This is likely the first equipment “catalog” for the Boy Scouts of America circa 1910. Actually it is a small eight page pamphlet. What is interesting is that it shows the first rank badges that are very much modeled off of the English ranks. This was before star, life or eagle ranks even existed.

Now adjusting for inflation, a uniform shirt that cost a $1.35 back in 1910 would be $43.20 today. Today’s shirts cost $40 so uniforming for Scouts has increased basically in line with inflation. (We won’t go into quality differences between the shirts though and that the shirts were USA made.)

All of the rank badges were pins and not cloth. Also, the leader insignia was hat plumes to be worn with the campaign-style hat.

We did an interview with senior collector Michael Feigenbaum who researched and documented the differences in these badges from their British counter parts. The video can be seen on YouTube here.

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The Silver Buffalo and Silver Antelope awards were the first outstanding service awards issued by the BSA. They were first issued in 1926 and pre-date the Silver Beaver by five years.

This is not much of a collected area because they so seldom surface. The medals have been more documented than the certificates. We do though have a couple of them and thought we would share. The oldest certificate we have is from 1976 for Milton Caniff (of “Terry and the Pirates” cartoon fame).

A more recent one we have is for President Ronald Reagan. Obviously the Honorary President did not sign this certificate as he was the Honorary President at the time.

At the 2020 Dallas Trade-o-ree I shot an interview with BSA graphic artist Michael Feigenbaum. In one of them, we talked about the work he did in re-designing the recognition certificates.

And no where near the same level of significance, here is an example of a modern Silver Antelope certificate.

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Before there were smart phones we had digital cameras. Before digital cameras were film cameras (those too young to have not seen film – it was called that because because pictures were captured on a physical media). Before film, and now we’re outside of my era, there were glass slides that held pictures that could be shown.

Reaching out to the web:

” The lantern slide has its origins in 17th century optical viewing devices which came to be known as “magic lanterns.” The earliest slides for magic lanterns consisted of hand-painted images on glass, projected by itinerant showmen telling stories about the images that were projected….” Source: Magic Lantern Slide Society

Again, pre-dating me, when these first came out there were no movie screens so seeing pictures from elsewhere around the world was quite a novelty and experience. They were generally phased out by the 1940s/1950s as they were replaced by the acetate 35mm film slides.

There exist glass lantern slides for Scouts. One such set we acquired when we bought the Buffalo Scout Museum of Paul and Diana Freitag. Paul had created a wonderful display box of a set he aquired that the council, at the time, was throwing out. We donated the slide display to the Council. It is on display at their council headquarters. It covers the first 25 years of the council including a picture of when Baden-Powell visited the council as well as the early days of Camp Scouthaven. Here’s a quick video we shot of the display.

We recently got in a complete Scout slide set out of Chicago circa 1918 from the John Vacca estate. Some are in black and white but many are in color which again was rare for this era. Here are scans for a few of them.

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Merit badges are among the earliest badges issued by the Scouts. The program behind these, advancement and recognition, have proven to be one of the most impactful within Scouting. Actually the Scouts figured out ‘gameification’ desire of young kids from the beginning and clearly before video games were even a concept. Youth like, and need, recognition for accomplishments.

BSA Scouting’s first merit badges were issued on square khaki cloth from 1911 to 1933. Given the long duration of usage and being implemented near the founding, collectors have documented varieties that were issued. A key group of these the hobby calls “Teens era” due to confirmation from the 1914 Boy Scout calendar that shows all of the merit badges at that time. We have an original in our archives and think collectors might enjoy seeing it so we are posting here.

As this was to be used starting in January, 2014 it was actually produced sometime in the fall of 2013 and was advertised as being available in the December Scouting catalog. The layout includes all of the merit badges available at that time but cut down to round (the border embroidery.)

Almost all have differences from later issues. Some may be minor such as in Dairying (churn is wider), Painting (brush is wider) or Blacksmithing (red “lip” at base). Some may be subtle such as Surveying (three legs to telescope) or Automobiling (four valves) to dramatic differences such as Lifesaving (all white buoy) or Seamanship (all black anchor). The calendar also pictures some of the rarest merit badges, besides the black anchor Seamanship, such as Invention (10 or so issued) or Stalking with oak leaf design.

Going through these, can you find all of the differences? Fred Duersch, Jr. in his book Merit Badge Field Guide, did a great job in documenting them.

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STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is all the rage these days by parents for their kids. Although the kids are liking it too when it is made fun (think robotics contests and such). Well the Scouts have been doing “STEM” before it was called that.

I got into a discussion recently with a Scouting alumni friend Daniel Feigelson (also an Eagle Scout, former OA Section Chief, former National Conference Vice Chief, etc…) about this and mentioned that the Scouts used to have the Invention merit badge. He didn’t know that but did some digging and wrote a nice post about the current Inventing merit badge (See Inventing Merit Badge blog post.)

I said I’d track down the requirements and finally got a “round-tu-it” and shared with him. Thought I need to also share with the hobby.

There were only two requirements:

• Invent and patent some useful article.
• Show a working drawing or model of the same.

Simple right? Only 11 Scouts earned the merit badge from 1911 to 1917. It was discontinued in 1918.

From the 1911 Handbook:

Invention merit badge requirements, c 1911

The patch is obviously extremely rare. For the decades the only known existence was what was pictured on the 1914 Scout calendar.

1914 Scout calendar showing the merit badges

Invention merit badge in lower left corner.

A couple of people did some digging and did locate one of the families of a Scout who earned the merit badge. The family still had the sash with the patch on it. I don’t think as of this post that the sash has moved into the collectorate though.

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Here’s the title of a recent offering on eBay (end of May, 2014)

***RARE*** Vintage Boy Eagle Scout Type 1 Or 2 Rank Patch Badge BSA Merit Award

With the following description:

This is an extremely rare vintage 1924 Eagle Scout rank patch that has been kept in excellent condition and is certainly a rare find! I’m not sure if this is a type 1 or 2 but either way it is an extremely rare patch! This patch is a collectors dream and is something that everyone desires but no everyone gets! Bid on it now to secure that you will be the next owner of this amazing patch that is part of scouting history!! Happy Bidding!!! Let me know if you have any question!

And here’s a picture of the listing and patch:

But rather than be an authentic first issue Eagle patch, it is from the modern BSA issued commemorative Eagle patch display.

Now the history of avarice and greed are not new to our hobby. At one level, one can reach more collectors more quickly than ever before but at another level frauds can be found out more quickly. Moral of the story: buy from reputable dealers who know the patches (and that really is fewer than many realize). Also, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Update:

This seller is back now listing this as:

***RARE***Vintage Eagle Scout Rank Boy Scout Patch 1924 – 1932

with this description:

This eagle rank is an extremely rare find and has been passed down from my grandpa’s collection! He had it displayed and sewn onto a navy blue felt material years ago and this is how I got it from him. This is a patch is in amazing condition compared to others which is really hard to find and is a collectors dream! I have to start getting rid of his collection and this one must go! Let me know if you have any questions that I can help you with and make sure you get this for your collection today!!! Thank you!!

and here’s the picture:

WRONG!!!!!

I see that someone did get taken in. Bought it. Paid for it. Received it and then when pointing out that it was the modern fake/repro and tried to return it the seller tried to charge a $125 re-stocking fee. What a scam!

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We do get some interesting items come through our hands. This is small BSA publication from the Department of Scout Supplies (or Supply Service – it wasn’t a Division yet). Among this annual report is a list of companies and individuals that it had to “dissuade” from unauthorized use of Boy Scout name, title, insignia and uniforms during 1923. Now our question is, what was some of this stuff?

The report also has some overall stats for the service – 97,907 orders processed at an average of $5.03 (and in 1923 dollars that was pretty substantial). They had 50 employees.

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My friend Roger Schustereit sent me a link to some eBay auctions. On the first screen, one caught my attention title “BOY SCOUT LONE SCOUT LSA FELT PATCH Cir:1922-1927”

It shows an early LSA felt on felt patch. But, looking at the thumbnail, it didn’t ‘feel’ right. Looking closer, it is stitched incorrectly for that patch and era.

Then, getting into the detail description, in lowercase, it notes that this is a reproduction. Basically, feels kind of mis-leading (although at least he did mention its a reproduction). Its a patch most folks would NOT know the difference from the original because it is so rare. What happens when this patch moves from eBay to a collection?

Going on with this seller’s listings he’s offering, according to the title, “Brand New Tonkawa A2 Felt Arrowhead patch – Super Rare”

Again the details note its a reproduction (a poor one at that) but… the title is bull-crud and hyped. Again, I view this as dangerous for the hobby. What if the buyer pairs up a print-out of the auction “title” page with this patch (but does not show the details from the description)?

Oh well, one more fake to ad to OABlueBook.com

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In the “We’re still always learning” category comes something Destry just picked up while going through the October, 1956 BSA Uniforms and Insignia guide. What caught both of us is that there was a special pin for women employees of the Boy Scouts. See the write-up below:

Here’s the patch for men:

And the corresponding pin – again for men (this is a double clutch version which would be from 1963-1968):

Now we’ve both seen the pin. Probably have one around here but never paid attention to it nor knew that this is what exactly it was for (frankly, I had thought both genders used the pin pictured above).

The rest of the page this information came from shows some ‘sexy’ patches, in my opinion. I’ve always like “one-person” patches. Badges of office that only one person in the country could wear.

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