Guide to the Catoctin Mountain Park Slide Collection

This finding aid describes the Catoctin Mountain Park Slide Collection, part of the Catoctin Mountain Park Museum Collection. For access to the collection or for more information, contact the park’s custodial officer.

The Park Central Road in early spring near the Hog Rock parking area.

NPS Photo

Collection Overview

Collection Number: CATO 4842

Creator: Catoctin Mountain Park

Title: Catoctin Mountain Park Slide Collection

Dates: 1950-2004

Volume of Collection: 12.8 LF

Language of Materials: English

Digitized Copies: This collection has not been digitized

Conditions Governing Access: This collection is open for research use. Some material may be restricted for Personally Identifiable Information (PII). See the NPS general copyright and restrictions information.

Provenance: The collection was created and maintained by Catoctin Mountain Park staff and volunteers through the 2000s. It was transferred to the Museum Resource Center on March 5, 2020.

Processing Note: This collection was processed and described by Randa Cardwell in 2022.

Rights Statements for Archival Description: This is in the public domain.

Preferred Citation: Catoctin Mountain Park Slide Collection, Catoctin Mountain Park (CATO 4842)

Location of Repository: Catoctin Mountain Park, 6602 Foxville Road, Thurmont, MD 21788-1598

Related Materials: Catoctin Mountain Park Negative Collection, Catoctin Mountain Park (CATO 4843)

History

Catoctin Mountain Park was created during the Great Depression of the 1930s as a place for people to reconnect with nature. It is located between 1,000 and 1,700 feet above the Monocacy River within the Catoctin Mountain ridge-range, part of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountain system. This landscape of eroded peaks and picturesque rock outcrops is primarily located within Frederick County, MD, although about 300 acres lie within Washington County. Rural, forested, and bisected by numerous creeks and their tributaries, the Park is within an hour of several urban centers, including Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, which are, respectively, approximately 60 miles to the southeast and 50 miles to the east.

Catoctin Mountain Park has 25 miles of trails through the regrowth of red oaks, birches, dogwoods, and maples, and other trees remind us that nature brings us wealth by simply being itself. There are three cabin camps within the park that are open to the public: Misty Mount, Greentop, and Round Meadow. Misty Mount and Greentop were built in the 1930s. Cabin sizes vary from three- to twelve-person capacity. Round Meadow has more modern facilities and can be used in all seasons. Round Meadow and Greentop are wheelchair accessible. The presidential retreat, Camp David, is also located within the park but maintained separately.

Arrangement

Organized into 27 series based on a Natural Resources classification system used at Catoctin Mountain Park, thereunder arranged chronologically. The collection shares the same hierarchy as CATO 4843: Catoctin Mountain Park Negative collection.

Series 01: Resource Management
Series 02: Nature/Scenery
Series 03: Nature/Animals, Plants, and Minerals
Series 04: Buildings, Maintenance, Signs, and Roads
Series 05: Round Meadow
Series 06: Misty Mount
Series 07: Greentop
Series 08: Shangri-La/Camp David
Series 09: Ranger Activities
Series 10: Protection Activities and Incidents
Series 11: Park Personnel
Series 12: Visitor Center
Series 13: Interpretive Programs and Facilities
Series 14: Winter Scenes and Activities
Series 15: Volunteers
Series 16: Job Corps
Series 17: Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) and Comprehensive Employment
and Training Agency (CETA)
Series 18: Round Meadow Folk Craft Center
Series 19: Special Events
Series 20: Thurmont Activities and Other Areas Outside the Park
Series 21: Historic Pre-Park Buildings and Structures
Series 22: Cunningham Falls State Park
Series 23: Buildings, Activities, and Visitors
Series 24: Trails
Series 25: Camp Peniel and Headquarters
Series 26: D.C. Schools and Summer in the Parks
Series 27: Copies of pre-1950s Maps, Photographs, and Records

Scope and Content Note

The Catoctin Mountain Park Slide collection documents the park’s history during the period when slides were the primary means of documenting and sharing images in presentations such as slide shows for scientific purposes or to highlight cultural and volunteer-supported programs. The collection consists of 9,346 individual 35mm slides. The largest category within the collection is Resource Management which describes efforts to maintain the park’s ecological balance. Those programs include an extensive Deer Survey Project to document the impact of overpopulation; the Gypsy Moth Control Project that involved aerial spraying of the park; and efforts to monitor diseased trees. The slides also contain a robust catalog of the Park’s animals, plants and minerals identified by their common and scientific names. The collection contains slides documenting in detail the restoration of historic cabins at Misty Mount. Another highlight of the collection are images of the craftsmen and women who worked at the Round Meadow Folk Craft Center demonstrating, among other things, blacksmithing, pottery making, shingle riving, spinning, weaving, broom making and kitchen crafts.

Regarding dates, the earliest slides in the collection date back to the 1950s. However, the collection includes images of the area in the 1930s and 40s. The slides are copy prints of the older images.

Series 01: Resource Management

The Resource Management series captures the park’s efforts to combat invasive animal and plant species as well as prevent erosion. It also documents scientific studies of park resources, the monitoring of natural resources, storm damage, and efforts to protect vulnerable plants. The most thoroughly documented project is a study of the deer population.

Series 02: Nature/Scenery

The Nature – Scenery series contains beauty shots taken throughout the park and featuring many of its most iconic locations, especially during the changing of the fall colors.

Series 03: Nature/Animals, Plants & Minerals

This series contains extensive photographs of the park’s animals, plants and minerals. Often the scientific names are included on the slides, though due to difficulty with accurately deciphering the handwriting, they are not listed in the spreadsheet.

Series 04: Buildings, Maintenance, Signs & Roads

This series includes signs on display throughout the park as well as roads, maintenance facilities and buildings not listed in other categories. It also documents some maintenance work undertaken by park personnel.

Series 05: Round Meadow

All images that are identifiable as taken in Round Meadow are found in this series. There are mostly of buildings and facilities.

Series 06: Misty Mount

All images that are identifiable as taken in Misty Mount are found in this series. They are mostly of buildings and facilities. Also of note are images documenting the restoration of historic cabins at Misty Mount.

Series 07: Greentop

All images that are identifiable as taken in Greentop are found in this series. Greentop annually hosts a camp for physically challenged children, and this series includes images of campers participating in various activities.

Series 08: Shangri-la/Camp David

As Camp David is a restricted location, none of the images in this series are taken within its boundaries. The images are limited to outside the restricted area and are primarily of media onsite to cover special events such as visiting dignitaries.

Series 09: Ranger Activities

This series contains images of park rangers working in a variety of activities, either as interpreters for visitors, maintaining the park or engaging in safety training.

Series 10: Protection Activities & Incidents

Images in this series cover law enforcement and safety training, as well as car accidents. It does not include images of any injured individuals or anyone suspected of a crime.

Series 11: Park Personnel

This series is primarily portraits of park employees.

Series 12: Visitor Center

This series includes images of construction of the Visitor Center, exhibits within it, the surrounding area, and some visitors.

Series 13: Interpretive Programs & Facilities

This series includes images of the Collier’s Hut, Blue Blazes under construction and the country doctor’s office. See Series 9 for images of park rangers conducting interpretive programs.

Series 14: Winter Scenes & Activities

This series contains winter scenic images and snow scenes, including some cross-country skiing activities.

Series 15: Volunteers

There are an assortment of volunteer-supported park programs and some are found in other series. In this series are images of members of the Order of the Arrow, VIPs and CAMPERs, among others.

Series 16: Job Corps

This series includes images of the Job Corps program project and personnel at Round Meadow and other activities

Series 17: Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) & Comprehensive Employment and Training Agency (CETA)

This series contains images of YCC and CETA participants working on assorted projects, often construction, such as smaller construction project like building tent pads and new fences. They also worked on resource management project such as building retaining walls or removing dead trees.

Series 18: Round Meadow Folk Craft Center

The images in this series are limited to the period of time when the Round Meadow Folk Craft Center operated and hosted a range of craft work programs. There are beautiful images of craftsmen and women at work in their particular areas. Special events surrounding the Folk Craft Center era can also be found Series 19.

Series 19: Special Events

This series contains a wide variety of special events, which can be anything from visiting folk singers to awards programs to Colorfest activities.

Series 20: Thurmont Activities and Other Areas Outside the Park

This series includes images from the surrounding community as well as programs personnel have participated in outside the park.

Series 21: Historic Pre-Park Buildings & Structures

Images in this series primarily focus on the charcoal pit, sawmill, Collier’s Hut and the Bessie Darling House.

Series 22: Cunningham Falls State Park

There is only one image in this series taken at Cunnington Falls. It is a copy print of an old photograph.

Series 23: Buildings, Activities & Visitors

This series includes images of visitors to the park as well as activities and buildings which do not fall into other categories.

Series 24: Trails

This is a series of images of trails throughout the park.

Series 25: Camp Peniel & Park Headquarters

This is a small series of slides of Camp Peniel and the first park headquarters.

Series 26: D.C. Schools & Summer in the Parks

This series contains images of students from Washington, D.C. and other surrounding areas participating in summer programs.

Series 27: Copies of pre-1950s Maps, Photographs & Records

This series contains slide copy prints of images of the park in its earliest days. There are no specific dates of the original images.

Container List

BOX 01:
Contains slides from Series 01: Resource Management (48 folders)

BOX 02:
Contains slides from Series 01: Resource Management (48 folders)

BOX 03:
Contains slides from the following series:
Series 02: Nature/Scenery (24 folders)
Series 03: Nature/Animals, Plants and Minerals (24 folders)

BOX 04:
Contains slides from the following series:
Series 03: Nature/Animals, Plants and Minerals (43 folders)
Series 04: Buildings, Maintenance, Signs, and Roads (5 folders)

BOX 05:
Contains slides from the following series:
Series 04: Buildings, Maintenance, Signs and Roads (23 folders)
Series 05: Round Meadow (8 folders)
Series 06: Misty Mount (16 folders)
Series 07: Greentop (1 folders)

BOX 06:
Contains slides from the following series:
Series 07: Greentop (15 folders)
Series 08: Shangri-la/Camp David (5 folders)
Series 09: Ranger Activities (9 folders)
Series 10: Protection Activities and Incidents (4 folders)
Series 11: Park Personnel (12 folders)
Series 12: Visitor Center (3 folders)

BOX 07:
Contains slides from the following series:
Series 12: Visitor Center (6 folders)
Series 13: Interpretive Programs and Facilities (1 folder)
Series 14: Winter Scenes and Activities (12 folders)
Series 15: Volunteers (28 folders)
Series 16: Jobs Corps (1 folder)

BOX 08:
Contains slides from the following series:
Series 16: Jobs Corps (4 folders)
Series 17: Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) and Comprehensive Employment and Training Agency (CETA) (11 folders)
Series 18: Round Meadow Folk Craft Center (33 folders)

BOX 09:
Contains slides from the following series:
Series 18: Round Meadow Folk Craft Center (5 folders)
Series 19: Special Events (11 folders)
Series 20: Thurmont Activities and Other Areas Outside the Park (4 folders)
Series 21: Historic Pre-Park Buildings and Structures (9 folders)
Series 22: Cunningham Falls State Park (1 folder)
Series 23: Buildings, Activities, and Visitors (4 folders)
Series 24: Trails (7 folders)
Series 25: Camp Peniel and Headquarters (1 folder)
Series 26: D.C. Schools and Summer in the Parks (3 folders)
Series 27: Copies of pre-1950s Maps, Photographs, and Records (3 folders)

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