Frederick William Gunn.

About Frederick William Gunn

Frederick William Gunn was an American educator, abolitionist, and outdoorsman, who in 1850 founded The Frederick Gunn School, an independent school in the small town of Washington, Connecticut, and America's first summer camp. An iconoclast and educational reformer, Gunn endured social ostracism and community exile for his abolitionist beliefs in his early life, but was able to return to his hometown of Washington, where, in addition to the school, the library and local history museum were dedicated in his name and that of his wife, Abigail. Gunn was a moral beacon for the wider community accepting girls, African Americans, Native Americans, and international students into his school. Among his first students were the children of abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. A staunch defender of his values and a natural leader of men, Gunn was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, an innovator in curriculum and student development, and is recognized as the originator of leisure camping in the United States. An early proponent of competitive athletics as a critical part of holistic education, Frederick Gunn also appears in what is considered to be the first photograph of a baseball game in progress.