Camping for Girls.
Norway, Maine: Published By Author, 1907. First Edition. Pictorial cover, b/w photos, 48pp. (pp. 9-16 repeated). Original Wrappers. Very Good condition. Very Scarce.
First book on outdoor camping written expressly for women by a little-known Maine poet and novelist. This long-forgotten, self-published book may have had a considerable impact on the birth of the girl's scouting movement in America. The author was a good friend and neighbor of mineralogist George Robley Howe, president of the Maine Academy of Sciences, who founded a boy's scouting group as early as the 1890s, which, in turn, led his wife, with Gregg's help, to organize a precursor of the Girls Scouts in Maine. The book may also have influenced educator Luther Gulick and his wife who, in 1912, founded the Camp Fire Girls - the first national, non-sectarian organization for girls in the US - at a summer camp at Lake Sebago, Maine, not far from Greggo's home.
RAISING THE PHYSICAL STANDARD OF WOMANHOOD. The author writes:
“0, girls, of both city and country, leave the small artificialities of life – leave all that tends to undermine your health, and lay the foundation for generations come. Strive to regain that lost strength and beauty which characterized those women of the past, who in America's great, unconquered forests, bravely fought, side by side with their brothers, to give us the freedom we now enjoy. Nothing is grander than a perfect woman!" (p.11)
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