Since they were first established in the 1880s, children's summer camps have touched the lives of millions of people. Although the camping experience has a special place in the popular imagination, few scholars have given serious thought to this peculiarly American phenomenon. Why were summer camps created? What concerns and ideals motivated their founders? Whom did they serve? How did they change over time? What factors influenced their design?To answer these and many other questions, Abigail A. Van Slyck trains an informed eye on the most visible and evocative aspect of camp life: its...
Since they were first established in the 1880s, children's summer camps have touched the lives of millions of people. Although the camping experience ...
Elaborately conceived, grandly constructed insane asylums--ranging in appearance from classical temples to Gothic castles--were once a common sight looming on the outskirts of American towns and cities. Many of these buildings were razed long ago, and those that remain stand as grim reminders of an often cruel system. For much of the nineteenth century, however, these asylums epitomized the widely held belief among doctors and social reformers that insanity was a curable disease and that environment--architecture in particular--was the most effective means of treatment.
In...
Elaborately conceived, grandly constructed insane asylums--ranging in appearance from classical temples to Gothic castles--were once a common sight...
