Forever Wild

Forever Wild: The Adirondacks in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

A National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) "Landmarks in American History and Culture" Workshop

J.P. Morgan, Collis P. Huntington, and Alfred G. Vanderbilt
request the pleasure of your company
July 7 – 13 or July 14 – 20, 2019

Only a few Americans at the turn of the century ever received the engraved invitation to join these Gilded Age elites at their “great camps” nestled deep in New York’s Adirondack forest.  For those favored guests of Uncas, Camp Pine Knot, and Sagamore, the trip by train, steamboat and carriage brought them out from soot-choked skies clouding industrial America to the pristine and unspoiled wilderness.  But what did they see when they arrived?

Join your “Forever Wild” colleagues for a week at the Great Camps of the Adirondacks to explore Gilded Age America from the unique perspective of the wilderness. These camps, now all National Historic Landmark sites, preserve the original buildings and serve as “history labs” for us to puzzle through the ironies and historic themes related to the Gilded Age's American “wilderness.” 

"Amazing! Enlightening! Beautiful experience. It was the whole package. The academic information will reverberate throughout my lessons while the grandeur of the forest will resonate through my life."
-- 2015 Summer Scholar