Scan - Close to Nature
Added 2021-01-03 23:29:53 +0000 UTCThis particular scan Mae found fun to thumb through. Enjoy all the different styles of houses and tents that were designed to keep you close to nature.
Comments
As a Model T owner (1912 Torpedo, built 3 months after the Titanic sunk), I have a huge interest in autocamping. This scan alone is the main reason I increased my support to the $5/month level. Check out my car here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKJqCE_hqlH/
Bill Gall
2021-01-19 15:40:50 +0000 UTCoh nice!
C&Rsenal
2021-01-12 04:12:09 +0000 UTCrad attic
C&Rsenal
2021-01-12 04:10:48 +0000 UTCSome days... but not most.
C&Rsenal
2021-01-12 04:10:11 +0000 UTCIt's interesting to realize "glamping" was that old.
C&Rsenal
2021-01-12 04:09:57 +0000 UTCI never knew about the charcoal. Thanks!
C&Rsenal
2021-01-12 04:09:37 +0000 UTCAnd the USA has a an invent and sell hard spirit as well. I suspect the person behind Colfax had, or bought, a good idea; sold it as camping; but made the real money from cheap; off grade; housing. Most of the pictures and articles are of settlements, not camps; & thanks to the Camping and Woodcraft book I know a permanent camp aint a camp. When your tent's floor weighs 90lbs you aint hiking far. This is automobile America starting to rev up; and this catalog shows the start of mobile home America rather than wilderness USA. You can just see Lurleen Lumpkin's great granny in one of these tornado fresh tents.
Bradwan
2021-01-05 22:15:35 +0000 UTCI swear I've seen some of these building still in use in state parks and the like. I know for a fact that we're still building shelters that are very, very similar. Glamping has been around a LONG time. EDIT: Oh man there's stuff in there that I'd buy TODAY. A trunk-mounted chuck box for your car? Yes Please. Self-Contained Foldy-uppy bathtub? SOLD Also, I wish cars still had running boards.
Christopher Dooley
2021-01-05 16:15:08 +0000 UTCI suspect its that american settler spirit. Go find some wilderness, and tame it. For better or worse.
Gage
2021-01-05 04:24:08 +0000 UTCWhen I was in boy scouts, we joked that the tents they gave us dated from the American Civil war. I was really surprised to see some of that same style of equipment (that we used) in the catalogue! The weird part was alot of that stuff was more advanced camping equipment than we ever had! And that was 6 years ago.
Gage
2021-01-05 04:21:56 +0000 UTCThis was great. I love all the things americans were doing with canvas in the early 1900s, it was an interesting evolution of campaign furniture and accoutrement. You could order everything from folding boats to housing complexes.
Mr. Lee
2021-01-05 01:09:17 +0000 UTCI think the only items in the catalog that are still available are the Hudson Bay blankets.
Alden Skinner
2021-01-04 19:50:20 +0000 UTCPPS. The history of open air schools has a Wiki, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_air_school
Bradwan
2021-01-04 16:47:41 +0000 UTCPS. The Horace Kephart Camping and Woodcraft book Charles Adams mentions is here: https://archive.org/details/campingwoodcraft00kephrich
Bradwan
2021-01-04 16:43:48 +0000 UTCThe idea of getting close to nature by driving into it and then building a house strikes me as a bit bizarre. On the other hand some of them seem more substantial than some British houses put up during and after the last World War; and the city of Bradford had an open air school for children suffering from TB and other lung complaints from 1904 to 1939 so the idea that fresh air was good for you was widespread.
Bradwan
2021-01-04 16:39:33 +0000 UTCOur deer camp is a homemade canvas wall tent with barrel stove. It has served well for many hunts including waking up to it coated with 6 inches of snow. A Marble coat compass - newly purchased - always accompanies me afield should battery life or signal fail my phone GPS. Although a collector item, my hand me down Marbles osafety hatchet is too good to relegate as curio and my pup is currently esconced on a Hudson Bay 4 point blanket at home. Whether it is a hundred year old firearm or a piece of everyday or outdoor kit still working is a testament to the “tried and true”. Although the current Dietz lanterns imported from asia are only a shadow of the original my newly purchased Fuerhand lantern at bedside is every bit as good as the vintage one hanging out in the shop. The “automobile heaters” and other outdated curiousities are amusing to our high tech luxuries the recurring message of the essential restorative connection to nature is even more vital than ever!
Moos
2021-01-04 04:56:08 +0000 UTCThat is so damn awesome I love the old catalogs please keep them coming.
Mark D Booth
2021-01-04 04:43:28 +0000 UTCThe cover should be made into a poster
Zap Rowsdower
2021-01-04 01:16:49 +0000 UTCThe canvas tents/houses look like the type used extensively on Catalina Island, CA in the early 20th century. Many were left in place while more permanent structures were erected over them leaving the canvas sandwiched inside the walls of the new house.
Blake Kilpatrick
2021-01-04 00:46:15 +0000 UTCThe catalog is like looking at my grandparents attic.
Loren Watts
2021-01-04 00:44:36 +0000 UTCThanks Mae and Othias! Good to be reminded of the stuff that makes our life easy compared to "only" 100 years ago. Although it was simpler back then. Would you trade then for now?
John Fugedy
2021-01-04 00:27:17 +0000 UTCConsidering the time period some of those canvas buildings were pricey. Awesome download. Thanks, Mae and Othias.
Michael Baggott
2021-01-04 00:05:00 +0000 UTCCertainly is interesting. The idea of getting close to nature was really a creation of the new middle-class urban culture of the first years of the 1900s. We don’t think of it, but the majority of the US, especially those not in urbanized areas already lived ‘close to nature.’ You also might like to read or read again Horace Kepharts book, ‘Camping and Woodcraft’ particularly the ‘Camping’ section to get a real flavor of what these camping excursions entailed on a ‘how it’s done’ level. Also, if you inspect the ‘getting back to nature’ movement, Henry Ford was integral to this movement, and he was one of the co-inventors of commercially produced charcoal briquettes, which was considered easier than cutting firewood. Good post.
Charles Adams
2021-01-03 23:55:18 +0000 UTC
