Sophie Wirth Camp scrapbooks

Collection

Identifier: umja0068

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists entirely of oversized scrapbooks that include photographs and various ephemera pasted to the pages. Materials date between 1933 and 1939.

Dates

Creation: 1933-1939

Conditions Governing Access

Open for use in the Elmer L. Andersen Library reading room.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection may be protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials. Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provision of the copyright law.

Biographical / Historical

Sophie Wirth Camp, located in White Bear Lake, was the first Jewish camp in Minnesota. It was open from 1911 to 1943 and was sponsored by the St. Paul Council of Jewish Women. As the first kosher camp in the northwest, it was original named the Lake Rest Vacation Home camp; when the camp was consolidated in 1923 by Neighborhood House, the named was changed to Camp Sophie Wirth in honor of Neighborhood House's founder. Children were sent to Sophie Wirth for learning the Jewish faith, but also for fun and recreation, and often for their health, as good nutrition was emphasized for underweight children. Costs were kept down with National Council for Jewish Women subsidies, allowing low income children and their mothers a week of respite from heat and city life.