Text by Robert Peterson
Photographs by Steve Seeger

• Celebrating 90 years of service
• First Issue: April 15, 1913 [PDF file]
• Some items taken from the pages of 85 years of Scouting magazine.
• Scouting Magazine Comes of Age: An Editor Remembers
• 75 Years in the Life of a Magazine

Begun as a newsletter to convey information from the national office to volunteer leaders, the BSA's official magazine has grown into a widely respected publication with a circulation of about one million readers.

This magazine was born 85 years ago, on April 15, 1913. The Boy Scouts of America was barely three years old and growing like Topsy.

Thousands of inquiries from new and prospective Scout leaders flooded BSA national headquarters in New York City. More than 10,000 letters a month inundated the 56 employees, who were also busy sending out twice that number of communications.

To stem the tide of mail, the National Council decided to start a semimonthly "bulletin" called Scouting, in a format that today we would term a newsletter.

For the first couple of years, issues of Scouting were limited to either four or eight pages, with no separate cover.

'Boy problems' and more

In its first issue, the new publication stated that it intended to cover the actions of the National Council, "boy problems," and ways to foster fellowship among Scouts and Scouters.

The mission statement read, "We want every Scout Master, as well as every boy, to feel that he is part of a tremendous institution that is making for greater love for the outdoors, a greater pride in muscular prowess and a keener stimulus toward strength and nobility of character."

On the editorial page, the editors vowed, "The keynote of this publication will be service."

Memorabilia from the National Scouting Museum, reflecting more than eight decades of BSA history, includes an early issue of Scouting, which since 1913 has been a major source of information and program help for leaders.

The pioneer Scoutmasters needed all the help they could get. Except for Army veterans of the Spanish-American War, few American men had ever hiked or camped or practiced any outdoor skills. In working with their Scouts, most looked to two books for guidance: the first Boy Scout handbook, titled the Handbook for Boys, and the brand-new Handbook for Scout Masters.

Scouting magazine quickly became another resource for unit leaders. In its third issue, for example, Scouting ran an article titled "Preparing for a Scout Camp." Among other things, the article told how to serve up four hearty meals for an overnight camp-out at an average cost per boy of nine cents a meal.

Scores of such advice pieces appeared during Scouting magazine's first few years. There were also regular reports on Good Turns--collections of food and clothing for flood victims along the Ohio River, fighting brush fires, cleaning churchyards, and gathering supplies and helping to feed 6,000 people after fire destroyed a third of the buildings in Salem, Mass.

There were short items about missing boys and program suggestions from Scoutmasters. The itineraries of national field commissioners, who were touring the country to organize local councils and troops, were given, so that men could confer with them when they passed through town.

Scouting's first issue (above, at left) was dated April 15, 1913. The eight-page, twice-a-month publication promised "to be of service to all who are engaged in Scouting." The first news items included an announcement of the new handbook for Scoutmasters. Over the next two decades, Scouting evolved into a full magazine, each monthly issue having a distinctive cover.

Stuff from the front

The Front Line Stuff column, one of the magazine's most popular features through the years, was born in 1917.

Its initial name was "Typical Troop Problem." Evidently the questions posed were created by the editors rather than readers, as they are today, but many of them sound familiar. One of the first asked how a troop could hold on to its older Scouts. And every year or two since then, Front Line Stuff has asked readers to respond to that same question.

Signs of the times

Not surprisingly, Scouting magazine's pages have always reflected the times. When that older-Scout question was first posed, U.S. soldiers were in the trenches in France as World War I engulfed Europe. Every issue of the magazine urged support for the Liberty Loan drives that helped to finance the war effort, asked troops to plant gardens to augment food supplies, or gave advice on other BSA efforts in service to the nation.

As the war was winding down in late 1918, an influenza pandemic raged worldwide. Twenty million people died, including more than a half million in the United States. Scouting magazine told how to prevent the spread of the flu and how to care for the sick.

Influenza was not the only deadly disease in that era before antibiotics were developed. Even as flu was ravaging the nation, Scouting had a page of advice on why and how to kill the common housefly, a carrier of typhoid fever and other diseases. It also reported that the Philadelphia Scout council was offering a "fresh air badge" to alert Scouts to the dangers of tuberculosis.

In the 1930s Scouting's covers often reflected national concerns, such as the country's response to the Great Depression (above, at left) and worldwide threats to individual freedoms. Full-color covers were rare, but at least one issue a year featured the work of illustrator Norman Rockwell, who was pictured at work (above, right) on the February 1963 cover.

Covers make the magazine

In 1920, when Scouting was seven years old, it went from semimonthly to monthly publication. During the decade of the 1920s, it began to look more like a magazine and less like a newsletter. Covers appeared for the first time, mostly with black-and-white photographs.

For three years during the 1920s, Scoutmasters did not have to depend solely on Scouting magazine for up-to-date information about the Scouting movement and ideas for programs. Columbia University offered a monthly publication for Scouters who took its correspondence course in Scout leadership. (At the time several universities had advanced training for Scouters.) Columbia's Scoutmastership Notes started in early 1924 and merged with Scouting magazine in December 1926.

During the years of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Scouting magazine looked much like other national magazines of the time. On the cover, the centerpiece was usually a black-and-white photo accented with a bright red Scouting nameplate and a red border. Inside, most of the 34 pages had black-and-white photos or artwork.

The contents regularly included four pages of "Troop Program Suggestions," the equivalent of today's program features from Woods Wisdom.

Typical articles dealt with issues such as "Why Do They Drop Out?" "Let Your Leaders Lead," "Financing the Troop," and "How Hard Shall We Make the Requirements?"

Most issues included a safety column by Fred C. Mills, the longtime director of the BSA's Health and Safety Service.

Many of the how-to articles and inspirational messages, however, were still being written by Scoutmasters and other BSA volunteers.

Advertising became more evident. Every issue had ads for outboard motors; canoes; hiking shoes; plastic wood for modeling; sleeping bags; a correspondence school for would-be engineers, architects, and chemists; baseball bats; and fire extinguishers for camp. The inside back cover was reserved for an ad from the BSA Supply Service, while the back cover almost always advertised either Baby Ruth candy bars or Mercurochrome first-aid disinfectant.

World War II and beyond

As it had in World War I, Scouting magazine gave ample coverage to the BSA's services during World War II.

Undoubtedly one of the best-read articles in the magazine's history appeared in February 1942, two months after a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii had plunged the United States into the war. A sketchy and heavily censored report told how heroic Hawaiian Scouts had rescued victims of the bombing, fought fires, served as guards and messengers for the authorities, and helped evacuate citizens from bombed-out areas.

On the mainland, wartime service by Scouts and Explorers was more prosaic but also important. Scouts planted Victory Gardens; collected massive amounts of aluminum, wastepaper, rubber, and scrap metal for recycling; and undertook a host of other services.

In the postwar years, while baby boomer boys were taking BSA membership to new heights, Scouting magazine cut back to 10 24-page issues per year.

The artwork was becoming more sophisticated. Three- and four-color covers were common. Except for Front Line Stuff and the Worth Retelling column, there was less reliance on the contributions of volunteer Scouters. Most articles were written by staff members and professional Scouters.

Covers in the 1950s promoted BSA national Good Turns, like the "Get Out the Vote" effort in 1952, or captured the dynamics of membership growth as baby boomers reached Scout age. In the 1960s and 1970s, the magazine told readers about new BSA program activities, like Cub Scout model rocketry. Today's magazine features color from front to back.

Color! Color! Color!

Color photography and color printing made great advances after the war. By the early 1970s about half of the magazine's articles were illustrated with four-color photos, albeit not of today's quality.

From November 1953 until the mid-1960s, program outlines and ideas for packs, troops, and posts were not included in the magazine. Instead, they were sent to leaders in separate publications called Program Quarterlies. After that, the program outlines were again bound into the magazine and later could also be purchased in annual booklets called Program Helps.

During the past 20 years, Scouting magazine has become much more colorful, thanks to advances in photography, printing, and the use of the computer in editing. Stories are shorter and punchier, with many aimed at families as well as Scout leaders.

But the magazine's mission remains the same: to help volunteer leaders do a better job in their role as Scouters.

Scouting magazine contributing editor Robert Peterson is the author of The Boy Scouts: An American Adventure.

Scouting Magazine Comes of Age By Ernest Doclar, Editor Emeritus A former editor recalls how, in the wake of World War II, the BSA's magazine for leaders received a major face-lift, new staff, and a revitalized commitment to quality. The war years of 1939-45 dramatically changed the lives of Americans in many ways. And as World War II ended, its impact helped to profoundly alter the BSA and its magazines. Editors, writers, photographers, and artists, their skills honed by wartime assignments, shucked their uniforms, eager to get back to careers in civilian life. Other former servicemen paused to earned a college degree, thanks to the GI Bill, then joined the job hunt. Many of these young men stormed the BSA personnel office for a chance to work for our magazines. [Women were rare in the BSA then, although the Boys' Life staff did boast Frances (Fran) Smith, as good a fiction editor as you'd ever find.] Competing with the best Though I missed riding the crest of the immediate postwar wave, several of my dear friends and mentors, now retired or deceased, thrived during those days. A Navy veteran who had been a Scout as a boy, Bob Hood earned a degree in English before joining the editorial staff of Boys' Life in 1953. Eleven years later he advanced to editor, then was promoted to editor-in-chief of all BSA magazines. Bob dreamed great dreams that our magazines could compete head-to-head with the nation's best. A reporter once asked him, "What's the secret of writing for the BSA's magazines?" "There's nothing different about writing for our magazines," he replied. "Our readers are a typical cross section of the American public. You must never write down to them--especially not to the boy readers of Boys' Life." A district executive from the Deep South, I received a chance in 1964 to write for the BSA's magazines. I soon noticed that in his drive to u pgrade the image of Boys' Life and other BSA magazines, Bob Hood never hesitated to hire big-name artists, writers, and photographers. Now the professional Scouters who managed the national BSA's treasury at the time had become accustomed to pinching pennies in earlier assignments on local council staffs, and they kept a tight grip on the purse strings at the national office. But Hood held his ground. He courted the likes of renowned artists Bob McCall, Salvador Dali, and John Groth; celebrated photographers Andre Kertesz and Ansel Adams; and well-known writers Pearl Buck and Isaac Bashevis Singer. I asked him once why he spent so much money hiring freelance talent. Said Hood: "I want our readers to become discerning, never to be satisfied with just 'good enough.' I want them to sample the best of prose and the graphic arts." Much of the type of content in Scouting magazine hasn't changed in 85 years. However, the variety and quality of presentation has improved considerably, as shown by two examples above. At left, the BSA annual meeting was covered in 1933 and in 1997. At right, a Cub Scout skit was presented to readers in 1933 and a similar feature was offered in 1994. Scouting--a family magazine Hood shared that philosophy and those dreams with his executive editor, Walt Babson. Having served as a military police officer in the war, Babson had earned an English degree from NYU. Unlike Hood, Babson was a professional Scouter who had served as a Greater New York Councils district executive. That stint served the entire magazine division well, as Babson continually advised us from his firsthand experience "in the field" of the great expectations that Scouters and Scouts had of their magazines. Walt joined BL in 1957, then rose to the post of editor of Scouting in 1970. Like Bob Hood, Walt also dreamed lofty thoughts. He envisioned a family magazine for adult Scout leaders that could compare favorably with Parents and Good Housekeeping. Increasing the prestige of Scouting meant hiring top professional writers, artists, and photographers, just as Bob Hood was doing for BL. The Chief Scout Executive, his staff, and the national board endorsed Babson's plan. A demand for quality writing Both Hood and Babson were avid readers, at work poring over countless magazines and books on all subjects and at home reading for pleasure from 30 to 40 books a year. The two editors demanded first-rate writing for their respective magazines. They were gentle but stern taskmasters to staff members and freelancers alike. The latter, in particular, who were being paid top rates competitive with magazines like Outdoor Life and Field & Stream, would often receive their initial draft back with a polite request to rewrite the text. Hood teamed with art director Andy Lessin, who had served with the Army's corps of engineers, to ensure that Boys' Life looked terrific. At Scouting magazine, Babson coaxed Bert Marsh away from the BL staff and installed him as art director for the new Scouting-as-a-family-magazine concept. During the war the talented Marsh had worked on the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Other alumni from that venerable service publication also became BSA magazine staffers: Harry Harchar, the BL editor who first hired me, and Gene Allendorf, production specialist, who learned his trade with the Army in World War II's Italian campaign. In 1991, I succeeded Walt Babson as editor of Scouting. It was a dream assignment, and I had a surefire formula for success. Having learned from all my associates who had earned their stripes in the postwar era, I simply carried on the traditions they had started. For that I am forever grateful to them. And for the quality magazines that Scouting and Boys' Life are today, all of us should be thankful for their efforts. Ernie Doclar retired as editor of Scouting magazine in November 1994.

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