Rare photographs of the First New York Boy Scout Encampment (camporee) at Cooperstown NY, 1911.

From a set of 1911 Real Photograph Post Cards recently donated to the Troop 1 Boy Scout Museum. The first three of the set of six are published here with historical notes-we'll post the other three soon.

051815-2 The July 18 card says; "This is the Scouts at Cooperstown on their way walking home. Be there about Thursday. Cecil" The photograph pictures the massed scouts before the grave of James Fenimore Cooper in the churchyard of Christ Episcopal Church, 46th Street Cooperstown, NY, campaign hats lowered, hiking staves and community banners--Oneonta, Morris, Mohawk, etc. held high.  A white-collared young Rev. Yale Lyon is seen to the lower right of "The Scouts" banner in the last row nearest the church.

051815-3 and 4.  Two other postcards show near 100 Scouts and leaders massed before the Indian Hunter Statue in Cooper Park  (later moved to Lakefront Park in 1940). Again, Reverend Yale Lyon shows up wearing a tall-brimmed campaign hat and ecclesiastical collar.  (fifth in from the right margin.).

VINTAGE PRESENTATION PANELS: PATCHES AND DECALS

Recently our museum was given two thin plywood panel boards studded (and we do mean studded--all the items on the first panel are attached to the plywood with small round-headed brass tacks) The items include a Denver, Colo. felt banner, insignia for a Troop 169, Denver, CO., which may have been a war-era Japanese-American Boy Scout Troop sponsored by the Denver Japanese Buddhist Church. Between the banner’s felt ties is a tacked on note that reads:

To Valent- A small token of Friendship and Good Will--     From—Troop 169, Denver, Colo.                                            Japanese Buddhist Church

Also nailed to the board is a 1940-50s era Assistant Scoutmaster patch, a light blue Air Scout patch, two National Jamboree patches, one for the cancelled 1935 Jamboree and a canvas 1950 Jamboree pocket patch. Ranging down the left side of the panel is a series of felt and twill patches for camporees held in 1947 and 1948, and two patches for Camp Ki Shau Wau, a Chicago area camp owned by the Starved Rock Area Council. The last summer camp program at CKSW was held in 1976 but these two camp patches have been identified as from the1947 time period. At the bottom of the column is a felt 1948 Chicago Council Round-up patch.At the bottom of the right column is a triangular felt patch for a 1946 Camporee in the Corn Belt Council, another Boy Scout council in Illinois that eventually merged with the W.D. Boyce Council.

Camp Ki-Shau-Wau was a former Boy Scout camp owned by the Starved Rock Area Council (and later by the W.D. Boyce Council after the merger in 1972) located one mile east of Lowell, Illinois along the Vermillion River. The last summer camp program was held in 1976. The camp opened in the 1920s and was sold in 1989. 

Down the right side of the board is a 1951 felt Otschodela Council Jamboree Circus patch, a dark blue felt Crumhorn Mountain B.S.A. for 1948 or 1949 (the same patch was used for both years), a generic green felt Trail Builder patch issued to Crumhorn Mountain campers who helped bushwack out the camp’s first hiking trails, and a green and white felt Crumhorn Mt. Camp B.S.A. for 1951.  Seemingly out of place with this group is a Troop Eleven Hackensack (NY?) twill patch.
 

Crumhorn Mountain Camp in south central New York was established in 1948 on Crumhorn Lake, in the Town of Maryland near the Otschodela Council’s headquarters in Oneonta, NY. After the war ended in 1945, it soon became apparent the old Camp Deerslayer on Otsego Lake did not meet the requirements of the expected increase in camp attendance.  The camp at Crumhorn Lake, with one name change in 1989 to Henderson Scout Reservation, still serves the council’s campers today.

Down the center of the panel is a collection of 1940-50s era red-on-khaki and brown-on-dark green community strips, mostly for central New York communities:

Red-on-khaki:  HYNDSVILLE, SCHENVUS, ONEONTA, HACKENSACK (NJ), SIDNEY, IDAHO SPRINGS (CO), LAURENS, BINGHAMTON, FALL RIVER (ME), MIDDLEBURG, RICHMONDVILLE.

Brown-on-dark green:  SOUTH EDMESTON, NEW BERLIN, SIDNEY

One curious note: The patches that have been carefully removed by pulling the tacks with a small upholsters’ tack puller tool reveal penciled names underneath: “John” underneath the 1935 Jamboree patch, “Walley” under the 1950 Jamboree, and “Hank” under the Troop Eleven Hackensack patch. Curious to see if the name Valent appeared under the Assistant Scoutmaster patch, we carefully removed the tacks to find penciled “Scouts of America!”

Panel #2, 1950s Era Travel Decals

Souvenir travel decals are a part of America's automotive vacation and touring history. They were made and sold by the untold millions during the Golden Age of highway travel--1945-1970. Today, they have virtually disappeared.  While not exactly Boy Scout memorabilia like on the first panel, their bold graphics and variety make them highly collectible today. (Actually, many Boy Scout patch manufacturers in the 1950s and 60s also supplied decals from the same designs.)

The second panel displays a collection of 18 1950s era travel decals from Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado and the San Antonio Zoo, including a topless Shy Anne pinup (“Cheyanne,” get it?) promoting Cheyanne, Wyoming’s world famous “Frontier Days.” If girls dress like this redhead during Frontier Days in Wyoming, it must be an unforgettable sight at the rodeo.  Two of the decals are triangular Conoco Touraide logos, which also appears on a Nebraska Conoco Touraide decal featuring the towering State Capitol at Lincoln, Nebraska.  We did not try to soak off any of the decals to see if there were any penciled names underneath. 

Check out Lost Highway Art Co. at losthwyart@aol.com, where you can find out much more about travel decals like the ones found on our plywood panel.

1926 FIRST AID GUIDE for the Official Boy Scout First Aid Kit

The museum recently received a little 80-page booklet titled First Aid Guide for the Official First Aid Kit Boy Scouts of America, with a note attached: "Here is a 1926 First Aid Guide that was given to me by a woman friend of Marge's that I believed had belonged to her deceased husband. It seems to me that it might be an interesting item for the museum. If you agree will you please deposit it there."

We get many of the vintage Boy Scout items for our museum this way--a short note and a request to "do something with it, thanks."  Boy Scout First Aid Kits are favorites because they fairly shout the Scout motto "Be Prepared" and the contents (if still intact) speak to us of the often curious treatment of minor accidents in generations gone by. 

After some introductory words about the frequency of accidents among the young, and the wrong kind of bravery in boys who pay no attention to their wounds when a minor accident happens--they think it a sign of a "softie"--a "Miss Nancy" to take care of a little cut or scratch, keeping it exposed to dirt and germs, the booklet gets down to business about arterial pressure points and the use of a tourniquet, treatment of burns and scaulds, bandaging and the use of a Boy Scout neckerchief as a sling, bites of animals (Snakebite: "...after you have sucked the wound as clean as possible, it should be cauterized with iodine or by heating a wire, nail or the blade of a knife."), the dangers of coal gas, treatment of apparently drowned persons, and how to make a rescue carry from a second story window. "Grasp his coatails and lift them over your shoulder, carrying the patient in the same way you would carry a sack of potatoes--but more gently."

Under the section, "Your Health," Scouts are advised about good eating habits. "Mixing frankfurters, pickles, ice cream and chocolate is likely to result in stomachache," and "Constipation is responsible for many a headache and many a low mark in school."   "Live up to the Scout Motto: Be Prepared."  

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The Troop 1 Unadilla Boy Scout Museum accepts donations of memorabilia that help us tell the 100-year story of the Boy Scouts of America and of the oldest continually chartered Boy Scout troop in the nation. The museum is a part of the Unadilla Historical Association, a 501c3 nonprofit organization preserving and interpreting our Unadilla community history.

Contact Brian Danforth, Scoutmaster and UHA Secretary for a schedule of when to visit the museum (607-369-2007) or Donald Tuttle, UHA Vice President and Troop Historian (607-369-7323).

AJAX CHEMICAL FIRE ENGINE RESTORATION

While preparing a new exhibit on the two “hats” Rev. Yale Lyon wore as Scoutmaster of Troop 1 and as Chaplain of the H.Y. Canfield Hose, Hook and Ladder Company, we learned of the availability of an Ajax Chemical Fire Engine, essentially a large hand-drawn chemical fire extinguisher on wheels that could shoot a powerful stream of water and carbon dioxide gas into a fire that starts in grease and oil, tar, paint or turpentine. The Ajax operated by breaking a glass bottle of sulfuric acid into a canister of bicarbonate of soda, all inside a large steel tank. The resulting 80-foot high-pressure stream was touted as the equivalent of 9,000 pails of water.

An Ajax Fire Engine was often one of the first pieces of mechanized fire-fighting equipment within the means of a small town fire department. Unadilla’s Ajax may have been purchased and put into service by the Unadilla Fire Department as early as 1910 but perhaps as late as the mid-1920s.

PROJECT RESTORE AJAX

It is the Unadilla Historical Association’s intention to acquire this fire engine, restore it to its original condition as a project for the Unadilla Fire Post No.1 to use in parades and firematics demonstrations. Because of the danger of chemical burns, we intend to install a modern fitting on the unit so it can be operated with compressed air.

Project Restore Ajax begins this month as soon as weather warms and our young firemen rescue the unit from its weedy fence-row grave and send on its way to get a new set of “fire engine red” clothes. You can follow our progress of restoration toward the “reveal” on Flag Day June 14, 2012 on this blogsite: http://trp1bsaunadillanyhist.blogspot.com. While you are here you might want to read a related story on Rev. Yale Lyon’s 1915 “Splendidly Equipped Scout Fire Auxiliary” posted below.

If you want to do more, why not consider a cash donation toward this project. We estimate the cost of the project at $1,200, which covers the full restoration, pin-striping and decals, and a new parade banner for our Scout firemen of today.

Troop 1 Scouts As Auxiliary Firemen

A view of the splendidly equipped troop at Unadilla, N.Y.

We occasionally plug in the term "Unadilla Scouts" to see what the search engines cough up and this time we hit on an article in the December 1915 issue of Boys' Life magazine depicting the boys of our Troop 1 as a "splendidly equipped scout fire auxiliary." Here's what the article had to say:

"Troop 1, of Unadilla, N.Y. has the distinction of possessing what is probably the best equipped auxiliary fire apparatus of any troop in the country. They are organized as a regular auxiliary to the Unadilla Fire department. Their scoutmaster, Yale Lyon, has been chaplain of the two fire companies in Unadilla for the past five years. He owns a fire wagon and two horse carts, which he turned over to the members of his troop for their use.

The duty of this scout fire auxiliary is to go with supplies for the regular firemen in case of fire. The are not expected to take any active part unless in a great emergency, or in any way not directed by the firemen.

Unadilla scouts have had a great many drills and exhibitions and are proficient in handling the apparatus. So far, however, the scouts have not had an opportunity to put their equipment and training to a real test at a large fire. But the boys are confident that they would be able to give a good account of themselves should the occasion require."

Today, the youngest members of the Unadilla Fire Department are organized as BSA Post 1 Unadilla and are trained and equipped much the same as the adults. "We still don't let them fight building fires but they do serve in other essential ways," says Advisor Ken Mazzone.

The Old Campaigner Restored

I know it is a sin

For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old [campaign] hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

Among a number of 1940s-1950s Scouting items recently donated to the Unadilla Boy Scout Museum was a Boy Scout Campaign Hat once belonging to Unadilla Scouter Kenneth E. Davis. “The hat was so badly crushed we were going to throw it out. In fact we fished it back out of the dumper when we heard about your museum,” said his son Richard as they were preparing his father’s house for auction. The museum reluctantly accepted the sorry piece of felt and immediately set off on an internet search on how to clean it and put some snap back into the brim of the ol’ Campaigner.

A quick check of the Troop 1 BSA Unadilla NY Book of Names, the official roster of nearly every Scout or Leader who joined the troop since 1910, showed us Kenneth was an active a member of the Troop Committee in 1954 when the troop met on Tuesdays at the Presbyterian Church, and again in 1955 when son Richard joined the troop; Kenneth continued to serve on the Troop Committee at least until 1963, when Richard’s brother James also joined the troop. At that time, Troop 1 had a roster of around 40 boys and met at the American Legion Post on Tuesdays. None of the family appear on the roster after 1964—father Kenneth, sons Richard or Jim.

An examination of the hat itself revealed Kenneth’s initials K.E.D. on the sweatband, the logo of the Boy Scouts of America and the manufacturer’s mark of Sigmund Eisner Co., Red Hook, N.J. National Outfitter from 1910-1932. The Sigmund Eisner Co. was the official manufacturers of Boy Scout, Army, and National Guard uniforms and the supplier of Troop 1 Unadilla’s first uniform in 1910, essentially a boy-sized version of the doughboy uniform the company supplied the U.S. Army.

This hat-in-hand, so to speak, appeared to be similar to Eisner’s No. 503 17 oz. Regulation Scout Hat, but made of lighter-weight (4.1 oz.) olive drab felt, with a grommet ventilated crown, two grommets on the brim to let the shoestring chinstrap pass through, an olive drab grosgrain ribbon band and three rows of brown stitching along the rim. A 1916 Scouting catalog listed an Eisner Regulation Scout Hat as costing all of $1.90 but Kenneth’s hat has some earmarks of a hat made in the late 20s or 30s. –less of a peaked crown, ribbon instead of the leather band and machine stitching on the brim. That this could be the hat that Kenneth wore in his own youth is collaborated by his also-donated personal Handbook for Boys that shows on the My Scout History page he was a new Tenderfoot Scout in 1930, just two years before Eisner’s was out of the Scout uniform business. Along the way, someone, perhaps Kenneth himself, had replaced the original detachable lace ties with a silver and brown woven lanyard style chinstrap.

We quickly learned that you need a light hand and work carefully if we wanted to restore a felt hat that is antique or expensive or if it had sentimental value. What this particular Boy Scout campaign hat was short on in antiquity or cost, it certainly made up long on sentimental value. This “lid” (the military term is "cover") sat on the head of a Boy Scout who could look back almost to the founding of our venerable troop in 1910, and as an adult Scouter look forward to the 50th Anniversary of BSA in 1960. By some small miracle it fell in our hands 50 years later after a last minute rescue from oblivion during the year when the BSA and our troop are celebrating their 100th anniversary. We think it deserves a chance at restoration to take a valued place in our exhibits that tell the story of oldest continually chartered Boy Scout troop in the nation.

We began by brushing the hat with a soft-bristle hat brush to remove any loose dirt and dust from its 50 year stay in a closet and recent trip to the dumper. Fortunately, the sweat band inside was not badly stained and there was only minor damage by insects along the underside of the brim. Other than being crushed nearly flat and wadded into a rough ball, the hat was in remarkably good condition. We first gently brushed the crown and brim counterclockwise, and then brushed the top of the hat toward the back to loosen debris and lift the nap of the felt.

We then removed a couple stubborn lint or fuzz balls with painter’s tape and used a small car vacuum cleaner with a brush head to clean out around the inside of the thin leather sweat band. We gradually reshaped the crown by first using steam from a steam iron to make the hat soft and pliable, then opening up the crown and putting the dimples back in the right places with our fingers. We reshaped the flat brim by pressing it flat with a medium warm iron over a damp towel on the ironing board. We did not have a hat form so we wadded up some absorbent paper toweling to fill the crown and dried the hat over a plastic coffee can overnight.We next sprayed on a hat-stiffener product especially made for felt hats to allow it to keep its shape without residue. We had been told not to use spray laundry starch or hairspray that can cause build up and residue over time, so we went looking on the internet to find a hat care product specifically made for stiffening felt hats. We found at Pete’s Western Wear Store a product called Scout Felt Hat Stiffener (Go figure—how could we go wrong with a product named Scout Felt Hat Stiffener?) for $10.95 that restored the hat’s body and shape without affecting its texture, tone, or color. We also ordered the companion Scout Felt Hat Cleaner For Dark Colored Hats at $7.99, although our campaigner didn’t require much cleaning. "http://www.petestown.com

Many of the vintage felt items Troop 1’s Boy Scout Museum receives— felt patches, wool uniforms, pennants and campaign hats—have moth holes or pin holes. Sometimes there is nothing that can be done, other than dry cleaning or fumigating to prevent any further infestation. (For example, the 1935 and 1937 felt National Jamboree patches are notorious for being eaten right down to their gauze backing material and yet still go for relatively high prices on eBay.)

We have seen some real magic done by utilizing a sharp pin to work the existing material into the hole. Pinning takes some patience and a steady hand but you can improve the appearance of a mothy Scout hat by teasing some of the surrounding felt into the hole like a woolly crack filler. A little steam from an iron and a shot of stiffener before pressing with the iron will make the hole nearly invisible.

We conclude this essay with a little information on the Campaign Hat (or "Smokey Bear Hat," but that is another story!) and its association with the Boy Scouts:

Baden-Powell was British, but picked up the habit of wearing a Stetson campaign hat and kerchief for the first time in 1896 in Africa during the Second Matabele War. It was during this time that Baden-Powell, already a cavalryman, was befriended by the celebrated American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who favored the campaign hat. In the African hills it was Burnham who first introduced Baden-Powell to the ways and methods of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and taught him woodcraft (better known today as Scoutcraft). When Baden-Powell first re-wrote his handbook "Scouting for the Army" into "Scouting for Boys" he included sketches of boys as "scouts" wearing the campaign hat.

(Above right) Frederick Russell Burnham, American military scout and friend of Baden-Powell during the African Second Metabele War favored the campaign hat.

An excellent reference on the construction and use of the military campaign hat is at Doughboy Central, http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/camph.htm and Wikipeida has a good intro to the use of the campaign hat in Scouting at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_hat#BoyScouts"

Donald Tuttle, Troop 1 BSA Unadilla Historian

Curtis Ballard Album Photos of Long Island Roosevelt Pilgrimage in 1933

Ray Ballard of Sidney, NY recently showed us a family photo album of his father's, Curtis Ballard, with some pictures of his father and Daniel Carter Beard at some Long Island Boy Scout event in the 1930s. A little detective work revealed his father was present at an annual Theodore Roosevelt Pilgrimage event in Oyster Bay, NY, probably around October 20 of 1933, the anniversary of Roosevelt's death in 1919. Many of the photos show "Uncle Dan" Beard and other buckskinned dignitaries ready to march to the grave site of the 26th President, columns of marching Scouts waving American flags, and a group of boys in full Indian regalia, several of which I have used to illustrate the blog article Daniel Carter Beard and the Theodore Roosevelt Pilgrimage posted below. One picture shows Curtis in a suit standing next to the grizzled National Commissioner.

Another related item, a 40th Crusade felt patch, a souvenir of the 1949 Pilgrimage to Roosevelt's grave, showed up recently in a collection of 1940s and 1950s patches donated to the Unadilla Boy Scout Museum. Collectors of Roosevelt memorabilia are familiar with buttons marking various years of this event but this little felt patch is unusual.

Daniel Carter Beard and His Annual Pilgrimage to Theodore Roosevelt’s Grave.

Although Theodore Roosevelt was no longer president of the United States when the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910, he was an ardent booster of the organization. He was a troop committeeman of Troop 39 in Oyster Bay New York, and first council commissioner of Nassau County Council. As a former president, he was elected honorary vice president of the Boy Scouts of America. Roosevelt was the first and only man designated as Chief Scout Citizen.

“More and more I have grown to believe in the Boy Scout movement. I regard it as one of the movements most full of promise for the future here in America. The Boy Scout movement is distinctly an asset to our country for the development of efficiency, virility, and good citizenship. It is essential that its leaders be men of strong, wholesome character; of unmistakable devotion to our country, its customs and ideals, as well as in soul and by law citizens thereof, whose wholehearted loyalty is given to this nation and to this nation alone.”

For many years after his death in 1919, Scouts planted Roosevelt memorial trees and several thousand Scouts and leaders in the area made annual pilgrimages to his Long Island grave in the Young’s Memorial Cemetery of Oyster Bay. Organized under the leadership of “Colonel” Daniel Beard, National Boy Scout Commissioner and old friend of the late president, the Roosevelt Pilgrimage quickly became a spectacular and colorful annual event.

The first pilgrimage was conducted in October 1920 by National Commissioner Beard and National Office officials with the help of about 50 Nassau County Council Scouts. The next year Beard saw to it that the solemn pilgrimage took on more airs of a circus involving Scouts from all parts of Long Island, New Jersey, Brooklyn and Manhattan, men of the Camp Fire Club of America, various officials in buckskin suits, Canadian Mounties, and blooded Indian chiefs from the Ohlyea Sioux with the regalia of their tribe, “the feathers of their hats reaching the ground.” Led by a band, the boys marched to the cemetery followed by hundreds of spectators, and after a short address by Beard telling of Roosevelt’s Americanism and his pleasure at being made honorary Chief Scout Citizen of the Scouts, the band played the “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the scouts laid wreaths at the foot of Roosevelt’s tombstone. The Scout Oath was then repeated and at its conclusion Colonel Beard, kneeling, placed his wreath on the grave while the Scouts and hundreds of spectators knelt in a brief silent prayer.

The caption of a 1933 press photograph read, "Daniel Carter Beard, picturesque National Scout Commissioner of the Boy Scouts of America, about to place the wreath on the grave of former President Theodore Roosevelt, as some of the five thousand Scouts who paid their 14th annual pilgrimage to the grave today, October 21st, look on. The parade of Scouts from the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania started from the High School and ended at the grave here."

By 1936, the event had mushroomed into a stirring sight of a parade march of more than 5,000 Scouts, BSA officials, Col. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of Theodore Roosevelt, members of the Explorer’s Club, the Buckskin Men, the Campfire Club, the Range Riders of the West, many of them friends of the late President. Following the placing of the National Council wreath on the grave, “Uncle Dan” and BSA President Walter M. Head, Col. Roosevelt, and the veteran outdoorsmen reviewed the Scouts as each contingent came to a salute and placed their wreaths on the gate of the family plot where the former president was buried.An airplane flying low overhead dropped rose petals on the grave. During the “Ceremony of Roses” three Scouts tossed rose petals in the air as the names of Scout leaders who had recently passed away were called. Following the National Commissioner’s address, the ceremony came to a close, with four buglers blowing the Church Call, and a fifth bugler blowing “Taps.” [1]

By 1939, the entourage had swelled to 6,000 Scouts from five states, led by a mostly now propped-up 89-year old Dan Beard, who continued to lead the pilgrimage to the Oyster Bay shrine. [2]




President Roosevelt’s dictum of the strenuous life strongly appealed to Uncle Dan and in each annual address, he always quoted the late President on his doctrine of a vigorous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and intellectual strife; to preach that the highest form of success, which comes, not to the man who desires easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. In his own words during an interview in 1941, just 10 days before his 90th birthday, Beard remarked:

“As I have said, Theodore Roosevelt was associated intimately with us when we were organizing the Scouts. He was always keenly interested. I never had to explain to him any ideas of a robust outdoor training for boys. They were his ideas also. Just before the end of his life we tried to get him to take the head of the Scout movement. He agreed, but the fates ruled otherwise. In place of saluting him as our living leader I have ever since led the annual pilgrimage of thousands of Boy Scouts to the simple grave at Oyster Bay, where our great President and my beloved friend rests. Each year we place a wreath by the headstone. In addition to the thousands of boys, my old companions of the Camp Fire Club, the original Buckskin Men, always accompany me, their ranks thinning as the years pass but their courage unimpaired. Each year as I make the short address I think how sadly we miss that loyal American, Theodore Roosevelt.” [3]

The Theodore Roosevelt Council and the Sagamore Service Troop (a group of trained adult leaders in the T.R. Council organized in 1923 to support the council’s programs) held a 150th Birthday Anniversary in 2008, with a visit to the Young’s Cemetery gravesite. Another annual Roosevelt Pilgrimage is now sponsored by The Theodore Roosevelt Association, a not-for-profit group that promotes a greater appreciation of the 26^th President through research, seminars and member programs. The latest pilgrimage held in 2009 included a special Presidential Wreath sent from the White House, U.S. Navy representatives, veterans, Cub Scouts and NE Region BSA officials, school children, dignitaries, and representatives from Sagamore Hill.

[1] Boys’ Life, The Scout World by Chief Scout Executive James E. West, December issue, 1936
[2] Special to the New York Times, Times World Wide,Sunday.
[3] Quoted on the Scouting website, The Inquiry Net, www.inquiry.net

Hugh N. Collins, Troop 1 Scout (1947-1951)

A box of Scout memorabilia donated to our Troop 1 BSA Unadilla Boy Scout Museum recently at first glance didn’t hold much of interest. The short inventory included two Cub Scout membership cards (1947-1949), a stamped metal Cub Scout neckerchief slide and another leather neckerchief slide embossed B.S.A. CRUMHORN MOUNTAIN 1950. Three Boy Scout membership cards (1949-1951), a Handbook for Boys (fifth edition-June 1948)—all spoke of the typical stuff of a young boy’s hike along the Trail of Scouting in the late 1940s and 1950s. Two boys’ novels, The Banner Scouts On A Tour by “Professor” George Warren and The Boy Scouts in Camp by George Dunston, silently spoke of his reading interests. A 1950s-style aluminum cook kit, a knife-fork-spoon set stamped “stainless steel Japan” and a little aluminum B.S.A. Bantam Lite mini-flashlight were all indicative of his personal camping gear of the time.

We were somewhat puzzled by a painted tuna-fish can and wood handle “liberty torch” until we remembered the National BSA theme in 1950 was "Strengthen The Arm of Liberty” This item might have been a handmade prop for a den skit at a pack meeting.

The box also contained Hugh’s 1948 Certificate of Completion in the Unadilla 4H Rotary Poultry Club for raising poultry, a pair of tickets for the 1950 New Mexico vs. Army game at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and two little carved wooden plaques—one of a duck and the other of what might be a cowboy hat. The rank and membership cards, the handbook, and many of the other items are marked “Hugh N. Collins, 34 Fellows Street, Unadilla, NY, Troop #1." A check of the Troop 1 Book of Names shows Hugh first joined the troop in 1949 (after two years as a Cub Scout in Pack 1) when his father Ernest M. Collins became the Scoutmaster (and explains why a small folder with a card detailing “The Scoutmaster’s Job” was also found in the box.) Hugh continued with the troop through 1951 when he reached 2nd class. But his father was replaced as Scoutmaster that year by Arthur Sommers, who was Assistant Scoutmaster the previous year. Hugh and his father do not appear in Troop 1 records after 1951.

The vast bulk of Scouting items, like most of Hugh’s items, exist to recognize a Scout for his accomplishments in Scoutcraft, to engender feelings of kinship with other Scouts similarly outfitted, and to assist in the practice of his or her Scouting. Everything pertaining to Scouting can be collected—cloth and metal insignia, uniforms and awards, and extends to handbooks and advancement pamphlets, postage stamps, magazines, camping equipment issued by a national Scout organization, photographs, coffee mugs, and other items—but we think the items that tell a story are the most interesting.

Our museum houses and displays Scouting items that chronicle the hundred year story of Scouting in Unadilla to the members of our troop and preserve our legacy for museum visitors in the future. None of Hugh’s items are especially valuable as collectibles, but in the story they tell of one young Unadilla Scout’s experience in “America’s Centennial Boy Scout Troop,” they are priceless.

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Our thanks go to Carl Staff and his wife for donating Hugh Collins’ Scout items to the Unadilla Troop 1 Museum. Donald Tuttle, Troop 1 Historian. 04.02.10