Imagine tall trees across the lake, a calm breeze, children laughing in the distance, the scent of your old canvas tent – there’s no forgetting the sights, sounds, smells and feel of summer camp.

Even if you’ve never gone to an overnight summer camp, you can still conjure visions of these iconic American outdoor places, thanks to books like “Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great,” TV shows like “Salute Your Shorts,” and films like “Wet Hot American Summer,” “Friday the 13th” and “The Parent Trap.”

However, popular culture can’t fully explain why summer camps hold such a nostalgic and almost obsessive place in the nation’s collective consciousness.

For many, attending summer camp is a rite of passage. But these camps originally arose to address a deeper anxiety held by parents, leaders and reformers, who worried about the character development of children and sought to use these places as training grounds for good American citizens.

One of us, Seth, currently works as a summer camp director. But we’re both scholars of geography who see summer camps as important educational spaces outside the traditional classroom. At camp, young people practice living with others, encounter people from different backgrounds and create community together.

At a time when Americans disagree deeply over the meaning of citizenship, belonging and education, summer camps remain places where values and visions of America as inclusive or exclusive are communicated to young people.

From urban refuge to national ritual

American summer camps date back to the mid-19th century. The first organized one is often attributed to educator and outdoorsman Frederick W. Gunn, who founded The Gunnery Camp in Washington, Connecticut, in 1861. There, boys were encouraged to march, fight, hunt, forage and live in the outdoors like soldiers.

Other summer camps soon planted flags of their own. In 1874, the Young Women’s Christian Association hosted its first summer camp in New Jersey, with other youth organizations such as the YMCA, the Boys Club and 4-H, a federal youth........

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