ScoutGems:  Resources from Scouting's Past

About The "Gems"

The contributors to this repository were heavily involved in the Boy Scouting movement in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.  We designed scoutcraft and leadership training curricula and organized trainingevents at the district, council and regional levels.  In the process, we amassed quite a large collection of quality printed resources covering many different aspects of Scouting -- much of which was already a decade old by the time we used it.  This site is intended to make these great resources available to today's Scouts and Scouters.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

  • RELEVANCE:  There's no question that today, a Scouter has many more high quality resources at their disposal than ever before. We make no claim that any of these ScoutGems are in any way "better" than what a Leader may have available on his or her smartphone or tablet.  We do claim with absolute certainty, however, that these ScoutGems generated a TON of fun for Scouts in their day.  We see no reason to assume that they can't continue to do so.
  • COPYRIGHTS:  To our knowledge, these materials are in the public domain and are under no copyright restrictions.  If you find that you hold the copyright for any item on this site, please contact us and we'll either include a source citation giving you credit or remove your materials as quickly as humanly possible.
  • SAFETY:  Rules, regulations and best practices obviously change over time. Please be certain to consult current sources before undertaking any Scouting activity.  Be especially cautious when using ScoutGems with the "safety" tag.

About The Archival Photos

Archival photos have been obtained directly from primary sources such as newspapers and wire services. We own the physical original photographs, but not the copyrights. The reason we're posting digital copies of these photographs is to give interested Scouters access to a wealth of historical information. We don't intend to facilitate any copyright violations, hence the obnoxious watermark. Occasionally, the original photos can be seen on display at Scouting events in the Chicagoland area.

Contributions

If you've got resources that you think belong in this collection, feel free to send them along to us:  gems@scoutgems.com



This site is not affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America in any way.