Photo of the Day: Company 720, Baudette, Minnesota, 1933

Mess Line of the boys of Company 720, Baudette, Minnesota, 1933, collection of the Minnesota Historical Society. High resolution version available from MHS. By all means click through to the full version and feast your eyes on the civilian belts, undershirts, and hats and the mobilization-era uniform parts. Don't miss the fascinating CCC sweatshirt on the boy center-right foreground--likely a camp-specific custom design silkscreened onto a stock oatmeal-colored Champion or similar sweatshirt by a local sports team outfitter.

Full image.

Detail of custom sweatshirt. Appears to have the letters CCC, top center, in a design featuring an American eagle, trees as flanking columns supporting the CCC letters, and other hard-to-decipher iconography.

Document of the Day: 1935 Officer's Uniform Catalog

The CCC made a sharp distinction between officer's and enrollee's uniforms.

Unlike enlisted men, officers in the US Army purchased their own uniforms rather than being issued government-furnished garments from the Quartermaster Corps depots. Officer uniforms were individually tailored, often made in superior grades of fabric, and individuals were given considerable latitude in customizing them. The CCC followed the same practice.

US military officers serving as camp commanders, adjutants or doctors wore their military service uniforms while on active duty with the CCC.  However, the question arose as to whether and how the project supervisory staff assigned to CCC camps from the Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, and state forest services should be uniformed. The same question arose concerning the camp Education Advisors, the only civilians directly employed by the ECW/CCC itself.

Vintage images suggest that most technical staff were not uniformed most of the time. Whether from the Soil Conservation Service, the US Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, or other agencies, supervisors most often show up in photographs in whatever idiosyncratic combination of workwear and civilian business wear they found comfortable.

In 1935 there does seem to have been a push to have technical branch supervisors wear either their own service uniform (NPS and USFS), or, if their parent branch had no uniform, a generic CCC officer's uniform. The specs seem to have loosely followed US Forest Service practice. 

Below is a link to a 1935 catalog for CCC Officer's uniforms from Fechtheimer Bros, the prominent Cincinnati-based purveyor of military uniforms and coats, issued in response to the 1935 mandate. The original is in the collections of the Denver Public Library.

https://dp.la/api/files/original/a485b3ca1d5179d25f3fc2c5b3a23bc8.pdf

Featured Reenactor: Veteran's Camp 2876

Historical reenactor Michael Kirby of Frederick, MD and friends are now appearing at select military encampments and reenactments in the Maryland-Pennsylvania area as "CCC Veteran's Camp 2876." Their group impression incorporates some really amazing 1930s material culture. Images provided by Mike Kirby and reproduced with permission.

Buyer's Guide Added to Handbook

A new section, the CCC Reenactor Buyer's Guide, has been added to the Civilian Conservation Corps Uniforms Handbook.

This spreadsheet provides sources for modern reproductions, where available, or acceptable substitutes for most of the CCC-issue garments covered in the Handbook.

Website of the Day: Camp Wolverine

Reader Scott Gerych of the Michigan Military History Museum has sent a link to a local history website he has compiled for Camp Wolverine, 673rd Company, located in Chandler Township Charlevoix County MI.

Scott has done an extraordinary job of weaving together contemporary newspaper articles with images from camp albums. The result is a granular, almost week by week portrait of the camp in its first year. You can follow the whole process from announcement of the Corps, selection of local enrollees, arrival of the 673rd in town, and slow transformation from tent camp to a permanent camp.

Well worth a look!

Link: https://chandlertownshipmichiganmemories.weebly.com/camp-wolverine-ccc.html

Footwear Section of Handbook Revised

An extensive overhaul of the Footwear section of the Handbook is now live. New content on civilian caulk boots, low quarter Oxfords, and 1920s-era trench shoe auctions.

Welcome to the Civilian Conservation Corps Uniforms Blog

Welcome to the Civilian Conservation Corps Uniforms blog. This is a companion site to The Civilian Conservation Corps Uniforms Handbook, now finished. Follow along here for sidebar discussions, minor updates, pictures of the day, impressions of the day, cool auction links, and other such CCC uniform miscellany.