Special Collections: Guide to the Kippewa for Girls Records

Arranged and described by Brenda Howitson Steeves
Raymond H. Fogler Library Special Collections Department
October 2004
 
Introduction and Summary Information
 
Collection Title: Kippewa for Girls Records.
Dates of the Collection: 1963-2002 (inclusive); 1967-1974 (bulk).
Provenance: Gift from Martin Silverman in 1975 and 1976.
Collection Number: MS 280.
Box Numbers: 1-13 (formerly Boxes 754-756b, 957-958a).
Size and Arrangement: The collection consists of five archival record cartons and eight document boxes of material (8.25 cubic feet).
Conservation Note: The collection has been re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes. Selected photographs have been interleaved with acid-free paper.
Preferred Citation: Kippewa for Girls Records, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine.
Restrictions on Access and Use: Kept at Fogler Library's offsite storage facility. One week's notice required for retrieval.

History
 
The collection contains records of Kippewa for Girls, a summer camp located on Lake Cobbosseecontee in Winthrop, Maine.
 
Kippewa was established in 1957 by Martin and Sylvia Silverman. The property on which the camp is located had been used as a resort from about 1917, when Kippewa Kamps, with a main lodge and cabins, was built. It later became Kippewa Lodge, catering to families primarily from the New York area. Significant damage to the site occurred during Hurricane Carol in 1954, and the lodge was not able to re-open. In 1957 Martin Silverman and Frances Axelrod, wife of the owner of the property, founded Kippewa for Girls, and it opened in 1958 with about 60 campers. In 1959 the Silvermans became the sole directors of the camp.
 
Martin Silverman received a B.S. degree from Springfield College and an M.S. in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve University. A professional social worker, he served for 14 years as executive director of the Cambridge Jewish Community Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a member of the Department of Pupil Personnel Services in the Quincy, Massachusetts, public schools. He also worked as a consultant on youth and group work programs and as a member of the fieldwork faculty of the School of Social Work at Boston University. Sylvia Silverman received a B.A. from Oberlin College and did graduate study in education at Case Western Reserve and Northeastern University. She was an elementary school teacher and was active in the Cub Scouts and Campfire Girls.
 
Kippewa for Girls offers programs in horseback riding, studio and performing arts, gymnastics, tennis, field sports, water sports and wilderness camping trips. Its enrollment is limited to 160 girls between the ages of 6 ½ and 16. Its emphasis is on activities that are not readily available at home and that use the camp’s many specialized buildings and lakeside setting. Martin and Sylvia Silverman remain as founding directors, with Jon and Paul Silverman serving as second-generation directors.
 
Scope and Content Note
 
The collection contains primarily financial records and a large number of photographs of camp activities.
 
The financial records include check registers and invoices, 1967-1974, for goods and services used by the camp each summer. The photographs include copy sheets used in preparing the camp’s yearbook, Driftwood, as well as copies of the yearbooks themselves, 1963-2002. Most of the extensive photograph collection is undated and shows unidentified campers and staff engaging in a variety of outdoor activities. The collection also contains a few administrative records of the camp office, including correspondence, camp brochures and drafts, and a staff manual.
 

Box List
 
Box 1
 
Folder
 
1 Correspondence, outgoing, 1975
2 Correspondence, incoming, 1960’s, 1970
3 Camp brochure
4 Camp brochure: drafts, etc.
5 Camp logo
6 Camp newsletter
7 Programs of activities, 1976
8 Kippewa staff manual
9-19 Check registers and invoices, 1967-1968
 
Box 2
 
1-14 Check registers and invoices, 1968-1970
 
Box 3
 
1-15 Check registers and invoices, 1970-1971
 
Box 4
 
1 Check registers and invoices, 1971
2-14 Invoices, 1972-1974
 
Box 5
 
1-4 Invoices, 1974
5-6 Yearbook copy sheets, 1971
7-8 Yearbook copy sheets, 1973
9-10 Yearbook copy sheets, 1974
11-14 Yearbook copy sheets, 1975
15-16 Yearbook copy sheets for order #1567, undated
 
Box 6
 
1-6 Yearbooks, 1963, 1966, 1969-1986
 
Box 7
 
1-5 Yearbooks, 1987-1996

Box 8
 
Folder
 
1-3 Yearbooks, 1997-2002
 
Box 9
 
1-9 Camp photographs, undated
 
Box 10
 
1-16 Camp photographs, undated
 
Box 11
 
1 Camp photographs, undated
2 Framed photograph (sailboats)
3 Framed photograph (camp buildings)
4 Camp slides
 
Box 12
 
Camp slides
 
Box 13
 
Negatives

Finding Aids for selected manuscript collections in the Special Collections Department at Fogler Library are accessible online in URSUS, in a browsable Guide to Manuscript Collections. Please contact Special Collections at spc@umit.maine.edu or (207) 581-1686 for further information.

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Special Collections Staff: spc@umit.maine.edu | Revised: 01/16/2013