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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 96 Collections and/or Records:

Walter Mason Camp interviews with Group 2, between 1903 and 1923

 Sub-Series
Identifier: MSS 57 Series 3 Sub-Series 2
Scope and Contents From the Series:

Contains records of interviews conducted by Camp for his research on the Indian Wars.

Dates: Other: between 1903 and 1923

Walter Mason Camp interviews with Group 3, between 1903 and 1923

 Sub-Series
Identifier: MSS 57 Series 3 Sub-Series 3
Scope and Contents From the Series:

Contains records of interviews conducted by Camp for his research on the Indian Wars.

Dates: Other: between 1903 and 1923

Walter Mason Camp notes, between 1905 and 1923

 Series
Identifier: MSS 57 Series 4
Scope and Contents Contains notes prepared by Camp in the course of his research. Includes all general field notes and research notes, which is defined for filing purposes as all non-interview compilations in Camp's hand except maps and accompanying notes and drafts well-developed enough to be distinguished as writings. Most of Camp's general notes consist of questions either to ask of a future interviewee or to answer through research, along with reminders about people to see, where to find them and related...
Dates: Other: between 1905 and 1923

Walter Mason Camp research and reference file, between 1870 and 1943

 Series
Identifier: MSS 57 Series 7
Scope and Contents

Contains primary and secondary sources about various people, places and events involved in the Indian Wars. This includes articles, newspaper clippings, copies of accounts, letters, printed epherema, diaries, copies of reports, obituaries, notes, and maps. The research and reference file contains mostly materials collected by Camp and authored by others. Also, it contains everything that would not fit in any of the other categories in the collection.

Dates: Other: between 1870 and 1943

Walter Mason Camp typescripts of selected interviews and notes, approximately 1905-1925

 Series — Box 6: Series 5; Series 6 [Barcode: 31197225556205], Folder: 1-9
Identifier: MSS 57 Series 5
Scope and Contents Contains typescripts of selected interviews and notes. The typescripts of selected interviews and notes were an outgrowth of Kenneth Hammer's work on the book Custer in '76. As indicated, they are not a complete typescript for all the interviews and notes in the collection. Those filed here consist of a photocopy of the original which has been cut apart with scissors (and as such many pages carry original page numbers and markings such as "End of folder," which should be ignored) in order to...
Dates: approximately 1905-1925

Walter Mason Camp writings, between 1910 and 1923

 Series
Identifier: MSS 57 Series 6
Scope and Contents

Contains drafts of the planned book, articles, and speeches written by Camp on the 7th Cavalry. These include materials from "Death of F. F. Gerard, a Custer Scout," "Some of the Indian Battles and Battlefield, Order of the Indian Wars Address," and "The Story of Custer and the Seventh Cavalry."

Dates: Other: between 1910 and 1923

Additional filters:

Type
Digital Record 76
Archival Object 13
Collection 7
 
Subject
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1866-1895 85
Interviews 42
Letters 41
Military 7
Politics, Government, and Law 7