Sleepy History - Summer Camp

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

✨Sleepy History is written and narrated by humans. ✨Narrated By: Heather Foster Written By: Alicia SteffannTrace the history of summer camps from the humble outdoor experiences for children in Civil War-era America to the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization in Soviet Russia and beyond. Includes mentions of: communism, Fascism, WWII, WWI, Russian History, American Civil War, US History, British History#History #Sleep #summercamp #parent #trap #camp #summerAbout Sleepy HistoryExplore history's most intriguing stories, people, places, events, and mysteries, delivered in a supremely calming atmosphere. If you struggle to fall asleep and you have a curious mind, Sleepy History is the perfect bedtime companion. Our stories will gently grasp your attention, pulling your mind away from any racing thoughts, making room for the soothing music and calming narration to guide you into a peaceful sleep. Want to enjoy Sleepy History ad-free? Start your 7-day free trial of Sleepy History Premium: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sleepyhistory.supercast.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Have feedback or an episode request? Let us know at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠slumberstudios.com/contact⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sleepy History is a production of Slumber Studios. To learn more, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.slumberstudios.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reaching for a sparkling punch delivered with Prime. You can enjoy a punch just like Reacher. Entertainment meets fast delivery. It's on Prime. Of all the types of camping in the world, one of the greatest rites of passage is the children's sleepaway camp. immortalized in books, movies, and songs, the summer camp experience is enshrined in pop culture.

But who actually came up with the idea of taking young people off to Ruffet in the Wilderness? And how did that turn into the plethora of specialized camps that exist all over the world today? Tonight, we'll gather around the campfire and hear the fascinating tale of summer. summer camp, from its origins in the 19th century to the present. So just relax and let your mind drift as we explore the sleepy history of summer camp. In 1961, Disney Studios released a family film called The Parent Trap. The two main characters who were identical twins were both played. by child star Haley Mills, who had already won an Oscar at age 14 for her role in Pollyanna.

In the film, two American girls from vastly different backgrounds arrive at a traditional summer sleepaway camp. Although they did not know each other, they look noticeably alike. Sharon and Susan soon clash, engaging in a series of squabbles that, get them in hot water with the camp director. Their resulting punishment is to move into the same tent and spend all their time together so that they might learn to get along. Once they get over their animosity and begin to talk, it becomes apparent that they are in fact identical twins who were separated as babies during their parents' divorce. One of them has grown up with their mother in Boston

and the other with their father in California. Before the summer is over, the two girls learn everything about each other, take on each other's personas, and switch places. Naturally, hilarity ensues. The parent trap was a big hit for Disney, grossing more than $25 million, and it was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Critics gave Haley Mills a lot of credit for that success, citing her pitch-perfect acting in both roles. And certainly, the plot about two girls meeting at Summer Camp rang true to viewers of the 60s. After all, the concept of leaving home and having life change. experiences at camp was one that had been around for nearly a hundred years. In fact, the parent trap was based on a 1949 book by a famous German writer named Eric Kessner called Das Doppelto-Lachen, or in English, the double lotti. In it, the two sisters also met at summer camp. The camp itself was less of a star in his book,

than it was in the 1961 movie. But the common setting demonstrates how the idea of organized sleepaway camp was already rooted in modern culture by the late 1940s. Getting back to nature or roughing it had been around for hundreds of years, but the origins of the children's summer camps we know today can really be traced all the way back. to the late 19th century. It was then that special summer sleepaway adventures, like those of the two Lotties and Sharon and Susan, had their early roots. Of course, if you go back to almost

any period in modern history, you can find writers who were waxing poetic about the power of nature. But in the spirit of the expression, the grass is always green. that attitude surged in the latter years of the Industrial Revolution. As more and more people migrated from the countryside to the cities, they began to look back with nostalgia on what they perceived as simpler times on the land. Some of the most prominent artistic voices of the time were the group of writers known as the Transcendentalists. At the core of their philosophy was the idea that people were too often corrupted by society and that self-reliance and trust in nature would help them become their best selves.

Two of the most famous of these writers were Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. This idea was very appealing to the populace that was dealing with the problem of a more urban lifestyle. As environmental historian Michael B. Smith put it, people of the late 19th century pushed back against urbanism and began a revisioning of nature as a sanctuary from the artificial mechanized world of the city. There are differing opinions on who exactly started the whole idea of summer sleepawait.

camp. Some historians point to a fellow named Frederick Gunn, who operated a home for boys called the Gunnery School in Washington, Connecticut. As the story goes, his students wanted to understand the lives of civil war soldiers. So in 1861, he and his wife Abigail agreed to take them on a two-week camping trip where they marched and lived outdoors. The trip was so successful that they repeated it for 15 years. As a result, some call him the father of organized camping. However, one late 19th century academic strongly disagreed with this origin story. In an article about the emerging trend of children's summer camps, Charles Norton argued that a real summer camp had nothing to do with schooling. Instead, he pointed to a crop of new recreational wilderness camps for boys,

predicting they were on track to become a major feature of American life. In fact, these ideas about getting kids back to nature seemed to have popped up simultaneously. in numerous countries. For example, the roots of the double lotte were taking shape in Germany at the same time. But it seems like a few projects in North America really set the tone for the growth of organized summer camps for children, and specifically boys, at least at first. In 1876, a Pennsylvania environmentalist, named Dr. Joseph Trimble Rothrock,

founded an institution called the North Mountain School of Physical Culture. For about $200, boys from nearby cities attended the school for four months over the summer. In keeping with attitudes about ill effects of the city, the idea was to take weekly boys out into camp life in the woods, so that the pursuit of health could be combined with the practical knowledge outside usual academic lines.

As the name of the institution shows, there was a focus on physical fitness inherent in the mission of the camp, which also promised to educate boys on practical skills. Technically, it was not rooted in school, but it was also not fully focused. on communing with nature. And frankly, as modern people, it may be hard for us not to feel like the North Mountain School of Physical Culture had a Dickensian air of misery about it.

However, enthusiasts of camp history can almost all get excited about the next development on the timeline, which was the establishment of Camp Chikorua in New Hampshire. The founder was a graduate of Dartmouth named Ernest Bulch. He and his friends had engaged in some camping together and enjoyed the camaraderie and the retreat. Together, a couple of them conceived of a similar opportunity for boys.

The stated goal of which was to help them ease the strain-up transition from boy culture to the world of men. The method for this was to involve them in rigorous activities and outdoor sports in nature. The camp began with just one building and only six boys. His venture was for profit, so Bulch advertised widely and the camp attracted significant attention. It lasted four months each summer and for over the next eight years it was in existence, Chikorua grew to 14 buildings and about 30 campers at a time. According to an article by W. Barksdale Maynard on the topic,

the Chikorua experience inspired lifelong devotion in many who were lucky enough to attend. In 1884, a Massachusetts divinity student named John Nichols wrote to Balch seeking advice about opening a, a similar camp. Balch encouraged him and Nichols founded a boys camp in southern New Hampshire that would eventually be known as Asquam. Headed up by a man named Winthrop Talbot, Asquam was very influential in the early camping movement. For example, it was there that the term counselor was established. Talbot furthered his influence by writing and speaking about the camp,

eventually founding the first association of camp directors, which was called the Camp Conference. Unfortunately for Camp Chikorua, it turned out that Bulch needed a better business plan and the for-profit part of it fell short. His own camp ended up in debt and went out of business. But Chikorua had started a trend, inspiring other similar projects.

its effects lasted long after it permanently closed. In fact, Asquam, which followed its principles, enjoyed decades of success. One of the reasons Asquam did so well was that it was located on Squam Lake, near a wealth of summer hotels and facilities that catered to adults. Talbot's premise was that his camp was a stupendous place for vacationing families

to place their boys during their holidays. His reasoning was that at camp, these impressionable boys might better themselves in the fresh air. This was better than languishing amid what one summer cottage guide called the unhealthy excitements of hotel life, with rich food, promiscuous companionship, late hours and feverish amusements. In contrast, the new boys' camps provided an alternative activity for wealthy children.

All good things must come to an end, however. Talbot's enthusiasm for camping gave him the confidence to attempt a winter camp in 1890. As Maynard puts it, the result was financial ruin. The entire Camp Asquam project went under a few years later. But Asquam had so effectively carried the torch for Chikourua that the business model had spread. By 1895, there were 11 known boys camps in the United States, five of which were clustered in New Hampshire. Arguably, the most important of those five camps was Pasquani, which was founded by New Yorker Edward Wilson in 1895. Wilson had previously dropped out of Yale Medical School

and subsequently dabbled in tutoring and writing for children. But he was lacking solid direction in his life when he discovered Camp Asquam while visiting his parents in New Hampshire. Totally enthused by the idea of founding his own camp, he later said, I abandoned every other project and ambition in life. and dedicated myself soul and body. He went to work for Talbot as a counselor at Asquam

and learned the ropes. He was a quick study. Pasquani opened with four buildings and 18 boys and soon expanded to 10 buildings and 43 boys. A local newspaper proclaimed the camp a glowing success and the pride of the Newfoundland, Lake region. Whereas Asquam had drawn campers from Boston, thanks to Wilson's connections, Pasquani brought boys all the way from New York. It became very fashionable for well-to-do families

to send their boys there, and the list of alumni eventually included famous writers, diplomats, and politicians, just to name a few. It seems three times was the charm for these New Hampshire startups. Long after Chikorua and Asquam were gone, Pasquani persisted even through the Great Depression. Incredibly, it is still open today. New Hampshire and its wealthy clientele were central to the early summer camping scene, but the latter decades of the 19th century saw camps pop up in other places. serving less privileged populations.

Many people today are familiar with the YMCA, which stands for Young Men's Christian Association. In 1885, a businessman named Sumner F. Dudley signed up seven boys from the YMCA in Newburgh, New York, to go on a camping trip in New Jersey. A good time must have been had by all, because by 1891, there were 83 campers making that excursion. The camp became known as Camp Dudley.

Now located in New York, it is neck and neck with Pasquani as the longest continually operating camp in the United States. Another important development of the 1890s was that girls were finally able to join in the fun. In 1892, Camp Airy in New York admitted its first girl campers. Airy would eventually cater exclusively to girls. But the very first camp with that distinction was called Redcroft, and it was founded in 1900 on the same lake as Pasquanee. Established by Elizabeth Ford Holt of Cambridge, Massachusetts,

it operated for about eight years. During that time, many other sprang up, proliferating across Maine and Vermont especially. By 1925, there would be 125 such camps for girls. At the same time, summer camp was also spreading to Canada. In 1898, the YMCA founded one at Big Cove in Nova Scotia, and it is generally considered to be Canada's first residential camp. Soon after, a uniquely Canadian trend appeared, which involved sending well-to-do boys on extended

canoeing trips. These camps lasted as long as two months and drew children of both affluent and influential families. Similar to the boys of Keb Pasquani, the alumni of these Canadian excursions developed a deep affinity for their experiences and tended to return as counselors, staying connected with fellow campers over the years. As such, these camps became a vehicle for social mobility. But as before, with the new century dawning, not all camps were geared exclusively toward the privileged class. For example, in 1900, the Boys Club in Salem, Massachusetts took 76 campers out in nature. The program was popular and by 1930, it had spread to more than 60 branches, serving over 26,000 boys.

Girls would have to find other avenues for the time being, however, as the organization didn't become the Boys and Girls Club until 1990. In fact, community centers and clubs grew the camping industry in numerous ways. For example, in the first decade of the 20th century, trips were organized to get city kids from the Jewish community centers out into nature. One article from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency explains how the enormously popular phenomenon

of summer camping grew among Jewish families more because of an accident of demographics than a religious effort. Author Bent Sales wrote in 2020 that the early Jewish camps were motivated by two concepts, bringing inner city kids out to the country and Americanized the children of Eastern European immigrants. He further clarified that

what made these camps Jewish was their demographics, not their programming, but the community that the summer getaway provided turned out to be of great value to Jewish families who wanted their children to be surrounded by tradition and camaraderie that would last a lifetime. As of 2013, according to the article, almost a third of Jewish people currently living in America

has attended one of hundreds of American Jewish summer camps at some point. Meanwhile, although the United Kingdom was never a hotbed of overnight camping, their camping history owes a lot to Robert Baden Powell, who started the Boy Scouts. In 1908, Baden Powell published a book about youth scouting. Troops started popping up and upon seeing girls were interested, Baden Powell organized the Girl Guides. His ideas spread quickly to America. By 1910, the Boy Scouts of America had formed, soon holding its first camp in New York.

This was followed quickly in 1912 by the first Girl Scouts of America camp in Savannah, Georgia. The success of the Scouts has been incredible. A popular mechanics article from 2019 stated that only a handful of countries currently lacked. scouting programs, and that scouting serves upwards of 43 million members worldwide. We can't leave behind this period of camp history without touching upon what is known as the Woodcraft Indian Movement. In 1902, before the Boy Scouts cropped up, a man named Ernest Seton invited a group of local boys to camp on his land in the state of Connecticut. As a scientific illustrator, Seton was keen to introduce boys to the beauty of the natural world.

His method of doing that was to refer to Native American traditions, and he engaged the boys in activities meant to draw from that heritage of harmony with nature. However, he also prioritized what he considered to be the picturesque, and this resulted in his less admirable idea to have them organize themselves into tribal roles and even wear costumes. As modern people, it's hard not to cringe at this type of cultural appropriation, but he piggybacked his vision onto the existing enthusiasm for nature and his ideas spread. Seton and Baden Powell actually met up at one point to discuss a merging of their ideas. However, Baden Powell opted to take the Boy Scouts in a different, somewhat more military-based direction.

Seton subsequently became involved with the newly established United States chapter of the Boy Scouts, but left in 1915 over philosophical differences. Similarly, in 1905, a man named Dan Beard founded a group called The Sons of Daniel Boone, which drew from the mythology of the frontiersmen. Beard also merged his group with the Boy Scouts several years later. Today, the Woodcraft Indian organization has evolved into a general summer and nature camp league called the Woodcraft Rangers. Looking back at this period in camp history, it's striking how the original idea that one should experience nature evolved into competing interpretations. What exactly was the way for humans to live in nature at the dawn of the 20th century?

Was it to emulate the idea of Native American life or to play the role of the buckskin-wearing mountain man? Or was it simply to be self-reliant and organized like a Boy Scout? Over the coming years, this divergence of visions would only grow. As World War I approached, more and more women had access to education. Because of that, there was a growing interest in service-oriented job experience. The role of women administrators in organized camping expanded as a highly respected job. In 1916, the National Association of Directors of Girls Camps was created in New York. city. If it hadn't been for the World Wars and other political developments, the American

concept of summer camp might have continued to spread widely. After all, many countries had existing back to the land traditions that merged nicely with the camping ethos. However, during the years of the World Wars, many countries were temporarily unsuitable for children's camping. And in Russia in particular, the concept of summer camp diverged and developed into something else entirely. That movement was called the Young Pioneers. More formally known as the Vladimir Linen All-Union Pioneer Organization, this spinoff of the scouting movement evolved after the Russian Civil War ended in 1921. The Young Pioneers was designed for children between the ages of 9 and 14,

and it essentially replaced the traditional scout organization that had existed before. Although it included a lot of similar activities, the Young Pioneer Organization was heavily focused on communist teachings. In addition to summer camps, the organization created lots of community centers and educational programs, in that limited way, Russia traveled a path parallel to camps in North America, namely that the original idea of camp being primitive and nature-focused

was becoming less and less a crucial focus. Instead, these camp getaways were branching off into other pursuits that included arts and education. From a practical standpoint, with so many permanent camps now in operation, the Spartan accommodations and the minimal staffing that was so key to the original late-19th-century starter camps were no longer a feature. As always, change will meet with resistance. In the United States, that natural migration away from wilderness camping

brought criticism and conflict into the industry of camp administration too. As early as the 1930s, figures central to the camping world began calling out the increasing softness of the camp experience. Where there had once been tents, there were now lodges. Where children had cooked over fires, there were now dining accommodations, and where only birdsong had reigned supreme, there were now radios and other modern conveniences. How is this camping?

Some of the purists began to ask. In an article about summer camp, writer Lydia Gershon quoted one such person in the 1930s, lamenting that every activity we can find to fit into the daily program is put in. But there is a notable, lack of camping, living out in the open, the very thing that gave the movement its birth. However, others pushed back against the notion that nature had to be the focus of camp. As Gershon put it, rather than retreats from civilization into nature, camps might be tiny societies

of their own. Children would learn to balance the needs of individuals and the group and be helpful citizens. This was a new version of what the 19th century founders of camping had suggested. They too had envisioned a way that children could be removed from the unhealthy influences of the city and find a transformative community. But in their minds, that was dependent on going back to the elements of nature. Now, 50 years later, people were suggesting, that maybe the city was not really so bad. As the 20th century advanced, the camping focus was simply on finding a new environment and fresh community. Whether the children were making a campfire, learning a dance, or doing a service project wasn't material. The idea that camp was a hot house

of community was evolving in North America, even as the young pioneers grew in Zyes. Meanwhile, the Nazi party was using the structure of camping to build its infamous Hitler Youth organization. As Europe became engulfed by World War II, camping advocates in the United States made a futile attempt to create little utopias for children who were surrounded by the news of war. Of course, they met with limited success, as modern communications and rationing and enlistments were inescapable. The fact that the German anti-Nazi author of the camp story, the Doubledi, envisioned a natural camp environment so close on the heels of the Hitler youth era is a sign of how much of a panacea adults desperately hoped.

camping could be. Historian Michael Smith saw this experience of the war years as a pivotal realization for camp administrators. He wrote that in the years after the war, the camping movement would begin to grapple with the tension between the rhetoric of creating rustic sanctuaries for children and the reality that camps were, in fact, part of a modern world. Accordingly, the mid-centrist post-war years, had camp administrators working to provide some kind of therapeutic experience for summer camp attendees. Where the city had once been the enemy, the anxieties of society had become more existential. Smith quoted camp founder Barbara Ellen Joy, who believed camp professionals had to embrace a healing and fortifying approach, so the camper would be a camper would

be able to resist the pressures of modern life, which seem to conspire to crush them and to make them conform to a stereotype set by government and group and public pressures. And in fact, some experts such as psychologist Fritz Radell argued that it was actually disruptive to force children into a wilderness environment and then abruptly return them to their normal urban lives. In fact, he went so far as to say that the nostalgic ideals adults were placing on these children created a disturbing idea that our best years as a society were behind us. In short, why did we have to make the past the only good place to go for the summer? And was the urban environment not equally natural for many kids?

As it happened, the adults behind summer camp, didn't really have much of a say in how it would grow and change. Scouting would go on. Boys and girls' clubs would go on. Sharon and Susan would meet and share a platform tent on screen in the parent trap. And as more and more women flowed into the workforce, the idea of camp was extended to blend with daycare and organized summer activities,

spawning day camps, art camps, sport camps, and camps created for every other type of special interests. In his article, Smith refers to a fascinating 2001 interview between Disney CEO Michael Eisner and NPR interviewer Susan Stamberg. During the discussion Stamberg was asking Eisner, as the manager of a mammoth entertainment brand, to reflect on his contrasting childhood attendance at a rustic summer camp in Vermont. His response seems revealing. Rather than waxing poetic about the importance of natural simplicity,

he found a different lesson in his positive experience. He cited things like teamwork, things like leadership, things like cooking, finding a place to stay. and basically being on your own and being a responsible child, getting ready to be a responsible adult. He did not deny that there was an enormous contrast between the city and the woods of Vermont. It was a completely different life, he told Stamberg.

But instead of crediting the healing power of nature for his lasting impressions, he pointed to a somewhat different advantage. He said, well, if you grow up in Manhattan, camp's really not the reality. To be in a space where you're portaging canoes, that is kind of a fantasy. The reality is the city today in today's world. The fantasy is the forest. I'm not so sure I was living a reality life in the forest.

However, it was a helpful life, and it was a constructive life. and it was a healthy life. Today, camping is still an essential part of modern culture in many countries, even if the expectation isn't, like Sharon and Susan of the parent trap, to be immersed in a new community and discover a whole new self, there is still the possibility of growth. To commune with nature, to acquire a language or learn a new skill, these are possibilities that can now be fine-tuned to suit the person.

Perhaps the modern ethos of camping is that there is no one-size-fits-all ticket to a summer getaway. However, old habits die hard. Demonstrating the enduring appeal of the traditional summer camp, Disney successfully remade the parent trap for a whole new generation of audiences, in 1998. Boston University lecturer Paul Hutchinson summed up the spirit of summer camp succinctly. He said, you're in this community with people that are challenging,

not just your view of the world, but your view of yourself. It's not rugged individualism. It's rugged communalism. So perhaps it's not the campfire, but the people around it most.