Last November I posted about a 1916 auto trip that a Massachusetts teacher and his wife made, using their car as their accommodations. The post was based on an article from a 1916 McCalls magazine. Well, thanks to poster Angela, I now have the entire article in PDF form. It is located in Google documents, and I’m hoping a link to it will work, but if not, anyone can email me at thevintagetraveler (at) gmail.com and I’ll be happy to send it along to you.
I’ve been rereading part of a very good book on the subject of the history of vacations in the US, Working at Play: A History of Vacations in the United States by Cindy S. Aron. Specifically, I was reading about auto camping. In the book, Aron quotes from several similar articles published in the popular press between the years of 1910 and 1920. The automobile really did open up travel to many people who previously could not have afforded a vacation.
The photos here are a group of four that seem to show some kind of camping village. These villages, while not completely portable, often sprang up at religious camp meeting sites, and near established resorts.
Notice how the skirt of the young woman on the right unbuttons to show that it is actually a culotte-like garment. And here she is on her horse:
I have a similar skirt in my collection:
The Vintage Traveler 
Your skirt is so clever – and the pattern is so contemporary-looking too. And thank you for mentioning that book, I’m going to have to check it out!
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It really is an interesting design. For years – until women started wearing knickers for sports in the 1920s – this was *the* all purpose sporting skirt. Women wore it for hiking and riding (both horses and bicycles) and all general outdoors activities.
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I haven’t see a skirt like this in ‘person’–lucky you!
I have slept in a tent with sides and deck like the one you show here–we had a mouse (or was it mice?) scamper over us all nite–guess the deck was a roof for their mouse apartments!
p.s. thanks for the link to that article too
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Hey there! I love this article and would really love to own a skirt like that. Do you know what they are specifically called, sold, or where a pattern is sold? Thank you so much!
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Hi Sara,
You might try searching under “Edwardian divided skirt”. I’ve seen them come up on ebay. And Folkwear Patterns has a sewing pattern: http://www.folkwear.com/231.html
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