We are heading into Thanksgiving. This came across from the Scouts from a girl Eagle Scout who was the  first-place winner in the Central Florida Council scholarship contest. Worth reading and sharing.

She said,

“Leaders have to make decisions, be problem solvers, face adversity, and follow their moral obligations – all principles of Scouting. … Teaching young girls and boys the values of responsibility, loyalty, leadership, and camaraderie at this age equips them for life in the reality we live in. In the ever-changing society that we are a part of, these characteristics are fundamental for children to possess and carry with them into adulthood.

“The Scout stands for pride, integrity, opportunity, strength, freedom, and the true meaning of being an American, as they embody the flag on the uniform. Scouting instills these values into young Americans who will grow up with respect for their country, only building upon it as they age. … Scouts are our future, and they are equipped with a skill set that gives me confidence and faith in the future of our country.”

Here’s a link to the full essay. Eagle Scout essay contest winner.

Destry was recently at a trade-o-ree here in Michigan held at Camp Gerber. There was a camporee also going on at the camp. He shared that a number of boy and girl Eagle Scouts came through. Destry’s a class of ’85 Eagle Scout. He got to chatting with them. This was the first time he had had chance to talk much with girl Eagle Scouts. He shared that all the Eagle Scouts were impressive but was particularly struck with how impressive the girls were. He noted that many were quite appreciative of the opportunity to be in Scouts/BSA and really enjoyed their trail to Eagle.

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Collector Warren Kuhfeld shared this history on one of the FB patch collecting groups. I thought it both worth sharing and saving for posterity (i.e. FB is a river and things flow through it and disappear.)

From Warren:

Experienced collectors can identify the manufacturer of some flaps just by noting their shape. Obvious examples include Geer, Moritz, Lion Brothers, and Welsh Industries. There is another shape that you might find interesting, the Novak shape. JF Novak was a friend of my father’s. Mr. Novak operated a store in Cleveland, Ohio, established in 1932, selling police and Christian supplies in the front and manufacturing patches in the back. I believe his primary patch business was law enforcement patches, but he made some Scout patches and many other types of patches. In 1973, one of my father’s other friends, a fascinating man and eclectic collector, learned about my collecting interests and told me about Mr. Novak’s business. At that point, I was an 18-year-old new collector. He took me to visit Mr. Novak. During several visits, I bought overruns of 487F2s, 487X2s, 350A1s, and 75A1s (WAB). These were an incredible help in developing my new OA collection. I also picked up quite a few Camp Tepicon and Sauk Trails patches. The 487Fs, both F1 and F2, have a distinctive shape with straight sides. The highly coveted FF event flap from 189 has the same shape and style of embroidery. Lodge 189 is from Sauk Trails Council and Camp Tepicon. It seems certain that Mr. Novak not only made the 487F1 FF but he also made the 189 event flaps. I was not aware of the existence of the 189 flaps back in 1973, but I certainly knew to look for anything flap shaped. I never saw any other OA issues there. Over the years, the Fire Marshall would show up now and then and make him get rid of boxes and boxes of overruns. It is likely that some 189 event flaps ended up in a dump in Cleveland long before I ever visited. Surprisingly, I don’t think Mr. Novak made any patches for Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Lodge, although I have seen several council event patches that I believe are his.I picked up one other thing during my first visit, a couple reproductions of the 1957 jamboree backpatch. Mr. Novak said a Scouter had one that was damaged in a fire. He believed he would never be able to replace it, so he asked Mr. Novak to make him another one. We all know that 1957 backpatches are not difficult to find, but a Scouter in 1973 in the era before eBay and the internet might not have known that. I don’t know if that Scouter’s story is true or not, but I do know that Mr. Novak gave me a couple of the backpatches. I am beyond embarrassed to admit that I traded them without divulging the source, at that point in my life not fully grasping the immorality of that act. The patches can be distinguished by a bright pink face. I did not keep any, nor did I take pictures.

From Warren Kuhfeld 06/29/22

Here are some examples of patches attributed to this company.

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The first BSA camp was held at the YMCA’s Silver Bay facility near Lake George, NY from August 16 – September 1, 1910. Like what Baden-Powell did earlier in England at Brownsea Island, the Scout leaders tested out the concept and interest in a summer camp experience for youth.

In the earliest days of the BSA, before James West was hired as Chief Scout Executive, it was Edgar Robinson Director of the YMCA in New York city, that was helping to administer the developing organization. Actually, Robinson was involved in the selection, recruitment and hiring of West.

From the BSA National Jamboree Silver Bay exhibit syllabus:

… in 1910 Robinson, Seton (Founder of the Woodcraft Indians) and others, like Dan Beard (Founder of Sons of Daniel Boone), had become national leaders in founding the Boy Scouts of America. This caused camp plans to shift, and an experimental Woodcraft Boy Scout Camp resulted.

Campers were instructed in advance on what equipment was needed for camp through the YMCA newsletter Association Boys. Among the items listed were a ‘khaki suit and khaki hat.’ This was the first effort toward any type of standard uniform for American Scouts.

Campers were told to bring five books with them to camp. Besides the Bible, there was Alice Fletcher’s book on Indian stories and songs, and Horace Kephart’s classic on camping. Both authors were considered the leading experts in their fields. Seton’s Birch Bark Roll and Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys were also listed. But by the time of the camp, the BSA’s first Handbook for Boys had come out. The new handbook combined parts of The Birch Bark Roll and Scouting for Boys into one book and credited both men. Several copies of the first Handbook for Boys were brought to the camp.

From Silver Bay syllabus excerpt courtesy of staff director Kelly Williams

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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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Among the things we get in from estates from the 1950’s and earlier are Syroco ware items. These items look like they’re made of wood (and they are, sort of) but in reality are injection molded wood/plastic blend from the Syracuse Ornamental Company founded in 1908.

From Syracuse University:

The Scouts must have picked up on their products in the late 1940’s to early 1950’s and continued on offering their items until early 1960’s. The jewelry box pictured above along with plaques and paperweights are quite common from estates of this era so obviously were a popular gift item.

Syroco items also obviously showed up at National Jamboree trading posts as both candy bowls and trinket boxes.

Although I do not have pictures to post here, Syroco also made for the Scouts tie racks. Some are common but also include what is one of the rarest of this kind of collectible that is a tie rack with “logs” around the border.

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Now all but forgotten other than by chopping contest participants, Australian Peter McLaren was a ‘rock star’ of axemanship and pioneer of chopping contests in this country. In the 1930s he was a brand representative and promoter for Plumb brand axes. (For modern day equivalent, think Michael Jordan for Nike shoes.)

One such promotions was a featured section at the 1937 Boy Scout National Jamboree. (I’ll have to look through my archives for the jambo map but as I recall it showed this area.) One memorabilia item that came from this was a staff axe engraved for the Jamboree with McLaren’s signature.

I do not know how many of these have survived. This is the only one I’ve ever had come through my hands (and quickly acquired it when I had a chance to.) I’ve not seen another on the market.

We do though get through occaisionaly both a pamphlet that he authored and a “club” patch.

For more on McLaren, check out this blog post from Brant and Cochran Axes from Maine on him.

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Couldn’t have this last year due to COVID. Looking things are opening up so we’re ready to party. This is likely to be a more local affair as there’s no NOAC at Michigan State this summer (as there was supposed to be last summer). If it works into your schedule, stop on by. Here’s the Eventbrite listing for the event. We’re asking folks to sign-up so we know how much food to plan on preparing.

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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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It’s Throwback Thursday. In going through my files, I came across my copy of the prices realized for the Don Dennison “Sale of Sales”, one of the earliest (maybe THE earliest) published prices realized for the sale of individual Scout memorabilia. Jack Keane published this on mimeograph (for Millennials this was an era before MS Word).

Some background on Don. He was the organizer and host for the Amaquonsippi Trail in southern Illinois. He was also a passionate patch collector of Scout patches: OA, jamboree, regions, and more.

Bruce Richardson has a great site referencing the collectibles associated with this trail. Check it out here.

Conducted in 1970, this was before there was any catalog of issues, this predated Arapaho I and II, so Don had to define the terms used in his sale listing.

So ultimately we do not know the specific issues as we define them these days but one can well infer what issue they were for many of the lodges and items as so few issues existed at this time. Remember, I do, that lodges often kept the same issue for several years! Rather than today’s practice to make a new issue every few months or faster.

Some quick observations:

• The high prices realized for OA issues included:
  • 8 R solid: $117.76
  • 13 R Wakag (sic) (what later was turned out to be a Dovidio fake): $45
  • 34 Ko-Nosh-I-Oni sold for more than 34 Gonlix
  • 47 R (Hanigus): $150
  • Still active lodges sold for more than many merged lodges:
    • 89 F (Kepayshowink, Mischigonong did not exist): $83.76
    • 96 S: $90
    • 526 F: $120
    • 555 S: $75 (at the time, restricted to National pros)
• Some of the other patches (there weren’t many offered)
  • Region 2 patch: $23.30
  • 1937 NJ patch: $75
  • 1953 NJ patch: $15

Here are the sales result pages. Note, this was an era where gas was $0.36 per gallon. New flaps cost a quarter.

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