The Duty of the Historian

"Historian" is a weighty word. It reminds one of musty libraries, dusty museums, and corduroy jackets. However, that is not all that the word should convey. In fact, everyone who dons historical clothing, drives an old car, camps in the old style, and tells others about what the past was like is, in fact, an historian. However, as they say, with great power comes great responsibility, so what IS the responsibility of an historian?

Integrity is the watchword of the historian. History must be presented as accurately as possible. We can learn a lot from the past, but we have to sift through our own bias as well as the bias of the past. History is written by the victors, so this can make it extremely difficult to determine the stories of the underdogs of the past. Through this short article, I hope to give you some basic pointers on how to make your living history presentation the best that it possibly can be.

For the sake of ease of my writing and your reading, I will restrict this to particularly the genre of living history as it pertains to classic camping, historic motor camping, and the golden age of the classic sportsman. Of course, the methods described here can certainly be used in any genre of the hobby, but there develops a need to delve deep into complicated world issues when wars and military action comes into play. We will entirely dispense with that for the sake of this article.

The first thing any living historian should do is achieve a decent understanding of the period and what is leading to this particular historical moment? If we take the golden age of sportsmanship into consideration, we will find that the long-term effects of industrialization, westward expansion, and the period of the American Civil War has resulted in a United States that is no longer in a state of constant conflict with each other, foreign colonial or neighboring powers, or with indigenous people. By the 1890s, it is no longer necessary to hunt for food to supply outposts and villages. It is no longer necessary to camp out for the sake of migration or military campaigns. As a result, these activities begin to take on a more "sporting" or entertainment aspect. Of course, hunting has been a hobby of the wealthy for centuries by this point, but now we begin to see the working class, or new "middle class" begin to take these expeditions.

During the following two decades, we see the development of the National Parks system and the growth and increasing affordability of the automobile. We also see labor reforms that result in the creation of shorter working hours and in some cases, even vacation time for employees. The combination of new things to see, a faster and more comfortable way to see them, and personal time to be able to travel resulted in the largest period of personal outdoor recreation the U.S. has seen, before or since. So, now we understand why this happened. Let's begin to look at how it happened!

To fully understand how it was done, we have to look to the original resource documents. Fortunately, for this period there is an absolute deluge of information. In fact, there is far more information available for this period than any other genre of reenacting prior to this era. Not only do we have the usual journals, diaries, extant artifacts, and photographs, but we also have the added advantage of books written in the period on the subject, and even film footage from this period. Furthermore, the introduction of the Kodak Brownie camera in February 1900, an easy-to-use and affordable film camera, made it possible for us to have extensive photographs, not just of formal setting, but candid moments on the vacations of everyday folks. Furthermore, the recentness of this period to our own (90-135 years ago) means that there are far more original artifacts to examine and view. As time progresses, this will become less, so it is important that we are good stewards of the artifacts we hold. During the dawn of American Civil War reenacting in the 1960s and 70s, original Civil War uniforms were available and affordable, and many reenactors used them for events. Nowadays, these uniforms are so rare, we would never consider using them afield today. We should keep this in mind when it comes to taking original 1920s clothing and other fragile gear into the field.

People often enjoy putting on the clothing of the past, but it is important to remember that once these things are lost or destroyed, they are gone forever.

The next important thing to remember is that we are 21st century people with 100 years of knowledge and technological advancement over the 20th century people we wish to portray. As a result, we have to be careful to try to keep our modern bias in check. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking "if I can imagine how to do this, surely they could too." This inevitably leads to the fallacy of "if they'd had it, they'd have used it." This is inherently wrong and puts 21st century thoughts into our 20th century heads. We can certainly imagine that someone in 1912 could have seen a garden hammock and a canvas wall tent and dreamed up the idea of a Vietnam War era tent hammock for camping. However, the key point to remember is that they didn't. There is not one shred of historical evidence for an item like that existing in photographs, sporting goods catalogs, or camping manuals of the period. Sometimes a great idea just wasn't thought of yet. This is the difference between historical re-creation and cosplay. The reenactor is looking to "time travel", essentially giving a tiny glimpse into what life was actually like. The cosplayer is looking to have a good time in funny clothes and doesn't care about how accurate they are. Unfortunately, the general public can't tell the difference, so if you're attending an event, or making a presentation where the end goal is to educate about the past, cosplay items, essentially fantasies, absolutely do not belong. When you attend such an event in clothing that appears similar to what the reenactors are wearing, you are taking on the role of the living historian, and therefore now have a duty to present the story as accurately as possible.

Vintage catalogs are another great resource for information.

When researching the period, there is a wealth of information available. To get you on the right track, here are some excellent resources you should consider exploring. Many of these are available online as digital documents for free. You can also easily find affordable reprints as well.

Original photographs: These are as easy as a Google search. However, the researcher must be aware that there is an increasing prevalence of AI fakes popping up all over. It is a good idea to educate yourself on how to spot these fakes and discern them from original photos.

Vintage Catalogs: Catalogs from companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch, New York Sporting Goods, Iver Johnson, and even Sears & Roebuck are fantastic resources. You will clearly see what kind of equipment and clothing was available to the public at that time, and you can even see the pricing, which helps determine whether it was something the average person might carry, or if it was something a more affluent camper might carry.

DIY Books From The Period: There are many great titles that were written in the period that describe what you should do as you begin your outdoors adventure. These contain great suggestions and advice, plus descriptions of gear, clothing, and equipment and where to acquire it (in that time period). Some books I can recommend are "Motor Camping" by Long and Long, "The Motor Camping Book" by Elon Jessup, "Camping and Woodcraft" by Horace Kephart, "Woodcraft and Indian Lore" by Ernest Seton, and "Woodcraft and Camping" by G.W. Sears (Nessmuk).

Adventure Journals: Many of these intrepid vacationers wrote journals about their experiences. Some were published right away, while others languished for 100 years before finally being unleashed to the public. Here are a few I can recommend: "Motor Camping On Western Trails" by Melville Ferguson, "The Auto Gypsies" by William Purser and Fred Noegle, Jr, and any number of the books written by John Muir or Theodore Roosevelt, among many others.

Video Footage: There are a decent number of video clips available on the internet that pertain to the period and the topic. Many of these are accessible on YouTube or the Internet Archive. You can find a 1920 Fox Hunt, a 1920s British Boy's Summer Camp, 1920s Beach Outings, a 1930s Michigan Deer Camp, various scenes from 1920s and 30s Boy Scout Camps, plus government films of the 1920s and 30s, such as this one about Regulated Deer Hunting.

Now that you have an idea of how historical research is done, hopefully you also have an understanding if the effort and devotion that we put into every single product we produce for Logsdon & Co. Regardless of what you are trying to re-create, we have the very best quality historical outdoor gear, made to the highest standards of authenticity and quality, priced affordably to get you started! Lets hit the woods together!