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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_F37_B2_F15
Dates: 1923-1925
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F38_B2_F16
Dates: approximately 1911-1920
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence
Image of Walter Mason Camp correspondence

Walter Mason Camp correspondence, 1909 March

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S2_F5_B1_F6
Dates: 1909 March
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview of David L. Brainard
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview of Da...

Walter Mason Camp interview of David L. Brainard

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S3_SS1_I5_B2a_F17
Dates: 1912 October 14
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview of John Foley
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview of Jo...

Walter Mason Camp interview of John Foley

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S3_SS1_I9_B2a_F18
Dates: Majority of material found within between 1903 and 1922
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview of William Garnett
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview of Wi...

Walter Mason Camp interview of William Garnett

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S3_SS1_I10_B2a_F18
Dates: approximately 1907
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview with Charles Albert Phelps Hatfield
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview with ...

Walter Mason Camp interview with Charles Albert Phelps Hatfield

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S3_SS1_I15_B2a_F19
Dates: between 1905 and 1923
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview with Charles Morton
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview with ...

Walter Mason Camp interview with Charles Morton

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S3_SS1_I20_B2a_F19
Dates: 1912 October 14
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview with Dennis Lynch
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview with ...

Walter Mason Camp interview with Dennis Lynch

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S3_SS1_I18_B2a_F19
Dates: 1908-1909
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview with Francis M. Gibson
Image of Walter Mason Camp interview with ...

Walter Mason Camp interview with Francis M. Gibson

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSS57_S3_SS1_I12_B2a_F18
Dates: 1910 December 7

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