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Excerpt from 1897 circular describing Groton School Camp: "The Missionary Society of Groton School owns a small island in Lake Asquam, New Hampshire, where, for the past four years, it has maintained a summer
camp for poor boys of Boston and New York. The aim of the camp has been to provide a vacation for boys who have no opportunity to escape from the heat of the city, and lists of such boys are obtained each year from those in
charge of various city missions. The boys come in squads of twenty or twenty-five, and, in most cases, spend a fortnight at the camp, where they row, swim, etc., and also do some regular work each day, such as wood cutting,
road making, or carpentering. " . . . the 'Faculty' as the boys call it, consists regularly of two graduates of the school, one master, and two members of the Missionary Society from the Fifth and Sixth Forms. The faculty
usually changes each fortnight, but there is in addition one who stays permanently at the camp and attends to the business management. The boys received must be at least ten and not more than fourteen years old. In case
of good behavior they are invited for two successive years. "This camp has been most successful. Many boys from wretched homes arrive with pale faces, looking worn, dirty, and old, and go back after a fortnight completely
transformed in appearance, and furthermore with a new idea of the possibilities of cleanliness, decency and civilization. "For the Faculty, too, the fortnight is not without its lessons of simplicity, patience, and, above all,
fraternal feeling for those who, with all the differences of environment and education, are yet moved by the same hopes and fears and temptations as they. The ultimate equality of human beings is impressed in a way not likely
to be forgotten in the years when these members of the Faculty become men in the commmunity . . ." |
