Classic Backpacking Gear

[Kent V]

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: 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.

[David Gardner]

Excellent

[Kent V]

Thanks for watching!

[W I S N E R !]

This is great, thank you Kent. I will stay tuned…

[Matthew / BPL]

The first video was very interesting. My historian spouse (who has no interest in gear) ended up watching with me. I’m looking forward to watching more! Thanks for putting that together.

[Kent V]

Thanks for watching!

 

[Scott H]

I look foreword to seeing some of this.  I remember as a child, there was this back pack that we would play with and take out in the woods.  I always thought it military, but after your posting above, It might have just been an old camping pack.  The materials and colors looked military, but the design did not look like any pack I ever saw from WWII which was about the time this pack would have been from as in 1930s through 1950s.

[Kent V]

Before the advent of nylon, most packs, civilian and military, were made of khaki canvas. Most canvas manufacturers relied on both the agricultural and military markets for selling their products. Agricultural canvas, and some civilian tents, were generally of white canvas. The military demanded khaki and in order to keep material on hand to fulfill anticipated contracts, the canvas manufacturers kept the khaki material and dyes on hand. After both World Wars (and WW2 especially) gear manufacturers had a lot of material in their warehouses that had been bought to fulfill contracts that were cancelled at the end of the war and used that material on hand for the civilian market.

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