

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_{Donaldson, Alfred L. (Alfred Lee). A History of the Adirondacks, Vol. 1, 1921.}