Greater New York YMCA Camping Services records

Collection

Identifier: Y.GNY.9

Staff Only

SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION

The Camping Services records of the YMCA of Greater New York consist of planning materials and reports, primarily from the 1960's and 1970's; brochures and flyers, some from the period 1900-1910, with the majority from the 1970's and 1980's; annual reports from the early 1960's; material from individual camps covering the period 1903 through the 1980's; general correspondence, primarily about finances and property, from the 1950's and 1970's; and Board of Managers and Camping Services Council minutes from scattered years from 1952 through 199, and in digital form for 2014 and 2017.

Dates

Creation: 1905-2017

Creator

YMCA of Greater New York. Camping Services. (Organization)
New York YMCA Camp (Organization)

Language of Materials

English

Use of Materials:

This collection is 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 the necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials.

HISTORY OF YMCA OF GREATER NEW YORK CAMPING SERVICES

YMCA camping in the United States is acknowledged to have begun in New York City. The Brooklyn YMCA took boys on a camping trip in 1881. Sumner F. Dudley, known as the father of organized camping, took a group of boys for an eight-day camping trip to Poughkeepsie in 1885. By 1903, camps in Putnam County and elsewhere served more than 8,000 campers from the New York and Brooklyn Associations. By 1922, there were six camps operated by specific branches: Greenkill, near Kingston, New York, operated by the West Side Branch; Camp Talcott, run by the Bronx Union branch; Camp Glenwood, located in New Jersey and operated by the Twenty-third Street Branch; Camp Harlem, run by the Harlem branch; Camp Oscawana, near Peekskill, New York and operated by the French Branch. In addition to these camps run by individual city branches, the Association also operated Camp Crumbie, near Kent, Connecticut.

Around 1930, a committee was established to oversee camping operations. This committee was replaced in 1945 by the newly-created Camping and Outing Branch of the New York YMCA. In 1968 oversight of camping operations was placed with the Camping Services Department within the administration of the New York YMCA. In 1972 camping oversight was shared with the YWCA through the joint YMCA-YWCA Camping Services. These and other organizational changes reflect efforts of the camping operations within the YMCA to position themselves to deliver effective services to a changing urban population. Through the years, the camping programs evolved to meet the needs of New York children. For example, Camp Greenkill, one of the Huguenot Camps in the Hudson River Valley, became an environmental education camp around 1980.

In the 1970s, the YMCA began to place more emphasis on day camps, reflecting societal changes which encouraged the introduction of all day structured programs close to home. Evaluation of camping programs began to include review of camp counselor qualifications along with rating of buildings, grounds, and programs.

(Information taken from The YMCA at 150: A History of the YMCA of Greater New York, 1852-2002 by Pamela Bayless, 2002; and from An Event on Mercer Street, by Terry Donoghue, 1951; and from typed notes on the history of YMCA of Greater New York camping by G.S. Bilheimer and others, 1939, in the collection. )

Extent

4.6 Cubic Feet (14 boxes )

13.5 Megabytes (10 files)

3 films

Additional Description

Abstract

Collected minutes, planning documents, correspondence about property and budgets, brochures and flyers, and materials from individual camps run by the YMCA of Greater New York.