Summer Camp

[Christmas Seals Camp of the Brooklyn Tuberculosis and Health Association], ca. 1925, v1973.5.494, v1973.5.497, v1973.5.499, v1973.5.500, v1973.5.504; Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service records ARC.129; Brooklyn Historical Society.

After spending four glorious days away from work in honor of our country’s Independence Day, I feel as though my independence has been shockingly cut off – especially by the air conditioning in the climate-controlled library, (we keep the temperature in the Othmer Library at a frosty 65 degrees to protect our archival treasures).  Therefore, I’m escaping to those languid days of summer camp as shown in these pictures – I was unable to choose just one.  Like many of you, my memories of summers away at camp warm me, although they were simultaneously harrowing and awesome.  There was that one camp where I was called “bush head” by a not so friendly fellow (I did not return the following summer).  Then there was the other camp where my moniker of “mop head” was given and accepted in a far more friendly sentiment.  I returned there for several years.  Amidst all the experiences good and bad, it’s the swimming hole, sailing, horse riding, mosquito bites (and  related bug juice), smelly tents, cold showers, and my name sewn in everything that I recall fondly.  They make me smile in a giggly way like the little girl in the front row drinking milk.

This collection of photographs comes from the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service records (ARC.129) now known as the Brooklyn Community Services.  The pictures above are a selection from the many documents showing the work of the Brooklyn Tuberculosis and Health Association.  CampBrooklyn was funded entirely by Christmas Seals and welcomed 600 undernourished children to camp where they slept in the open air, drank milk between meals, and splashed around in the swimming hole, returning to Brooklyn happier and healthier than when they arrived.

I know there are many Brooklyn children who are traveling daily to summer camps near and far, and to them I say, I am green (and still a little sunburnt) with envy.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our new website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Fri, 1:00-5:00 p.m.