[Wohelo Camp Footage 1919-1923]

Date1919 – 1923

AbstractNITRATE // Promotional work featuring Wohelo camp activities. // Intertitled. // Canoe paddling by team of young women, who dive off canoe together; jewelry making; clay and pottery craft; painting, decorating canoe paddle; horsemanship scenes (riding together and one young woman attempting to stay on bucking pony); hoeing in field, farm crops; capturing bees, corn husks and smoking bonfire; picnic, eating corn on the cob beside lake; canoe sailing on lake; two women paddling canoe and pulling on shore; cooking over open fire using skillet; 'The 1919 Flappers' flipping pancakes in skillet; procession of women to the canoes on lake shore, paddling out into lake; synchronized diving off canoe to show 'teamwork'; paddling in unison to shore, disembarking from canoes; women marching with paddles from the canoes; night shots of bonfire, women in 'Native American' dress moving around the fire; women sit, then recline around bonfire. End. - 11/1996

Viewing NotesTitle: ‘On the shores of Lake Sebago, Maine, dozens of radiant clear-eyed girls made the Luther Gulick camp, Wohelo, their own. Here under the personal super-vision of the late Dr. Luther H. Gulick and Mrs. Gulick they absorbed an intensive course of outdoor work.’ A group of girls (campers) paddling a canoe, and then diving out. Intertitle: ‘With true emergency spirit, they made their own jewelry----an excellent thing in woman.’ Girls seated by the lake, making jewelry. Intertitle: ‘What a great help this girl will be to her family! When Bridget smashes the company china, she can dash into the back yard, grab up a handful of mud and make a brand new set.’ A girl making clay pottery and placing it in a kiln. Intertitle: ‘Each girl’s paddle bore her symbol, and now the Lake Sebago fish are experts on Indian art.’ Campers seated by the lake, painting paddles. Intertitle: ‘One of the first things they learned was horsemanship.’ A girl poses next to a horse. Campers saddling and riding horses. Intertitle: ‘Attempting to straddle a ticklish situation.’ A girl is bucked off of a pony. Campers gardening. Intertitle: ‘Not content with overcoming a regiment of potato bugs and the like, they captured a squadron of bees and tamed them.’ Campers watch as a woman wearing netting smokes a bee hive and opening it up. Campers harvesting corn. Cooking around a camp fire. Intertitle: ‘Corn cobs should never be gnawed at the dinner table. The performer needs space and plenty freedom.’ Campers eating corn by the lake. A sailboat. Intertitle: ‘Canoe sailing had no terrors for them. If they lacked a sail, they put up a sheet or a sweater, and on the wooded banks of Sebago were as much at home as on the cement shores of Fifth Avenue.’ Campers trying to sail a canoe. The girls setting up camp. Cooking pancakes over a campfire. Intertitle: ‘The 1919 Flapper.’ Flipping pancakes. Sleeping under a propped up canoe. Intertitle: ‘“Hard as nails and dipped in sunshine.”’ Girls carrying paddles walking to the lake. Campers canoeing. Intertitle: ‘The spirit of camaraderie that makes for perfect teamwork.’ Campers canoeing, then jumping into the water. Campers on shore. Intertitle: ‘One small warrior in a camp of Amazons. With true masculine coyness he objected to being collared.’ A woman holding a toddler and a bunny. Intertitle: ‘Making the sparks fly. A feminine prerogative as old as Eve.’ A woman using a bow drill to kindle a fire. Campers dancing around a campfire. Intertitle: ‘A polite hint for you to go home.’ Girls laying down next to the campfire. [End of Reel]