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

Series — Box: 6, Folder: 1-9

Identifier: MSS 57 Series 5

Staff Only

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 file them in alphabetical order by interviewee or main subject, thereby matching the filing arrangement of the originals and facilitating more convenient and efficient researcher access. Most typescripts are for interviewees. Some, however, are for subjects such as "Reynolds Court Martial," "Platte bridge," "Wounded Knee," and "Miscellaneous."

Dates

approximately 1905-1925

Creator

Camp, Walter Mason, 1867-1925 (creator, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Most of the collection is open for public research. However, Walter Mason Camp interviews (Series 3) and Walter Mason Camp notes (Series 4) are "Condition restricted" and researchers are asked to use the microfilm copy or transcriptions in Series 5.

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances. Permission to publish material from the Walter Mason Camp papers must be obtained from the Supervior of Reference Services and/or the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Coordinating Committee.

Biographical History

From the Collection:

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 India 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 faithfull 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 Little Bighorn River fight and other battles. He personally visited over forty battlefields and interviewed almost 200 survivors of western battles. Walter Camp died on August 3, 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.