Kippewa for Girls Records

Collection

Identifier: SpC MS 0280

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

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.

Dates

Creation: 1961-2004
Creation: Majority of material found within 1967-1974

Creator

Kippewa for Girls (Winthrop, Me.) (Organization)

Restrictions on Access

Kept at Fogler Library's offsite storage facility. One week's notice required for retrieval.

Use Restrictions

Information on literary rights available in the Library.

Historical Note

The Kippewa Camp is 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 1/2 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.