The Evolution of Summer Camps

For this "Summer Best-Of" we've put together some of our favorite conversations our centennial series, 100 Years of 100 Things:

Ashley Stimpson, Maryland-based freelance journalist who writes about science and conservation, takes us through the past 100 years of kids going to the woods for summer camp.

• Victoria Rosner, dean of the Gallatin School at NYU and the author of Machines for Living: Modernism and Domestic Life (Oxford University Press, 2020), talks about the post-World War I development of modernism (and post-modernism) across the arts and beyond.
• Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for Fresh Air, Georgetown professor and the author of So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures (Hachette, 2014), looks at the 1925 publication of the novel, The Great Gatsby, and why it continues to resonate with readers one hundred years later.
• Polo shirts, khaki shorts, and boat shoes: the classic uniform of elites on their days off.  Avery Trufelman, host of the podcast Articles of Interest, delves into the last 100 years of preppies and their clothes.

These interviews were polished up and edited for time, the original versions are available here:

100 Years of 100 Things: Summer Camps (Aug 26, 2025)
100 Years of 100 Things: Modernism (Jan 8, 2025)
100 Years of 100 Things: The Great Gatsby (Jan 13, 2025)
100 Years of 100 Things: Preppies and Their Clothes (Mar 26, 2025)