Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 9.04 Travel
Presentation #1 Title
Horace Kephart, Women, and Outdoor Adventure in the 1920s
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Mae Miller Claxton Western Carolina University Horace Kephart, Women, and Outdoor Adventure in the 1920s I plan to explore Horace Kephart’s writings about women in the outdoors and their participation in the outdoor adventure market in the 1920s as shown in the outdoor periodicals where Kephart published his articles. When Horace Kephart ventured into his “back of beyond,” he did not, significantly, take his wife and children with him. While there were probably several complicated reasons he left his family behind, some might speculate that he wished to live in a “man’s world” of hunting and camping, where the domestic life was eschewed in favor of life out in the open. Whatever Kephart might have wished, women soon entered the world of outdoor adventure, as shown in the periodicals that published his work. For example, in summer 1920, Field and Stream and Outers’ Recreation published a Vacation Manual: For Outdoor Men and Women. On the cover, a woman, dressed in pants and boots, stands with two other men on a dock next to a canoe on a lake, ready to join the hunting trip. In this same publication, Horace Kephart’s article entitled “The Chef in the Wilderness” is featured. My hypothesis is that in the 1920s women’s roles were beginning to change, and the market reflected their participation in active outdoor activities. I am interested in how Kephart’s writings reflected or did not reflect these changes.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Mae Miller Claxton teaches Appalachian literature at Western Carolina University. She is currently co-editing a volume on Horace Kephart's writings.
Horace Kephart, Women, and Outdoor Adventure in the 1920s
Mae Miller Claxton Western Carolina University Horace Kephart, Women, and Outdoor Adventure in the 1920s I plan to explore Horace Kephart’s writings about women in the outdoors and their participation in the outdoor adventure market in the 1920s as shown in the outdoor periodicals where Kephart published his articles. When Horace Kephart ventured into his “back of beyond,” he did not, significantly, take his wife and children with him. While there were probably several complicated reasons he left his family behind, some might speculate that he wished to live in a “man’s world” of hunting and camping, where the domestic life was eschewed in favor of life out in the open. Whatever Kephart might have wished, women soon entered the world of outdoor adventure, as shown in the periodicals that published his work. For example, in summer 1920, Field and Stream and Outers’ Recreation published a Vacation Manual: For Outdoor Men and Women. On the cover, a woman, dressed in pants and boots, stands with two other men on a dock next to a canoe on a lake, ready to join the hunting trip. In this same publication, Horace Kephart’s article entitled “The Chef in the Wilderness” is featured. My hypothesis is that in the 1920s women’s roles were beginning to change, and the market reflected their participation in active outdoor activities. I am interested in how Kephart’s writings reflected or did not reflect these changes.
