author
H. W. (Henry William) Gibson
b. 1867
A YMCA leader, lecturer, and early camping advocate, he wrote practical books that helped shape organized boys’ work in the early 20th century. His best-known title, Camping for Boys, blends outdoor know-how with a strong sense of character-building.
1 Audiobook
Camping For Boys
by H. W. (Henry William) Gibson
About the author
Active in YMCA work, Henry William Gibson wrote about camping, youth development, and programs for boys at a time when organized outdoor life was taking shape in the United States. Sources available here describe him as a leading YMCA member, a lecturer at Boston University, and a writer connected with the term “boyology,” which he used for the study of boys’ development.
His books include Camping for Boys and Boyology; or, Boy Analysis, as well as Twenty-Five Years of Organized Boys Work in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 1891-1915. Taken together, they show a writer interested in practical outdoor skills, education, and the social world of boys, especially through structured group activities.
Because the readily available sources found here are brief, some parts of his life remain unclear. Even so, his work stands out as part of the early history of camping literature and YMCA youth leadership, and it still offers a window into how adults of his era thought about learning, character, and life outdoors.