A. C. A. Song Book

Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
The next Cooperative Recreation Service publication that contributed to the spread of “Kumbaya” was issued by the American Camping Association in 1958.  It came ten years after CRS published the A. C. A. Song Book. [1]

The organization then was beginning its transition from a small group of private camp directors to a professional organization.  The ACA president in 1948 was Carol Gulick Hulbert, [2] whose uncle founded the Camp Fire Girls [3] and whose parents opened a private girls’ camp in Vermont in 1905. [4]  In 1922, Edward Gulick opened Lanakila for boys.  It was run by Carol’s husband, Chauncey Hulbert.  She took over in 1924. [5]

Hulbert was succeeded as ACA president by Reynold Carlson. [6]  He had joined by faculty of Indiana University’s Health, Physical Education and Recreation school in 1947.  Previously, he had worked for the National Recreation Association. [7]

Under Hulbert, the organization changed the name of its periodical from the Camp Directors Bulletin to Camping Magazine in 1946. [8]  The ACA began accrediting camps in 1948. [9]  It was countering Porter Sargent’s A Handbook of Summer Camps, which he had begun publishing in 1924 [10]  This complemented his Handbook of Private Schools that first appeared in 1915. [11]

Of the 68 camps, which existed in 1948 in Michigan and still were accredited by the ACA in 1974, half were sponsored by five youth groups: the YMCA (16), Girl Scouts (9), Camp Fire Girls (4), YWCA (4), and Boy Scouts (1).  Less than a quarter were private, and those of the Camp Fire Girls, YWCA, and Kings’ Daughters emulated their programs, bringing their influence to 36%.  The remaining 25% were religious, settlement houses, or special interest. [12]

No one is credited with editing the ACA songbook, but songs are included from three private camps: Wabukani and Winona in Maine, and Severance in New York.  Emily Welch, the owner of Wabukani, was the ACA president in 1932. [13]

The one thing that distinguished private camps from others was the length of time children and adolescents spent in them.  Private camps before 1950 tended to have one session that lasted all summer, while the others catered to groups that changed every week.  This had a strong impact of their repertoires. [14]

Private camps often developed traditions that included a number of songs written in the camps, which had been passed on for years.  New campers learned them as part of their initiation into the mores of camps.  Few spread beyond a camp’s boundaries.  The exceptions in the A. C. A. Song Book are: “My Paddle’s Keen and Bright” from the Gulick’s camp Sebago, [15] and “Whipporwill.”  The last was written by Anne Chapin at a Girl Scout training camp in 1921. [16]  Both spread through organization channels.

Camps that emulated private ones, like the CFG camp I attended in 1951, still assumed returning campers would learn the local repertoire a bit at a time, some songs each year.  Camp owners, who ran camps for profit, could not assume community prestige would move young children to accept such demands.  They realized they needed songs children could learn quickly, and something more was needed than “Row, Row Your Boat.”

The 1948 A. C. A Song Book was an attempt to fill the gap.  It still included many of the songs that had been sung in camps since the 1920s, like “The Border Trail,” [17] “Each Campfire Lights Anew” [18] and “Father Time.” [19]  It had a few from English and American folk tradition, like “The Keeper” [20] and “Old Smoky,” [21] and a few cowboy songs like “Night Herding Song” [22] and “Round-Up Lullaby” [23] that came from the popular view of folk music derived from collections published by Carl Sandburg and John Lomax. [24]

Many of the European folk songs were popularized by the National Recreation Association, or its music specialist, Augustus D. Zanzig. [25]   Seven came from their Singing America, [26] three from Folk Songs and Ballads published by Zanzig’s earlier employer, [27] and “Toviska” from an NRA publication from 1938. [28]

Lynn Rohrbough had not yet begun amassing a collection of international songs.  The ones in the A. C. A. Song Book that came from the CRS repertoire were from Bliss Wiant’s The Pagoda of 1946, [29] Olcutt Sanders’ Amigos Cantando of 1948, [30] and UNESCO’s Work and Sing of 1948. [31]

A large number of songs in the A. C. A. Song Book were religious, including three graces, [32] and eight spirituals. [33]  Except for the “Hannukah Hymn,” [34] they were from the Protestant tradition.  Two, “Day Is Dying in the West” [35] and “Now the Day Is Over” [36] came from the Chautauqua strain of camp meetings.

It is difficult to judge the impact of this songbook.  I remember 15 of the 94 songs at Kitanniwa.  Most were available from other sources and I know some were introduced after my first summer.

Notes on Performers
Wabunaki was founded in 1910 by Amy Dunlap.  At the time, she was working for the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, New York.  The camp apparently closed and the site “on an island in Hancock Lake, near Hillside,” Maine, [37] was purchased by Welch in 1921. [38]  It did not survive into the 1970s.

Welch graduated from Vassar in 1904, and worked as a teacher.  In 1914, she became principal of the Charlton  School in New York. [39]  She left for Richmond, Virginia, in 1917 where she was headmistress of Saint Catherine’s School.  The school said “her early retirement was influenced by the precarious state of the School’s finances as well as the increased family responsibilities which she faced following the death of her sister.” [40]  Her nephew recalls she started the camp because her teacher’s salary was insufficient to raise him and his two brothers. [41]

The two songs in the ACA collection from Wabunaki [42] were written by Isabel Grimes Booth and Ethel Wilcox.  Booth was writing music [43] when she was a senior at Vassar College in 1921. [44]  Wilcox had to leave Vassar when her father died. [45]  Thereafter, she lived in Poughkeepsie where she sang at programs sponsored by the Methodist Episcopal Church. [46]  One assumes both worked at Wabunaki.

Winona was founded in 1908 by Charles Cobb in Denmark, Maine, as the brother camp to Wyonegonic.  In the 1940s, it was managed by his grandson, Roland. [47]  In 1973, an eight-week session for boys cost $1,075. [48]  In comparison, Kitanniwa charged $39 for a one-week session.  The total income, per camper for the summer, was $241. [49]

One song appeared in the A. C. A. Songbook from Winona by F. E. Jones: “Off to the Hills.” [50]

Severance was found in 1917 on Paradox Lake in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. [51]  Carrie Sinn was the owner in the 1940s. [52]  The girls’ camp closed in 1972. [53]  At that time, an eight-week session cost $1,400. [54]

No author was given for “We Think of Camping.” [55]  Like many camp songs before CRS began publishing custom songsters, it was written to a popular song.  The melody for “The Old Refrain” was composed for a Viennese operetta in 1887 by Johann Bundle and popularized in this country by Fritz Kreisler. [56]

End Notes
1.  American Camping Association, Inc., Chicago, Illinois.  A. C. A. Song Book.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Song Service, Cooperative Recreation Service.  Undated; the most recent songs in the book are from 1948.

2.  “A History of ACA Presidents and Board Chairs.”  American Camp Association website; based on Eleanor Fell’s History of Organized Camping: The First 100 Years.  Martinsville, Indiana: American Camping Association, 1986.

3.  Luther Halsey Gulick is discussed in note 35 in the entry for 5 September 2021.  He also is discussed in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.  12.

4.  Hulbert’s parents, Edward Leeds Gulick and the former Harriet Marie Farnsworth, are discussed in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.  341.  The first camp was Aloha.

5.  “Who We Are.”  Aloha Foundation website; accessed 26 May 2023.
6.  “History of ACA Presidents.”

7.  Joel Meier.  “Reynold E. Carlson: A Distinguished Pioneer in Outdoor Education.”  Research in Outdoor Education  6:article 4:2002.  3.

8.  “Timeline of ACA and Summer Camp.”  American Camp Association website.
9.  “American Camp Association.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 23 April 2023.
10.  A Handbook of Summer Camps.  Boston: Porter Sargent, 1924.

11.  “Porter Sargent.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 20 Mary 2023.

The Handbook of Private Schools.  Boston: P. Sargent, 1915.

12.  National Directory of Accredited Camps for Boys and Girls.  Martinsville, Indiana: American Camping Association, 14th edition, 1974.  I chose Michigan as my sample because I am from Michigan and have some sense of the camps listed.  Beyond that pragmatic reason, the state was typical of camps in the 1970s.  Camps not only had a variety of owners, but the sponsors were based in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.  This was because cities like Chicago and Toledo did not have the same types of small lakes and big lake waterfronts that are found in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

13.  “History of ACA Presidents.”

14.  The following discussion is based on a more detailed analysis in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.

15.  “My Paddle’s Keen and Bright” is discussed in the post for 5 December 371 (note 46) and on pages 445 and 565 in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.

16.  “Whipporwill” and Chapin are discussed on pages 445 and 571 in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.

17.  Carol Peterson.  “The Border Trail.”  Written to “Road to the Isles” as transcribed by Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser in Songs of the Hebrides.  London: Boosey and Company, 1917. [57]

18.  “Each Campfire Lights Anew” is reproduced in the posts for 28 November 2021 and 13 March 2020, and is mentioned in posts for 5 December 2021 and 20 February 2022.

19.  “Father Time” is mentioned in the post for 13 March 2022.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs quotes a woman who believed it was from Vassar (page 341).

20.  “The Keeper” is discussed in the post for 5 December 2021.

21.  “Old Smoky,” is identified in the A. C. A.  Song Book as an  American folk song recorded by Greta Biddle Kaylor in Knox County, Tennessee.  This was before the song was popularized by The Weavers in 1951. [58]  By then, it had been collected by a number of folklorists. [59]

22.  “Night Herding Song.”   Published by Ina Sires in Songs of the Open Range.  Boston: C. C. Birchard and Company, 1928.  Ellen Ina Sires grew up in Navarro County, Texas, [60] about 40 miles south of Dallas. [61]  She taught school [62] and lectured on cowboy culture. [63]

23.  “Round-Up Lullaby” is discussed in note 32 of the post for 20 March 2022.

24.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs describes the music that developed from the publications of Carl Sandburg and John Lomax as “consensus folk music  [64]  Sandburg is discussed in the post for 5 May 2019.  Lomax is discussed in the post for 12 May 2019.

25.  For more on Zanzig, see the column at the right of the screen.

26.  “America the Beautiful,” “At the Gate of Heaven,” “Down in the Valley,” “Over the Meadows,” “Prayer” from Engelbert Humperdinck’s  Hansel and Gretel, “Våsång,” and “Walking at Night.”

27.  “Morning Comes Early,” “The Silver Moon Is Shining,” and “Tiritomba.”

28.  “Toviska.”  Songs for Informal Singing.  New York: National Recreation Association, 1938. [WorldCat entry]  The A. C. A. Song Book identifies it as a Moravian folk song arranged by Max V. Exner.

29.  “After School” and “Yangtze Boatman’s Chantey” appear in The Pagoda, arranged by Bliss Wiant.  Cooperative Recreation Service Inc, © 1946.  This is mentioned in the post for 2 October 2022.

30.  “The Carpenters” and “My Farm” appear in Amigos Candando, edited by Phyllis Aden Sanders and Olcutt Sanders.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service; copyrighted 15 October 1948.  This is mentioned briefly in the post for 13 February 2022.

31.  “Ahrirang,” “Holla Hi, Holla Ho!,” “Mill on the Rhine,” “My Bela Bimba,” and “Tamo Daleko” appear in UNESCO, Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service.  Work and Sing: An International Songbook.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc.  It was copyrighted in 1948, but the earliest edition I own was edited by Patricia Dunham Hunt.

32.  “Chimes Grace,” “Round of Thanks,” and “Praise for Bread.”

33.  “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Nobody Knows,” “Steal Away,” “Study War No More,” “Trampin’,” and “Won’t You Sit Down.”  James Weldon Johnson’s “Life Every Voice and Sing” is not a spiritual but often is treated as one.

34.  “Hannukah Hymn,” which begins “Rock of Ages, let our song.”   It was copyrighted in 1932 by the Central Conference of American Rabbis.  The group represented the Reformed Jewish tradition. [65]

35.  Mary A. Lathbury and William F Sherwin.  “Day Is Dying in the West.”  It was written in 1877 for the Chautauqua Assembly. [66]

36.  Sabine Baring-Gould wrote “Now the Day Is Over” in 1865, and Joseph Barnby composed the melody in 1869.  It appeared in the 1868 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern edited by William Henry Monk.  London: J. Alfred Novello. [67]

37.  Handbook of Private Schools.  1915.
38.  Handbook of Summer Camps.  1935.  262.
39.  Handbook of Private Schools.  1915.
40.  “School Leadership.”  Saint Catherine’s School, Richmond, Virginia, website.

41.  Ralph Hubbell.  “As It Was at the Beginning!”  Living Prime Time website, August 1997.

42.  “Come All You Campers” and “When a Breezy Morning.”  A. C. A. Song Book.  36–37.

43.  “Jadda Bird” was published by Isabel Grimes in 1921. [68]
44.  Item.  Vassar Quarterly 25(1):1 October 1939.
45.  Item.  Kappa Kappa Gamma’s The Key 29(2):154:May 1912.

46.  Item.  Pokeepsie Evening Enterprise, Poughkeepsie, New York, 20 February 1915.  6.

“Sunday School Association Convention, Oct 31.”  Poughkeepsie Eagle, Poughkeepsie, New York, 30 October 1914.  7.

Vassar is in Poughkeepsie.

47.  “Camp Wyonegonic.”  Sensagent website reproduces a Wikipedia post that no longer exists.

48.  National Directory.  96.

49.  National Directory.  39.  This included six one-week sessions, and two five-day sessions.

50.   F. E. Jones.  “Off to the Hills.”  A. C. A. Song Book.  34.  Nothing could be found about Jones.

51.  A. C. A. Song Book.  186.
52.  Item.  Ticonderoga Sentinel, Ticondergoa, New York, 6 June 1940.  3.

53.  “Sleepaway: Two Chances to Go Back to Summer Camp.”  American Heritage 43(3):June/July 2003.

54.  National Directory.  186.
55.  “We Think of Camping.”  A. C. A. Song Book.  35.

56.  James J.  Fuld.  The Book of World-Famous Music.  New York: Dover Publications, 2000 edition.  414–415.

57.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs.  282.

58.  The Weavers And Terry Gilkyson.  “Across The Wide Missouri / On Top Of Old Smoky.”  Decca 9-27515; issued 1951. [Discogs entry]

59.  “On Top of Old Smokey.”  The Traditional Ballad Index.  Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle, Ballad Index website, 2023.

60.  “Obe Hoy Sires.”  Mormon’s Family Search website.  He was her father.

61.  Julie G. Miller.  “Navarro County.”  Handbook of Texas Online website.  1976; last updated 28 May 2021.

62.  Ina Sires, Dallas, Texas.  Letter to Erwin E. Smith, 9 July 1926.  Reproduced on Amon Carter Museum of American Art website.

63.  Guy Logsdon.  “The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing” and Other Songs Cowboys Sing.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.  Quoted in a review by George W. Lyon.  Ethnologies 17(2):168–171:1995.  169–170.

64.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs.  54–55.

65.  “Central Conference of American Rabbis.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 27 May 2023.

66.  Donald P.  Hustad.  Dictionary-Handbook to Hymns for the Living Church.  Carol Stream, Illinois: Hope Publishing, 1978.  184.

67.  Hustad.  184.
68.  Item on Picclick website selling sheet music.