The Farm & Wilderness Summer Camps: Progressive Ideals in the Twentieth Century

By Emily K. Abel and Margaret K. Nelson. Rutgers University Press, 2023. 172 pages. $150/hardcover; $27.95/paperback or eBook.

The Farm & Wilderness Summer Camps tells the story of a collection of summer camps in the Northeast founded by Quaker couple Kenneth and Susan Webb in 1939. Authors Emily K. Abel and Margaret K. Nelson are sisters who grew up attending the camps beginning in the mid-1950s, and they bring a unique firsthand perspective to their ethnographic work.

Still in existence today with five camps for various age groups, the Farm & Wilderness Summer Camps (F&W) have long embodied the Webbs’ Quaker values of simplicity and cooperation, where children as young as nine were taught to sit in silent worship together. Encouraging attendees to develop self-confidence, compassion, and care for nature, early on the camp challenged boys and girls with the same rugged expectations, oftentimes placing children deep in the woods with few provisions, as they learned to rely on the earth, each other, and themselves.

While the vast majority of campers were White, the Webbs also championed integration; the camp’s alums include two of Malcolm X’s daughters and the daughter of civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy.

Notably, the F&W camps were also forward-thinking on sexual orientation and gender roles, and today they welcome gender nonbinary campers. Len Cadwallader, who would later become an executive director of the camps, remarked on leadership’s posture that took their cues from the Webbs in the changing world of the 1960s and ’70s:

So there definitely are things . . . the Webbs embraced, that we in turn embraced when it became an issue of sexual orientation. And we said, “We’re proud to be a part of what’s happening in our country.”

As is the case with many other camps for children, however, F&W’s history also includes the sexual abuse of some of those under its care. (This is not entirely surprising, as Ken Webb was a strong proponent of nudism, which was a mainstay of the camp culture in its first decades.) In 1990, longtime former camp director and influential counselor Jack Sloanaker was fired by F&W after he was accused of molesting a camper in the ’70s; the charge was not reported to authorities as it was considered an “isolated incident.” Four years later, however, when more accusations came out, Sloanaker was reported, tried, and sentenced to a year in jail. Subsequently a number of other employees and former staff were accused of sexual abuse, but the statute of limitations prevented their prosecution.

Curiously, at the request of F&W’s current leadership, Abel and Nelson have chosen to leave out the names of the accused and their stories:

Ultimately, we chose to comply with the request from the current executive director, Frances McLaughlin, and the Webbs’ granddaughter Kristi Webb, who was clerk of the board when we spoke with her about this issue, that we not name anyone besides Jack Sloanaker.

One can’t help but wonder how this information would shape readers’ overall impression of the Webbs’ legacy. Yet despite these shadows on its history, Abel and Nelson predominantly express strong admiration for the camp that was frequently far ahead of its time.

Jon Jacques, who attended F&W’s Tamarack Farm camp in 1960 and 1961, summed up not only the Quaker values of peace and nonviolence taught at the camps, but the enduring legacy of change brought about in the Northeastern woods: “My view of the Vietnam War was forged in being there and realizing the futility of our very unfortunate war of choice. I am grateful to all of my friends at Tamarack Farm. My life was changed by you all for the better.”

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Casey Hobbs writes on politics and religion at caseyhobbs.substack.com. He lives in Birmingham, Ala., and owns a small neighborhood grocery store and attends Birmingham (Ala.) Meeting.