Background

Daniel Carter "Uncle Dan" Beard 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).

Beard was born in Cincinnati, Ohio into a family of artists.[1] 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.

Education

Academic education at Covington, Kentucky. Studied at Art Students’ League, New York, 1880-1884.

Career

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.[citation needed] Beard became an Eagle Scout at the age of 64 on February 15, 1915.

Daniel Beard in later life, with Boy Scouts

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.

Dan Beard was also involved with the Culver Academies' summer camp program for many years, which used his "Sons of Daniel Boone" program. This program still exists as the Academy's Culver Woodcraft Camp.

Beard died on June 11, 1941, shortly before his 91st birthday at his home (named "Brooklands") in Suffern, New York.[7] He was buried near his home at the Brick Church Cemetery in Spring Valley, New York. The National Program Director of the Boy Scouts of America, E. Urner Goodman, was selected to be in charge of the beloved youth leader's funeral in Suffern. An estimated 2,000 people lined the funeral route to the cemetery in Monsey, New York, where 127 Boy Scouts formed an honor guard and assisted with traffic control.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Book of Camp-Lore and Woodcraft (American Boy's Handy Book)

    (This is our fourth "handy book" by Dan Beard, the founder...)

  • The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It, Centennial Edition

    (First published in 1882, this is a wealth of projects and...)

  • Camp-Lore and Woodcraft

    (Known to millions of Boy Scouts as "Uncle Dan," Daniel Be...)

  • The Outdoor Handy Book : For Playground Field and Forest

    (The Boys Outdoor Handy Book (originally published in 1914...)

  • The Fair Weather and Rainy Day Handy Book (Dover Children's Activity Books)

    (From the author of The American Boy's Handy Book comes ye...)

  • The Book of Camp-Lore and Woodcraft by Daniel Carter Beard (2013-12-23)

    (The Book of Camp-Lore and Woodcraft by Daniel Carter Bear...)

  • Moonblight and Six Feet of Romance by Daniel Carter Beard (2007-08-29)

    (Moonblight and Six Feet of Romance by Daniel Carter Beard...)

  • Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties: And How to Make Them

    (Nineteenth-century building advice that is eminently prac...)

  • Boat-Building and Boating

    (Boat-Building and Boating By Daniel Carter Beard)

  • The American Boy's Handy Book: Build a Fort, Sail a Boat, Shoot an Arrow, Throw a Boomerang, Catch Spiders, Fish in the Ice, Camp w

    (DARING ACTIVITIES. OUTDOOR SKILLS. WILD-EYED ADVENTURES. ...)

  • The Field and Forest Handy Book: New Ideas for Out of Doors (Nonpareil Book)

    (Daniel C. Beard was not only a founder of Boy Scouting in...)

  • Boy Pioneers and Sons of Daniel Boone (1909)

  • Boat Building, and Boating(1912) still in print

  • Shelters, shacks, and shanties.

  • The American Boy's Book of Bugs, Butterflies and Beetles (1916)

  • The American Boy's Book of Signs, Signals and Symbols (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

Connections

Married Beatrice Alice Jackson, August 15, 1894. Children: Barbara, Daniel Bartlett.

Father:

James Henry Beard

Spouse:

Beatrice Alice Jackson

child:

Barbara Beard

child:

Daniel Bartlett Beard