camp mother

camp mother (plural camp mothers)

1. Alternative form of Camp Mother
   • 1937 September 6, Richard Deshon, “Letters to the Editor”, in LIFE, volume 3, number 10, page 6:

     The choice of the Aloha Camps was a happy one; but Mrs. Gulick should be designated as camp director instead of camp mother. Camp mother is used to designate the person in charge of midgets at a boys' camp.

   • 1939, Ella Gardner, Short-time Camps: A Manual for 4-H Leaders, page 25:

     A camp mother, who is introduced during registration, has been found a real asset in Massachusetts. She answers questions, solves small difficulties, and is especially in demand in mixed camps.

   • 2008, Margaret Norquay, Broad is the Way: Stories from Mayerthorpe, →ISBN, page 78:

     I would tell the camp mother, on my way out, so she would take charge while I was away.

   • 2013, G. Singer, M. Wallace, Lost in the Freudian Forest: A Tragedy of Good Intentions, →ISBN, page 33:

     Here we were met by a rugged individual in khaki shorts and football jersey who introduced herself as Panther-in-Chief, the camp mother to whom we could go with all our troubles.

   • 2015, Niamh Moore, The Changing Nature of Eco/Feminism, →ISBN:

     I mean people that wanted to drum all day and people were trying to have conversations about stuff that had importance to what was going on politically, and so there was an ongoing sense for me of a kind of young and restless energy, and that without people like Jean McLaren, who was camp mother basically for the whole summer, it wouldn't have been anything like as successful as it was.

2. A woman in charge of housekeeping tasks in a camp.
   • 1994, Albert VanderMey, And the Swamp Flourished, →ISBN:

     The camp mother managed to keep the stomachs full and the beds in tip-top shape.

   • 2009, Daniel G. Payne, Writing the Land: John Burroughs and his Legacy, →ISBN, page 134:

     Roles for such women were few: Mrs. Perry adopted the role of “camp mother” for her husband's expedition in the arctic; years later, Hannah Breece took a position as teacher in remote arctic villages.

   • 2015, Gisela Sherman, Farmerettes, →ISBN:

     At the entrance, a middle-aged woman with heavy eyebrows, black hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a strong smell of mints, introduced herself as Miss Stoakley, their camp mother.

3. (historical) A woman who took on the role of adoptive mother to a motherless girl in a concentration camp.
   • 2000, Jack Gaylord Morrison, Ravensbrück, →ISBN, page 264:

     She became known as the little girl who sat on the steps of the TB Block, darting inside whenever she saw authorities, then going back to await the return of her camp mother.

   • 2002, David Patterson, Alan L. Berger, Sarita Cargas, Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature, →ISBN, page 134:

     She recalls, for instance, songs about the loss of the mother which were sung in the camp at Stutthof (pp. 7-8) and in Auschwitz (p. 1 8). She often refers to the phenomenon of the "camp mother" or "camp daughter," where one woman would take another under her protection.

   • 2003, Melissa Raphael, The Female Face of God in Auschwitz, →ISBN, page 96:

     Adelsberger herself was adopted by two young girls as their 'camp mother'.

   • 2015, Sarah Helm, If This Is A Woman: Inside Ravensbruck, →ISBN:

     Claire was sent away to a subcamp, and another camp mother, called Rosanne Lascroux, looked after Stella for a time.