As summer camp season draws to a close, campers leave with new friends, new songs, and many souvenirs. They bring home paintings, pottery, leaf rubbings, and … snakes?

The first season of Camp May Flather, the flagship summer camp of Washington DC Girl Scouts, wrapped up on August 26, 1930.

The campers brought home some unusual souvenirs–salamanders, tadpoles, frogs, and at least one snake.

Evening star 1930 08 26 17 txt
Evening Star (August 26, 1930).

Yes, this violates the Leave No Trace principles, but those were not created until the late 1980s.

© 2025 Ann Robertson, writer, editor, Girl Scout historian, but NOT a Girl Scout employee.

One response to “Summer Camp Souvenirs”

  1. Shades of when my uncle came home from the 1937 Boy Scout National Jamboree (via council-chartered train to Pennsylvania Station, New York) with a monkey!

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