Fall 2012 - North Country School

The Inspiration forSummer’s ChildrenPhotography and Insight fromBarbara MorganSummer’s Children, Barbara Morgan’s photographic homage to Treetopsfirst published in 1951, is a well-loved volume prized by generations ofCamp families. Over the years, Barbara’s children, Douglas and Lloyd,and grandchildren, Willard, Adele, and Lael, have generously donated tous archival quality prints of Barbara’s Treetops photographs. Last winterthe Morgan family sent us several more photographs. We chose the threepresented here because they capture so vividly the child’s world of whimsyand play that Helen Haskell (pictured at right) created.In addition to the photographs, the family sent an unexpected treasure: a copyof an interview that Barbara gave in 1971 at UCLA, her alma mater, to oralhistorian Bernard Galm. In it she speaks at length, and with evident affectionand admiration, of Helen and Doug Haskell, of life at Treetops, and of theexact moment in the early 1940s when her inspiration for Summer’s Childrencame into focus. Below are excerpts from the interview. For additional photos,visit www.camptreetops.org/bmorgan.“Well, now, let’s see how to do this. We knew the Haskells just after having ourfirst child. So they immediately told us, ‘Well, sometime you must come up andvisit us at the Camp, and bring Douglas.’ And we did, and I just can’t imagine ourchildren’s childhood without this marvelous experience in the camp.“… The main pitch was… they wanted to expand the city child’s experience andtune them in to the basic experience of nature. So each summer children fromwealthy families, from totally poverty stricken families, children from everyethnic group, and so on were all brought together in this warm atmosphere of—well, literally—of love.“… And they didn’t take children that were really problem children, like psychoticchildren; on the other hand, every child has certain problems. All of us do. Andthat is what Helen wanted to know… For the most part every kid has some littleslight hang-up, and so if a child was a little bit afraid of a mountain trip, the childwouldn’t just be thrust into it. But they’d go through some modest experience andget such a kick out of it that by the time they went on a real trip, they were readyfor it. And it was that kind of preparation that was always going on.“… Incidentally, one of the wonderful things about this camp, Mrs. Haskell andMr. Haskell always had animals there for the children to love and to be responsiblepage 9 Organic Roots Fall 2012