Vintage Pictures Documenting American Campers from the 1940s

Summer camp became an American institution in the aftermath of World War I. It evolved within a society that was concerned with children and believed in reform.

In the early 1920s, social commentators and ordinary people claimed that “crass materialism” and “cheap amusements” were turning American youth into juvenile delinquents. These claims echoed throughout the decade and were augmented with a fear of “idle hands” and “latchkey children” during the Great Depression and World War II.

(Photos by Allan Grant)