Laura I. Mattoon

Laura I. Mattoon
Mattoon from a 1922 publication
Born(1871-07-28)July 28, 1871
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedMarch 6, 1946(1946-03-06) (aged 74)
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, U.S.
OccupationsEducator, recreation professional

Laura Isabelle Mattoon (July 28, 1871 – March 6, 1946) was an American educator and recreation professional. She founded one of the first American summer camps for girls, Camp Kehonka, in 1902. From 1904 to 1939 she was executive secretary of the Camp Directors Association of America.

Early life and education

Mattoon was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of William Peter Mattoon and Laura Ann Goodnow Mattoon.[1] Her father was a stockbroker.[2] Her paternal grandfather William Mattoon was a railroad engineer, for whom Mattoon, Illinois, was named.[3] She graduated from Wellesley College in 1894, and was a founding member of the Wellesley College Bicycle Club.[4] She pursued further studies at Smith College and Teachers College, Columbia University.[1]

Career

Mattoon was head of science at the Veltin School for Girls in New York City.[5] In 1902, she started Camp Kehonka, one of the first American summer camps for girls, along Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire.[6][7] She a founding member of the National Association of Directors of Girls' Camps,[8] and helped to organize the first "nature-lore school" for camp counselors in 1920.[9] In 1924 she was elected to the national leadership of the Camp Directors Association of America,[10] and served the association as executive secretary for 15 years.[11][12] She was associate editor of The Camping Magazine.[13]

In 1909, she traveled to Labrador.[14] In 1912, Mattoon and Florence Du Bois Rees traveled to Palestine.[15] They landed at Jaffa, visited Jericho and Hebron, traveled by horseback to a Bedouin camp near the Dead Sea, and stayed with Rees's brother-in-law, diplomat William Coffin, in Jerusalem.[16] They also attended a Christmas mass in Bethlehem.[17]

Publications

  • Camper’s Guidance Manual
  • Services for the Open (1923, with Helen Dalton Bragdon)[18][19]

Personal life

Mattoon lived in New Hampshire full-time, sharing a household with the camp dietitian Alice Crane and camp director A. Cooper Ballentine.[20] She died in 1946, at the age of 74, in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.[21] She left the camp to Ballentine,[22] who died in 1984, and Camp Kehonka's last camping season was in 1985.[23]

References

  1. 1 2 Howe, Julia Ward; Graves, Mary Hannah (1904). Sketches of Representative Women of New England. New England Historical Publishing Company. pp. 317–318.
  2. ↑ "Descendant of Pioneer Stock; William P. Mattoon, Lifelong Local Resident, Dies at Age of 72". The Morning Union. 1916-04-22. p. 6. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Grandchild Wm. Mattoon Visitor Here; Miss Laura Mattoon Views Scenes Grandfather's Exploits". JG-TC: Journal Gazette and Times-Courier. 1924-03-25. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "College Notes". The Wellesley Magazine. 1 (8): 403. May 13, 1893.
  5. ↑ Gibson, H. W. (May 1936). "The History of Organized Camping". Camping Magazine. 8 (5): 18–21, 23 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ Lorge, Michael M.; Zola, Gary Phillip (2006-10-15). A Place of Our Own: The Rise of Reform Jewish Camping. University of Alabama Press. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-8173-5293-6.
  7. ↑ A Handbook of Summer Camps: An Annual Survey. Porter Sargent. 1925. p. 275.
  8. ↑ Camps and Camping. American Sports Publishing Company. 1922. p. 11.
  9. ↑ "The First Nature-Lore School". The Nature-Study Review. 17 (4): 145–146. April 1921.
  10. ↑ Miranda, Wilma (1991). "Gender Based Educational Politics: The Case of the Camp Directors Association, 1924-1932". Journal of Thought. 26 (1/2): 45–67. ISSN 0022-5231.
  11. ↑ "Camp Directors Meet; New Yorker Presides; Frank Hackett of Riverdale School Receives Delegates at Back Hill Falls, Pa". The New York Times. March 4, 1932. p. 40. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-18.
  12. ↑ "Camp Counsellor Must Be Well Trained and Devoted to Work". Springfield Evening Union. 1926-05-18. p. 14. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Masthead". The Camping Magazine. 2 (7): 16. April 1930 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ↑ "Was at Battle Harbor; Miss Laura Mattoon of Springfield Left Before Peary Reached There". The Boston Globe. 1909-09-15. p. 11. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Palestine Standing Still for Centuries; Miss Laura Mattoon Writes Interesting Letter of Visit". The Morning Union. 1913-03-02. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Journeys in the Holy Lands; Unusual Oriental Experiences; Miss Laura I. Mattoon of this City". The Springfield Daily Republican. 1912-12-29. p. 10. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Attended Christmas Mass in Bethlehem; Miss Laura I. Mattoon Writes Interesting Account". The Morning Union. 1913-01-19. p. 9. Retrieved 2026-06-18.
  18. ↑ Mattoon, Laura I. (1923). Services for the Open. Century.
  19. ↑ Rubin, Joan Shelley (1999). "The Boundaries of American Religious Publishing in the Early Twentieth Century". Book History. 2 (1): 207–217. doi:10.1353/bh.1999.0010. ISSN 1529-1499.
  20. ↑ Mattoon, Crane, and Valentine are recorded in the same household at Camp Kehonka in the 1930 and 1940 United States censuses, via Ancestry. Several others also lived in the household in 1930.
  21. ↑ "Miss Laura I. Mattoon (death notice)". Springfield Evening Union. 1946-03-11. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ Bastidas, Christina (1983-01-20). "N. H. Camp Kehonka is Called an 'Oasis of Idealism'". The Lewiston Daily Sun. p. 9. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ Englert, Martha (1987-07-20). "Campers buckle under pressure; Development spells trouble for vacationers". The Brattleboro Reformer. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.