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Spring

2019

Ancestral Outdoorsmen and Historical Hikes

Published
2019-02-28

Abstract

This article challenges the historiographical interpretation that most American hiking and wilderness enthusiasts in the early twentieth century embraced a Romantic, virgin image of nature devoid of other human labor and history. These four Boy Scout sketches and photographs highlight the pervasive presence of human evolution and history in popular nature and hiking ideology as well as practices. Early Scouts believed that nature was filled with the spirits of scout ancestors and their labors, and thus offered boys a vital arena for developing into responsible adults and involved citizens.