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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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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Some of our scarcest insignia pieces are for the lowest offices. What brings this to mind are a couple of  collar pins we have up for auction. They are so obscure that we had to look one of them up, using Scouting History Through Memorabilia, to be sure we had them titled correctly.

They are for Council Employee and Layman:

Why are they obscure? Because most of the folks holding these positions did not wear uniforms (think now, how many of your council office staff or Scout Shop employees wear uniforms? How many of your Pack Committee or Troop Committee wear uniforms?)

Now when identifying pins, and the corresponding badges there are some basics to remember. Red = professional position and blue = volunteer, except when they’re green for troop leaders. So that starts to give one a clue. The next thing to look for is to remember that  commissioned positions have a wreath behind them. Commissioners are “commissioned.” Scout field staff are commissioned. Council officers and above take an oath of office so you will see a wreath behind their badges. Since neither of these pins had a wreath, we knew they were the lower positions.

We see Council Employee pins from time to time, although cloth badges much less so unless they were say certain camp staff positions. Layman pins very rarely turn up unless in collections. Some of the cloth badges from the 1920s-1930s on square khaki cloth are quite obscure and rare.

This is the more common Layman patch from the 1940s and it is still harder to find than many Council positions of that era:

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Senior collector Paul Myers of Goshen, IN was at the recent Calumet Council Memorial Day Trade-o-ree. Paul is a former editor of the Trader magazine in the 1960s. In the 1990s he wrote a regular column for ASTA, the America Scout Traders Association, which merged with NSCA to form ISCA the national group today. At the TOR Paul was handing out a compilation of the articles he wrote for ASTA. It is now contained in a PDF below. It covers over 75 topics of Scouting collectibles. Not in depth necessarily but my guess is that even veteran collectors will learn something knew from going through these pages.

The topics include:

• Amaquonsippi trail patches
• US Grant Pilgrimage patches
• Lincoln Pilgrimage patches
• Contest medals
• Henderson Award System
• Belt Stencils
• Colored Background Service Stars
• BSA Anniversary Week
• Ribbon Pin Bars
• 100% Duty
• Standard Church Troop Bars
• Original Twelve Regions
• OA Chapter Flaps
• Early Registration Cards
• Scout Emergency Units
• Recruiter Strips
• Scout Diaries
• Boy Rangers of America
• District Badges
• Region 7 Hoe Down
• Sweater, swim suit, hat and jacket badges
• Veteran Emblems
• Explorer Top Awards
• Presidents Awards & Quality Unit
• SeniorScout Titles
• Civic Service
• Overseas Travel Badges
• Service Library
• WW 1 War Service Medals
• National Service Camps
• Boy Scout Bands
• Tenure in Scout Camp
• Service Troops
• Jamboree Staff Positions
• Jamboree Participation Awards
• Jamboree Contingent items
• Jamboree Shoulder Identification
• 1950 Jamboree Prototypes
• Variations in Jamboree Patches and Neckerchiefs
• Jamboree Region Items
• Strengthen the Arm of Liberty Program
• Take Me Home Folders
• Scout Straight Knives
• Scoutmaster’s Key
• Cub Scouting
• First Class Hat Pins
• Patrol Identification
• Folding Pocket Knives
• OA Chapter Badges
• Scout Rings
• Pin Back Buttons
• State Strips
• Early Camp Honor Societies
• Philadelphia District Badges
• Region Standard Camp Badges
• Philmont Contingent Patches
• Merit Badges
• Boycraft Co. Booklets
• 10 Year Program Award
• Sea Scout Ships

Boy Scout Memorabilia Information

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Destry and I were just talking about, for us, the interesting parts of collections are often the paper materials as these give the history. In a small accumulation we got last week it included a little eight page booklet of uniforms for adult leaders. It is from Sigmund Eisner which dates it from 1910 to 1932 with the badges on the sleeve being outlined would place it into the 1920s to early 1930s.

I’ve scanned it in here as actually this is a rare item. It provides wonderful full-color drawings of the uniforms. In Chief Scout Executive James West’s introduction he notes that leaders are obligated, in setting the example, to only use official BSA uniforms (and with profits obviously flowing to the National Office.)

It shows some rarely seen items – the Lumberjack Shirt and the Scout Mackinaw coat. It also lists the types of cloth available including Melton (see my video with Paul Myers about some of these early types of cloth), two weights of Serge, Whipcord, and Gabardine. On the back it indicates that a leader could get made-to-measure, i.e., custom-fitted, uniforms. All in all, very trick IMHO.

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At the upcoming National meeting there will be the introduction of a new knot for “Commissioner
Award of Excellence in Unit Service”. I don’t have the requirements yet. Knot collecting continues to be quite popular. George Crowl has a great web-site for these. Go to the Publications section. There he has Word documents covering all the periods back to the beginning. Enthusiasts even go after the type of backs and twill differences (some of which are VERY hard).

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One of my Scouting roles is an Area Vice President. I chair one of seven task forces chartered by the National Key-3 to propose the ideal structure for the delivery of Scouting in Central Region Area 2. The vision for the project is to:

We will have the ideal structure to support a vital, growing Scouting program for youth, families, charter organizations, units and communities within Area 2 that will remain sustainable through the 21st century.

We’ve been asked to dream big and with a blank slate – that is, if we were starting fresh except for what goes on in units, how would we design the organization of Scouting.

There is a project web-site that has minutes from the various discussions, presentations made on work to date, etc.. Check it out. Feel free to pass on your suggestions and I will take them to the task force. This is an open project with nothing predetermined.

Naragansett Council of Rhode Island has initiated some structural changes within their council. They have dropped the term ‘District’ and have organized Community Groups and Service Area Groups (comprised of Community Groups). They have even re-named their commissioner titles and issued new badges of office. See below.

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The National Eagle Scout Association, NESA, came out with a new uniform square knot for lifetime members. I’ve heard from a collector that received one noting that it was oversized. He had gotten two in and sent one to Dennis Dowling’s museum in Raton, NM. Dennis put it on display. When a National Supply Division staff member came through this summer Dennis pointed out that the square knot was much larger than normal knots (this brings back recollections of the first Spurgeon Award knot). The Supply Division person said this shouldn’t be and had all of the knots recalled and issued to the correct size. We don’t know how many of the error ones got out.

See the picture below for the differences. At first I was thinking it was just extra cloth which is happening now with some of the knots due to poor quality control but no the first issue is much larger than the correct knot. Should be some collector item.

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