Making Camp
A Visual History Camping's Most Essential Items & Activities
Noting that camping rocketed in popularity during COVID-19, Making Camp explores the history of recreational camping, from its nineteenth-century Adirondack beginnings through to the present. With an abundance of vintage illustrations and photographs, it documents the evolution of the campground as a spatial setting while tracking its essential components, from tents to sleeping bags. Quotes about woodscraft and technical drawings of firepits and picnic tables add panache.
This thought-provoking book points out dichotomies between the ideal of spontaneously communing with the wilderness and the development of campgrounds as regulated, dense communities where vehicles and people are often segregated from sensitive natural environments. But with the addition of each amenity—however rusticated with stone and timber they are—the book asserts that campgrounds have become about as wild as suburban driveways, making them a “stage for cultural fantasies” (and don’t forget the WIFI). This disconnect is evident in the historical photographs, including Bruce Davidson’s amusing 1960s shots of national park campers in hair curlers, and via pages from retro campground guides and maps.
Making Camp is an entertaining survey of campers’ favorite gear and activities, whether they’re “roughing it” in tents, recreational vehicles, or glamp-sites reserved months ahead.
Reviewed by
Rachel Jagareski
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
