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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:

Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F22_B1a_F23
Dates: 1913 May-December
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F1_B1_F2
Dates: 1908 January-September
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F2_B1_F3
Dates: 1908 October-November
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F3_B1_F4
Dates: 1908 December
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F4_B1_F5
Dates: 1909 January-February
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F6_B1_F7
Dates: 1909 April-May
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F7_B1_F8
Dates: 1909 June-July
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F8_B1_F9
Dates: 1909 August-October
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F9_B1_F10
Dates: 1909 November
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F10_B1_F11
Dates: 1909-1910

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