WOODCRAFT

by Daniel C. Beard Daniel Carter Beard is remembered as a founding leader of the Boy Scouts of America. He is so remembered, that is, when he is remembered at all; in latter days he has fallen into such obscurity that even the Encyclopdia Britannica has dropped its biography of him. But to generations of scouts he was revered as "Uncle Dan" Beard. He was born in Cincinnati in 1850, became a successful illustrator, published a number of books with such titles as American Boys' Handy Book (1882) and Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties (1914), and in 1905 founded an organization for boys called the Sons of Daniel Boone. When the Boy Scouts of America was chartered in 1910, Beard's organization was merged into it and he became national commissioner of the Scouts. He died in 1941. His article on "Woodcraft" appeared in the Fourteenth Edition of Britannica from 1929 through 1945. woodcraft