American Camping: Teenagers and Young Men


Figure 1.--Here we see four teenagers camping in Deleware. They are both hunting and fishing. Notice the English-styled sports caps and the ties. America's premier private schools and universities were strongly influenced by British models. The photograph is undated, but would have been taken about 1900. Put your cursor on the image for a closeup.

We notice teenagers and young men going camping. Here the idea was primarily fishing and hunting. This all varied depending on the economic situation. These outings were rather rustic when they incolved low-income rural young men. Younger brohers might be taken along, usually younger teenagers. Often dogs were taken along, meaning hunting dogs that had a practical role to play. In addition to the hunting and fishing, there was also an interest in determining who had the best hunting dog. We do not have any photographs of these outings. Photographs do exist of what they bagged after they came home, both fish and game. This was after the development of the amateur snapshot. Youths from more prosperous families might make more of an expedition of it with all kinds of camping gear such as a large tent. A dog was also often brought a long. This appears to be more of a late-19th century activity. It often went along with the idea of university athletics an muscular Christinity. This was a philosophical movement that first appeared in England (mid-19th century) that venerated patriotic duty, manliness, the moral and physical beauty of athleticism. While gymastics ans sports may have been the focus, out hunting and fiuhing were also important. It was prevalent among the Northeastern Protestant upper class.








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Created: 4:11 AM 4/20/2017
Last updated: 4:12 AM 4/20/2017