Figure 1.--This unidentified group portrait looks like a summer camp to us, but we are not sure. Notice the nurse and pooch. The portrait is undated but looks like the 1930s to us. All we know for sure is that the studio, was A.W. Moody in Bristol, New Hampshire.

Most of the early American summer camps were private camps. YMCA cmps were an exception. It was also very common at the private camps into the 1950s to wear uniforms, although they were generally very basic. I'm not sure why uniforms were so commonly adopted at these camps. This seems most common in the inter-War era. Many of these private camps were expensive and attended by children who went to private schools that required uniforms. While most camps if they required uniforms had fairly basic ones, and often were not real strict about enforcing the uniform. We notice a few camps that seem to have taken the uniform more seriously amd rather strictly enorced their unifirm rules. Alopst always this was a "T"-shirt and short pants. We notice a few camps which had a uniform looking more like a school uniform. We even notice campa caps. We see a few camps with collared shirts. Short pants were standard, but some camps had kneesocks to go along wih them. Such formal uniforms began to go out of styles after World War II, espcially by the 1960s.

Created: 11:33 PM 9/7/2015
Last updated: 11:33 PM 9/7/2015