What is Camping?
The Encyclopedia Britannica says that camping is a “recreational activity which participants take up temporary residence in the outdoors, usually using tents or specially designed or adapted vehicles for shelter.” Wikipedia, however, mentions that it doesn’t matter if is with or without shelter, as long as you’re away from home, it is considered camping.
According to Kate Walters from the Abbey Museum (2020), camping can be traced all the way back to the stone age for various nomadic reasons. Recreational camping is said to be founded by Thomas Holding, when in 1853, at age 9, he travelled across the United States with his parents (and 300 other people) on a wagon trail. He later wrote Cycle and Camp in 1898 and The Camper’s Handbook in 1908, and also founded first camping club called the Association of Cycle Campers in 1901, (Britannica, 2013).
However, William Henry Harrison Murray wrote the first camping book called Adventures in the Wilderness(also called Camp-life in the Adirondacks) in 1863(Smithsonian Magazine, 2017). The Smithsonian’s article said that this book was actually published in 1869, after a friend of his encouraged him to do so and that months after publishing, the Adirondack region was visited by thousands of people from different cities like New York, Boston, Hartford, and Philadelphia.
To this day, camping can be done in various ingenious ways. Depending on the source, there’s between 4 to 27 different types of camping. Some of these include tent camping, which is the most traditional; survival camping, which is the most extreme (in my opinion); and the ones that include the use of vehicles like RV camping, motorcycling camping or bicycle camping. There’s also the term “glamping” or glamorous camping in which includes luxury and more comfort than the rest of the camping types (Walter M, Camping Troop). Usually, camping is more popular in the warm summer days, but it can be done at any time of the year with the proper equipment.
In the next “story”, I will be discussing the different types of camping in more detail. If you have any questions or comments, or would like me to cover a topic, feel free to comment or contact me. Also, thank you for reading!
References:
Petri, Robert Lee and Ryalls, Alan. “camping”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Dec. 2013, https://www.britannica.com/topic/camping
Walter, M. 27 Types of Camping; Something for Every Camping Enthusiast. Camping Troop. https://campingtroop.com/27-different-types-of-camping/
Walters, Kate. A Very Brief History of Camping. Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology. 16 Oct. 2020, Petri, Robert Lee and Ryalls, Alan. “camping”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Dec. 2013, https://www.britannica.com/topic/camping
Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Camping. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camping
Young, Terrance. The Minister Who Invented Camping in America. Smithsonian Magazine. 17 Oct. 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/religious-roots-of-americas-love-for-camping-180965280/
