Camp Fire Girls collection, 1910-1977

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Summary

Creator:
Camp Fire Girls, Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, and Hunt, Marion E., Mrs, 1912-1995
Abstract:
Camp Fire Girls, now called Camp Fire, was founded in 1912 as an outdoor education program for girls and teenage women. This collection includes examples of Camp Fire Girls membership cards and forms, catalogs, programming materials, educational resources, administrative records and notes, correspondence, yearbooks, and some ephemera including a ceremonial dress and charter. Includes some materials from Mrs. Marion Hunt who served as a Camp Fire Girls guardian in the Boston, Mass. area in the 1940s.
Extent:
3 Linear Feet (3 boxes and 1 oversize folder)
Language:
Materials in English.
Collection ID:
RL.12065

Background

Scope and content:

This collection includes examples of Camp Fire Girls and Blue Birds membership cards and forms, catalogs, programming materials, crafting projects, songs, educational resources, administrative records and notes, correspondence, scrapbooks, homemade yearbooks, and some ephemera including a ceremonial dress and charter. Includes some materials from Camp Fire Girls in New England, New Mexico, Indiana, and other unidentified places. Includes extensive programming and planning materials from Mrs. Marion Hunt who served as a Camp Fire Girls guardian in the Arlington and Boston, Mass. area in the 1940s.

Biographical / historical:

Camp Fire Girls was founded in 1912 by Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick and his wife, Charlotte Vetter Gulick. It was initially meant to compliment the Boy Scouts of America and offer an outdoor education program for girls. The group, now called Camp Fire, claims it was America's first multiracial, multicultural, and nonsectarian organization for girls. Local groups organized into regions, which then formed a national organization, with girl-led initiatives and programs supported by adults ("guardians"). Camp Fire Girls affiliates included Blue Birds, which enrolled younger ages, and Horizons, for teens. Typical programming activities included singing, camping, hiking, cooking outdoors, crafting, and sports or games. Native American and indigenous culture was heavily referenced and appropriated by Camp Fire Girls through camp names, adopted "Indian" names, crafts, symbols, and ceremonial dresses and attire.

"WoHeLo" - Work, Health, and Love - was initially a camp in Maine created by the Gulicks which later served as part of the Camp Fire Girls camp network. This term is frequently cited in the camp publications, representing the three foundational values for the Camp Fire Girls.

Marion Hunt (1912-1995), one of the creators of this collection, served as a guardian and leader for Camp Fire Girls groups in the Greater Boston Council, including Arlington and Bedford, Massachusetts during the late 1940s. She is recorded in the 1950 U.S. Census as a housewife living in Bedford, Mass., with her husband R. Willard Hunt.

Acquisition information:
The Camp Fire Girls Collection was received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase in 2017.
Processing information:

Processed by Meghan Lyon, Feb. 2023

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2017-0129, 2017-0029

Arrangement:

Collection is divided into series based on how it was acquired: General Camp Fire Girls materials, and Marion Hunt materials. It is loosely arranged chronologically within those two series.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Camp Fire Girls Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1gf1g