By the end of World War I, according to Smith, summer camp had evolved “from a loosely organized collective of camps for very poor or very well-to-do children into a nationally recognized youth-serving institution.” At the turn of the 20th century, there had been fewer than 100 summer camps. By 1918, there were more than 1,000.
During the years between the two world wars, as anxieties over the rise of fascism suffused the adult world, advocates began to see summer camp as a way to instill the principles of democratic cooperation into the next generation. H.W. Gibson, a prominent naturalist and former Gunnery camper, argued camp should lead to the “development of a better citizenship and the kind of character that will continue to produce when campers return to their homes and their schools and their communities.”
When WWII began, it was only natural that campers would contribute to the war effort, which they did through Victory gardens or by volunteering on farms that were short on labor. A June 1942 Camping Magazine article suggested some new activities for campers, including “coordinating a camp defense unit,” and “making a list of things you might want to do with your leisure time in a foxhole on the Bataan Peninsula.” Meanwhile, the American Camping Association pledged to prioritize “adolescent fitness for combat,” says Smith.
In the wake of the war, however, American summer camp morphed into the recreational version we recognize today, where kids practiced assembling s’mores, not a mobile defense unit.
“Many psychologists and youth workers feared the experience of growing up during WWII had produced a generation of troubled, insecure youth,” says Smith. Increasingly during the 50s and 60s, when Smith says “a significant number of kids experienced camp in some way,” parents hoped the experience could provide a refuge for children’s innocence instead of a training ground for soldiers, citizens, or even self-sufficient adults.
America’s summer camps have reflected other social and cultural trends. In the first decades of the 20th century, during the Progressive Era, camps for marginalized groups of kids had begun to appear, including Massachusetts’ Camp Atwater, the first summer camp for Black children. Summer camps in much of the country would remain segregated, however, for another half century.