[WOMEN] [OUTDOORS] Mudjekeewis 1936-1939 [four camp yearbooks, bound together, with tipped-in photographs]

[Lovell, ME]: [Camp Mudjekeewis], 1939. String-bound. Near fine. Oblong quarto, 4 volumes, bound together at the spine with rope/string. Overall in near fine condition; well preserved, with mild soiling to outer wraps, and some gentle wrinkling to some photographs, but generally neat and attractive.

A fantastic group of four yearbooks for this rural camp for girls in western Maine, near the New Hampshire border. Altogether (over the four yearbooks), there are 59 photographs, nearly all measuring about 4.5" x 2.75", including a thin white border. The photographs are neatly tipped onto individual leaves, each of which has been printed quite elaborately in a single-color green woodcut or linocut image, which serves as a background or border for the image. Each of the four yearbooks uses a different design, used throughout each volume, but each design has a distinct, stylized camp-related theme. The photographs are a nice mix of staged/posed and candid shots (though there are definitely more of the posed variety), showing girls from perhaps as young as 8 or 9 to as old as 18 enjoying summer camp activities, such as rowing, horseback riding, drama, tennis, hiking, and the like. A full list of campers and their home addresses is printed at the rear of each volume, along with "Honors" noting girls who excelled at various activities.

No such yearbook for this camp is separately listed in OCLC, but we presume there are some survivors in private hands, and we know of a partial collection of similar yearbooks, held at the Lovell, ME Historical Society. An unusually well-composed and attractive group of camp yearbook albums for a girl's camp; also a defiant expression of joy during the nadir of the Great Depression.