Daniel Carter Beard

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Daniel Carter Beard bigraphy, stories - Scouts

Daniel Carter Beard : biography

June 21, 1850 – June 11, 1941

Daniel Carter "Uncle Dan" Beard (June 21, 1850 – June 11, 1941) was an American illustrator, author, youth leader, and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

Works

  • The American Boy’s Handy Book (1882) (1903) still in print
  • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, (1889), illustrator, still in print
  • The American Boy’s Book of Sport (1890)
  • The American Claimant by Mark Twain, (1892), illustrator, still in print
  • Moonblight and Six Feet of Romance (1892) still in print
  • The Outdoor Handy Book (1896) still in print
  • (1897) contributing illustrator
  • Jack of All Trades (1900) still in print
  • Field and Forest Handy Book (1906) still in print
  • Handicraft for Outdoor Boys (1906)
  • Animal Book and Campfire Stories (1907)
  • Boy Pioneers and Sons of Daniel Boone (1909)
  • Boat Building, and Boating(1912) still in print
  • still in print
  • The American Boy’s Book of Bugs, Butterflies and Beetles (1916)
  • (1918)
  • The American Boy’s Book of Camp-Lore and Woodcraft (1920) still in print
  • The American Boy’s Book of Wild Animals (1921)
  • The Black Wolf-Pack (1922)
  • American Boy’s Book of Birds and Brownies of the Woods (1923)
  • Do It Yourself (1925)
  • Wisdom of the Woods (1926)
  • Buckskin Book For Buckskin Men and Boys (1929)
  • Hardly A Man is Now Alive (1939) his autobiography

Early life

Beard was born in Cincinnati, Ohio into a family of artists. As a youth, he explored the woods and made sketches of nature. He lived at 322 East Third Street in Covington, Kentucky near the Licking River, where he learned the stories of Kentucky pioneer life.

He started an early career as an engineer and surveyor. He attended art school in New York City. He wrote a series of articles for St. Nicholas Magazine that later formed the basis for the The American Boy’s Handy Book. He was a member of the Student Art League, where he met and befriended Ernest Thompson Seton in 1883. He illustrated a number of books for Mark Twain, and for other authors such as Ernest Crosby.

Beard became the editor of Recreation magazine and wrote a monthly column for youth. He founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, basing it on American frontier traditions. He later moved his column to Woman’s Home Companion. After conflicts with a new editor, he moved to the Pictorial Review. Since Women’s Home Companion retained the rights to the name, he simply renamed the organization to Boy Pioneers of America.

Scouting

Beard merged his organization into the Boy Scouts of America when it was founded in 1910. Beard became one of the first National Scout Commissioners of the Boy Scouts and served it for 30 years. He later became the editor of Boys’ Life magazine, the BSA official magazine, and wrote a monthly column for youth. The work of both Beard and Ernest Thompson Seton are in large part the basis of the Traditional Scouting movement.

Beard also helped his sister organize the Camp Fire Girls and became president of the Camp Fire Club of America. Beard was a Freemason in a New York Lodge, and an award for Masonic Scouters has been named in his honor.

Beard founded Boy Scouts Troop 1 in Flushing, New York, which is believed to be one of the oldest continuously chartered Boy Scout Troop in the United States. Beard became an Eagle Scout at the age of 64 on February 15, 1915.

Prior to the establishment of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, Dan Beard was recipient of the only "gold Eagle badge" awarded at the Second National Training Conference of Scout Executives held in 1922 in Blue Ridge, North Carolina.