Helen Collier Camp

Background

Mrs. Camp was born in Mobile, Alabama, United States, on February 19, 1939. She was a daughter of George P. (a mechanical engineer) and Ruth (Alexander) Collier.

Education

Mrs. Camp was a graduate of Murphy High School,a graduate of the University of Missouri (Bachelor of Arts (with honors), 1968) at St. Louis, received her Master of Arts in 1970 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1980 from Columbia University, New York, and taught at numerous colleges in the New York area.

Career

She served as an adjunct professor at Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY, during the period of 1973-1978. From 1984 to 1985 Mrs. Camp held the post of an adjunct Professor of State University of New York Empire State College, Saratoga Springs. She was an adjunct professor of American history at Pace University, New York City, 1985-1986, 1987. Helen Camp was appointed a teacher at Brooklyn College and Bernard M. Baruch College, both of the City University of New York, 1981, Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York, 1982-1983, 1985, and New York University, 1987.

Achievements

• Helen Camp was a talented educator and concurrently writer. She created a number of books.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left

    (As the only female leader of the Industrial Workers of th...)

Politics

Mrs. Camp desribed her political views as “Yellow-dog Democrat.”

Views

Quotations: Helen Camp told CA: "I am not certain if I am a historian who is also a writer, or a writer who is also a historian. I want my work to appeal to a general audience, and I want to make a contribution to the literature of American history.

Crowing up in the South during the period of the civil rights revolution gave me a deep interest in the r'ght to dissent and in civil liberties in general. I most °ften write about the more vulnerable individuals or groups in American society: women, African-Americans, and the working class. I am interested in their attempts to empower themselves and in the ideologies and practical tactics they develop in the process. My rnaster’s degree essay was on Mother Jones and her attempt to promote the regulation of child labor in the early twentieth century. This work led to a more general interest in the impact of women on the modern American labor movement and to my first book Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left.

Writing that biography of Flynn raised many ques- lt°ns about the nature of biography itself and about •he relationship between the public and the private Person. There were many partisans who wanted to know why Flynn was not what they wanted her to be. These partisans included feminists, radicals of all persuasions, liberals, communists, and anti-communists. In the end, what I found most fascinating was the struggle to understand Flynn’s motivations and the process of inference and speculation that was necessarily involved."

Membership

• Organization of American Historians , United States

• Coordinating Committee for Women in the Historical Profession , United States

• Institute for Research in History , United States

Connections

Helen Collier Camp married Frank H. Camp, Jr. (a news editor) on June 1, 1959. They had one child: Catherine Camp Boyle.

Father:

George P. Collier

Mother:

Ruth (Alexander) Collier

husband:

Frank H. Camp

Daughter:

Catherine Camp Boyle

References

• Obituary | Helen Collier Camp | Wolfe-Bayview Funeral Homes & Crematory, Inc View The Obituary For Helen Collier Camp. Please join us in Loving, Sharing and Memorializing Helen Collier Camp on this permanent online memorial.
• Camp Helen - Volume Two eBook: Randal C. Wright: Books Camp Helen's story from 1973 to 2016. For over 80 years people have been enjoying the experience of visiting Camp Helen, whether as mill-town teachers at the first location in the 1930’s, Avondalers enjoying an annual week of low-cost vacation at the second camp after World War II ended, or state park guests today. Camp Helen is the story of how and why the vacation site was created; the dedicated staff who made it such a special place; “cotton mill” workers that enjoyed its many offerings; and of its becoming a vibrant Florida State Park.
• Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left by Helen C. Camp (1995-03-01) Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left by Helen C. Camp (1995-03-01)