 The collection thus covers the period during which the Boy Scouts of America grew up, so to speak. Much of the memorabilia reveals this growth. The earliest items in the collection show that the organization made somewhat of a hasty entrance in 1910. The first handbook, for example, pictured left, was rewritten little more than a year after it was first published.
The earliest memorabilia also tends to be less formal and less sophisticated, due to the small size of the BSA at the time. Note, for example, that the earliest Scoutmaster certificates, such as this one from 1910, were very plain and hand numbered. Also, the Boy Scouts sold only a handful of official items at this time (real growth in this area would not occur until the 1920s),  and even many of the awards Scouts earned were local (other than rank and merit badges), especially in the early years, like the 1911 signaling ribbon pictured on the left. It was only over the course of the decade that the Boy Scouts gradually developed more official and more formal forms recognition.
Another interesting characteristic of Boy Scouting during the 1910s was that it took people awhile to figure out exactly what the Boy Scouts were about. Today we think of the Boy Scouts as an organization, a single entity with a single identity, but that was not the case 100 years ago. Boy Scouting was more of an idea, and it was one that many people attempted to promote, in their own way. There were actually many Boy Scout organizations during the early years. Although the Boy Scouts of America was the clear leader from the beginning, it was years before these organizations either disbanded or merged with the BSA. This sheet music for the United States Boy Scout (a competing organization), pictured on the right, for example, was published in 1917.  Many people also attempted to capitalize on the popularity of the Scouting idea, and they were not always consistent with one another, or with the image the BSA was trying to promote. The "Boy Scout" pistol on the left, for example, directly undermines the many attempts the BSA made during the decade to show the American people that they did not support violence or militarism. These consumer goods were extremely common during the first half of the 1910s, and, again, it took years before they disappeared from the field.
These are only a few of the many themes that can be discovered about Boy Scouting in America during the 1910s by studying the items in the museum. I encourage you to discover some of the others yourself. Or, simply browse the galleries an item at a time, appreciating each for its own unique story, a piece independent of the larger puzzle from which it was taken. You might spend a moment enjoying one of Norman Rockwell’s first works of art on the cover of an early Boys’ Life magazine (he began his career as the magazine's art director when he was only a teenager), like the 1915 issue pictured on the right. Whether you spend a few minutes or many hours here, I hope that when you leave you take away a better understanding of, and a deeper appreciation for, the rich and interesting history of Boy Scouting in America.
Click On the Scout Signaling "BSA" to Return to www.BoyScoutStuff.com
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