Vintage Campfire Girl Dress Uniform Label Bead Swastika

Vintage scouting collectors, we have a gem for you.  This is a Campfire Girls leader's or teenage girl's uniform dress, and we consider this to be a museum quality piece from pre World War II. 

The dress still retains the original label, which reads Camp Fire Girls trademark, No.  The triangular symbol is on this label, with Wo He Lo , the Camp Fire Girls motto, written in the outer border of that triangle. 

The origin of the Camp Fire Girls belongs to a larger, complex history of scouting in America. Two early promoters of the scouting movement were Earnest Thompson Seton and Daniel Beard. Seton established an organization for boys called the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 and Daniel Beard began an organization for boys called the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905. The themes of the two organizations varied, but both influenced the establishment of the Boy Scouts of America in 1910. The sister organization to the Boy Scouts became the Camp Fire Girls, initially evolving from a lone New England camp run by Luther and Charlotte Gulick.

Dr. Luther Gulick was a well-known and respected youth reformer. His wife, Charlotte Gulick, was interested in child psychology and authored books and articles on hygiene. After consulting with Seton, Mrs. Gulick decided on using his Indian narrative as a camp theme. The name of the camp and motto was "Wo-He-Lo," an Indian-sounding word that was short for "Work, Health, and Love." Following the Woodcraft model, Mrs. Gulick focused on nature study and recreation. That first year they had seventeen young girls in camp singing songs and learning crafts. A year later William Chauncy Langdon, poet, social worker, and friend of the Gulicks, established another girls' camp in Thetford, Vermont, that followed the Woodcraft model. He was the first to coin the name "Camp Fire Girls."

In 1911 Luther Gulick convened a meeting at the Horace Mann Teachers College to entertain the ways and means of creating a national organization for girls along the lines of the Boy Scouts. Seton's wife, Grace, and Beard's sister, Lina, were both involved in the early organization and lobbied for a program that adopted Indian and pioneer themes. In 1912 the organization was incorporated as the Camp Fire Girls, and chapters soon sprang up in cities across the country. The Camp Fire Girls remained an important part of the scouting movement throughout the twentieth century.

The swastika was a symbol that represented life, power, strength, and good luck, and was worn by the Camp Fire girls.  As a side note of interest, if you search the internet, you can find a famous picture of Jackie Bouvier (before she was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) wearing her Campfire Girl uniform, which included the swastika!

This spectacular dress is hand beaded around the neck, sleeves, and hem with tiny blue and red beads.  The front of the hem also has larger wooden beads sewn into the pattern.  Front and center, just below the tied neckline, is the swastika, created from the same blue and red beading.  Brown leather fringe is on each sleeve, as well as at the bottom of the dress.  There are side slits in each sideseam, at the bottom, for ease of movement and walking.  The dress measures:  shoulder to shoulder 15", sleeve under the arms 10 1/2", bust 40", waist 42", hips 44", length from neck to bottom of fringe 46". 

The dress is completely original, except for the leather tie at the neck.  It is missing about 6 of the tiny red beads by the right side of the neck, but the thread has been caught & repaired, so no more beads can get loose.  No rips, holes, or stains!

In excellent condition, and a fantastic addition to your antique scouting collection!