Ethical Culture Camp [Cooperstown]

Item Details

New York, Ethical Culture Schools: 33 Central Park West, 1941, Wraps

Very Good

  16p. in printed wraps with original woodcut illustration, text alongside 14 b/w photo-illustrations of camp life, accomodations (tents and bungalows), activities and juvenile residents. Unusual glimpse into the movement's summer youth programs, featuring typical camp activities along with poetry, a nature room, outdoor reading, discussion of current social problems, farm to table food, chlorinated water for purity and non-competitive sport and actvity. The New York Society of Ethical Culture was founded by the transcendentalist Felix Adler, the son of a prominent reform rabbi of Temple Emanu-El. None in domestic holdings or trade as of June 2025.

The Adlerian emphasis on "deed not creed" translated into several public service projects. The year after it was founded, the New York Society started a kindergarten, a district nursing service, and a tenement-house building company. Later, they opened the Ethical Culture School, then called the "Workingman's School," a Sunday school and a summer home for children. Other ethical societies soon followed suit with similar projects. Unlike the philanthropic efforts of the established religious institutions of the time, the Ethical societies did not attempt to proselytize those they helped. - Wiki  (30675)