This collection comprises material documenting the first Boy Scouts of America jamboree ever to be held in California, which took place in 1953 at the Irvine Ranch near Santa Ana. The collection includes a photograph album, likely the property of Elbert Ostrander, documenting the jamboree and the journey of Troop 4 from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Irvine; and the brochure All aboard! for the national jamboree, Irvine Ranch. There is also a scrapbook of Troop 26, from Berkeley and Walnut Creek, California, containing mimeograph reports, rosters, photographs, maps, printed scouting ephemera, and newspaper clippings, and indicating camp layouts at the jamboree.

The idea for a national gathering of Boy Scouts was the brainchild of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement in England, who also named the event "jamboree." The first jamboree in the United States was held in 1937 while the first such gathering in California was at the Irvine Ranch in 1953 in Santa Ana (today Irvine). The event brought over 50,000 Boy Scouts to Southern California, not just from most of the U.S. states, but also from foreign countries such as Mexico and Sweden.

0.2 Linear Feet (1 box)

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.

Collection open for research.