Canadian Boy Scout Diary

This 1935 diary features a cover portrait of Lord Baden-Powell, who founded the Boy Scouts in 1907 largely as a response to his experiences in the Boer War. Emphasizing wilderness survival, early scouting guides included tips on tracking, pathfinding, building shelters, and keeping oneself healthy. Proper and safe camp cooking was particularly stressed, as illustrated by the Scout Food Purity Tests for preventing food poisoning. This guide also reflects a fascination with anthropometrics, with spaces for height, weight, and measurement information. In addition to helping in uniform fitting, this information also served as a measure of health and fitness. Today, the Personal Fitness Merit Badge from the Boy Scouts of America requires arm, shoulder, chest, abdomen, and thigh measurements (Boy Scouts of America), and the Boy Scouts of America has come under criticism for instilling BMI standards for high-adventure activities (Garfinkle).

This book also illustrates the Boy Scouts’ and Scouts Canada’s early connection to food companies. Scouts could order a free Klim recipe guide in the mail, for example. Similarly, the Kellogg Company produced A Manual of Cooking for Boy Scouts (c. 1949?) in the United States. It featured recipes for All-Bran muffins and pancakes, for example, as well as Rice Krispies brittle and other treats. While some recipes used conventional cups and tablespoon measurements, others also included a novel alternative in the form of “Handfuls” and “Fingers” (12).