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Camp, Walter Mason, 1867-1925

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1867 - 1925

Biographical History

Walter Mason Camp (1867-1925) was a railroad engineer and writer, in the midwestern United States. Camp also performed research on the history of the Indian Wars of the Plains, in particular the Battle of the Little Big Horn of 1876.

Walter Camp was born on April 21, 1867 to Treat Bosworth Camp and Hannah A. Brown in Camptown, Pennsylvania. In 1883, he began his railroad service on the Lehigh Valley Railroad as a trackman, which would lead to his forty-two year railroad career. He entered Pennsylvania State College in the fall of 1887, and graduated as a civil engineer in 1891. In 1895 Camp resumed post graduate studies in electrical and steam engineering at the University of Wisconsin. In 1898 Walter married Emeline L. F. Sayles in Blue Island, Illinois. Walter Camp became the engineering editor of the "Railway and Engineering Review" in 1897 and served faithful and well as a railway editor for the following twenty-eight years.

Walter Camp's interest in documenting the Indian Wars began in 1903, after which his vacations for the following twenty summers were spent in research among the Indians and in talking with people who had survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn and other battles. He personally visited over forty battlefields and interviewed almost 200 survivors of western battles. Walter Camp died in 1925 in Kankakee, Illinois having published very little of his Indian wars research, but having collected an amount of original source material during his lifetime.

Citation:
Railway Review, Aug. 8, 1925: p. 197-198 (Walter Mason Camp; Walter M. Camp; b. 1867 Camptown, Pennsylvania; d. 1925 Kankakee, Illinois; parents: Treat Bosworth Camp and Hannah A. Brown; worked Lehi Valley railroad; student Penn State College; graduate University of Wisconsin; married Emeline L. F. Sayles, Railway and Engineering Review editor; research on Indians of the Plains during summers, Battle of the Little Big Horn)

Custer in '76, Kenneth Hammer, 1976 (Camp, Walter M.)

Manuscripts, Hammer, Kenneth and Dennis Rowley, 1975 (Custer's Man Camp--Oral Historian Without Peer)

Found in 86 Collections and/or Records:

W. C. Brown papers

 Collection — Box 1: [Barcode: 31197231062875]
Identifier: MSS 1474
Scope and Contents

Manuscripts with some photocopies. The collection includes correspondence, articles and notes pertaining to Western American history, emphasizing the Indian wars. Also includes a copy of A Guide to the William Carey Brown Papers found at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dates: 1921-1938

Walter Mason Camp papers

 Collection
Identifier: MSS 57
Abstract The collection consists of correspondence, interview notes, general research and field notes, drafts of writings, photographs, maps, newsclippings and miscellaneous research and reference materials created and collected by Camp, and pertaining to the Indian Wars of the plains (1864-1890). The bulk of the collection consists of the correspondence (1908-1923), interviews, general research and field notes (1890-1924). Chief interviewees and correspondents were the officers, enlisted men, and...
Dates: approximately 1870-1943

Walter Mason Camp photograph collection

 Collection — Box 1: [Barcode: 31197233280335]
Identifier: MSS P 16
Scope and Contents Collection contains photographs of battlefields, groups of Native Americans, and portraits of notable individuals who were prominent in the Indian Wars including George A. Custer and other U.S. Army and Native American participants. Original prints (including albumen, cartes-de-visite, and cabinet cards), copy prints, postcards, halftones, engravings, and selected copy negatives prepared by the repository staff. The bulk of the collection was compiled by Walter Mason Camp and pertains almost...
Dates: 1862-1929

Robert Spurrier Ellison papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS SC 568
Scope and Contents

Microfilmed copies of handwritten and typescripts of interview notes, correspondence, general notes, and lists. The materials relate primarily to the Indian wars of North America from 1866 to 1895. The original materials reside in the Ellison--Camp collection at the Denver Public Library. The items were initialy created and collected by Walter Mason Camp with some materials generated by Robert Ellison. Also included are typescripts of some of the items.

Dates: 1865-1925

Kenneth M. Hammer research notes

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 1473
Scope and Contents This collection consists of typesripts and some photocopies with holograph notations of Hammer's research primarily relating to "Custer in '76" which he edited for publication. The final draft of this work is included in the collection. This book is a compilation of primary source materials, mostly interviews with surviving participants, relating to the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. These notes are verbatim transcripts of selected materials and were made by Hammer with the...
Dates: 1966-1976

Walter Mason Camp biographical information, 1925 August 8

 Series
Identifier: MSS 57 Series 1
Scope and Contents

Contains biographical sketch of Camp written in Railway Review railroad journal.

Dates: 1925 August 8

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F18_B1a_F19
Dates: 1911 July-October

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F19_B1a_F20
Dates: 1911 November

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F20_B1a_F21
Dates: 1911-1912

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F21_B1a_F22
Dates: 1911-1913

Filtered By

  • Subject: Indians of North America -- Wars X

Additional filters:

Type
Digital Record 72
Archival Object 9
Collection 5
 
Subject
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1866-1895 85
Interviews 41
Letters 41
Military 6
Politics, Government, and Law 6