Over the years, I’ve managed to fill up the garage and vex the women in my life by not ever throwing any camping gear away. In the late 1980s I started collecting Militaria and in the course of that I’ve bought items originally thought to be military that turned out to be camping gear that just looked military. I’ve long since sold or traded the Militaria but kept hold of the camping gear. My Grandfather was a long-time militaria collector and part of the advice I received from him was “We buy this stuff to hold onto for the next guy and so we can talk about it. If we’re lucky, we get to tell a story.” This advice, along with embarking on the Classic Camping Living History I talk about in this thread:Â Classic Camping | Bushcraft USA Forums
has led me to create a playlist on my long dead YouTube channel talking about the History of Design and the development of camping gear of the 20th Century. Its going to be a big chore long in the doing as the plan is to go from about 1890 to 1989. To keep it smaller, I’ve decided to keep it general and not exhaustive. The series is intended to be an adjunct of the Classic Camping Living History and to help Old Gear collectors identify pieces and modern-day gear designers a working knowledge of the foundation of camping gear design.
I start with sleeping bags, then stoves and backpacks. So far, were in the late 1920s, early 1930s. Here’s the first video in the series.
