Seeing the Season: Scenes from Summer Camp

The following is a guest post by Kate Fogle, Assistant Curator of Photography, Prints & Photographs Division.

The solstice has come and gone, and summer has invariably set in. While the temperature is cool in the Prints & Photographs (P&P) Division’s storage spaces —to safeguard our materials from the ravages of heat and humidity—a selection of P&P’s holdings can transport the eye to a place where summer’s bounty appears boundless. The summer camp, humble in its beginnings as a respite from the urban environment, offers an alternative of fresh air, wholesome activities, and the wilds of nature, and remains a youth staple during the warmest months.

Photographer Carol M. Highsmith captures the promise of adventure while away at camp with hanging shoe racks revealing various kinds of footwear. These campers have come prepared for a range of activities in the days ahead. The bunks, with their worn paint, provide seasonal visitors a place to rest and ruminate.

Learning to swim and assist others in aquatic pursuits often fills a summer camper’s days. In this image from 1943, a sectioned-off area for beginner swimmers is put to good use while a boy watches from the edge of a dock, its wood wet from splashing and the dripping of soaked swimsuits.

These girls are learning lifesaving techniques taught by a Red Cross instructor at a Y.W.C.A. summer camp in 1924. This archaic form of resuscitation, a version of the Schaefer method, advises keeping rescued people on their stomachs with their arms raised above their heads, while pressure is applied to their backs.

Mastering techniques and growing skills can be a meaningful camp experience, yet it’s the meeting of new friends that brings out the camp magic. In this image, three girls pose for a photo while seated together on boulders. Their proximity suggests a comfort with one another, friendships formed over warm days. The caption notes that this camp was a joint venture between a chapter of the American Red Cross and the Tuberculosis Association. If these girls were afflicted with the lung condition, spending their summer outdoors together, rather than in isolation, would have brightened an otherwise dismal situation.

Though new relationships are highlights of the time spent at camp, communicating with loved ones remains a reassuring activity when campers miss their families and familiar routines. Here, a girl holds a letter while another checks the mail that’s been sorted and stored in a slotted shelf. This comforting correspondence could have sustained campers who were, as the caption states, away from home for eight weeks.

While the phrase “summer camp” usually connotes enjoyment and encouragement to grow one’s autonomy, the concept has been used alternatively to create structure and to train young people for future pursuits. This group of boys has been steeped in the form and function of the U.S. Navy, all within the span of a summer. Such a large group necessitated a massive photograph, as this panoramic image makes clear.

But the true spirit of summer camp involves fun, and this trio is certainly partaking. With bows steadied, they aim arrows at an archery target formed out of hay. Though their gazes are fixed, focused on the target’s face, their slight smiles signal the pleasure in their play–joyful recreation in a summer well spent.

Note: An earlier version of this blog incorrectly identified the resuscitation method demonstrated as the Holger Nielsen method when it is, in fact, the Schaefer method.

Learn More:

• Explore other scenes of summer camp fun in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection.
• Enjoy images of the summer season by photographer Carol M. Highsmith in the Prints & Photographs Division’s Highsmith Archive collection.
• Learn more about the different activities employed by the American National Red Cross in the American National Red Cross photograph collection.