PROVO — Scouting has a rich history with the young Utahns for the past century, with claims of the first western troop founded in northern Utah.

So it’s not terribly surprising that a team of students and a Brigham Young University professor would fly all the way out to England to help digitize and preserve the origin of scouting and the records of its founder.

The writings of the father of scouting, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, can be found at Gilwell Park in England. The archives include handwritten work and other forms of writing on paper from Baden-Powell, but nothing much digitally.

With the help of BYU professors, faculty and students, these documents — many more than 100 years old — are now accessible online.

How BYU ended up on the project

BYU’s project of digitizing Baden-Powell’s documents began in 2012 when Paul Kerry, a BYU history professor, began researching the archive collection at Gilwell Park in 2012 and thought it would be beneficial to bring the writings to a digital age.

Over the course of about four years, a team composed of Kerry, library curator John Murphy, digitization expert Scott Eldredge, formatting manager Marisa Snyder, as well as BYU students Riley Lovesee and Chelsea Bauer, headed out to England to digitize Baden-Powell’s records.

While the documents were preserved at Gilwell, Eldredge said most of the time was spent adding notes for what exactly was on each page — for a collection he said was much larger than he originally believed.

Who was Baden-Powell?

Born in 1857, Baden-Powell was many things other than the founder of the Scouting program.

“(He) was a remarkable man and accomplished incredible things through the course of a very long life — including the establishment of the international scouting movement,” Murphy said.

He was a British general and became a national hero following the Boer War at the turn of the 20th century. While fighting in the war, he wrote down the eventual guide to Scouting.

After returning home to England from the war, youth leaders and teachers began using the guide to teach youth, according to the World Organization of the Scouting Movement. In 1907, he started the Scouting program by bringing 22 boys to camp under his instruction.

From there, he wrote “Scouting for Boys” and the Scouting program would soon reach worldwide, including in the U.S. as the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910.

His papers show his connection with many individuals across the world. They also show what kind of a person he was, Murphy said. His connections were boundless across the globe — including the U.S.

However, it’s the connection with his former scouts that Murphy noticed most in the paperwork. Within a decade of the beginning of Scouts, the first World War broke out. Baden-Powell wrote extensively to his former scouts that fought in the war.

“These young men fought admirably and bravely in the war and Baden-Powell followed their progress closely,” Murphy said. “He was deeply interested in how these young men were doing in the war. Whenever a young man who had been involved in scouting died, he mourned and he felt it personally. Those materials touch me deeply.”

Baden-Powell went on to write more than 30 books, receive at least six honorary university degrees and received many more Scouting awards from across the world before dying in 1941.

Scouting in Utah

Among the first founded Scouting Troops is Troop 1 in Logan. In fact, it claims to be the first Troop established west of the Mississippi River.

According to the Deseret News, the troop was founded in 1910 by an Episcopal minister named John Paul Jones, who originated from England.

Eventually, Scouting in Utah expanded further in 1911, as the LDS Church began a “MIA Scout” program. That program was later invited into the Boy Scouts of America in 1913.

Two councils were formed in 1919 and the expansion went on from there.

Murphy said that as a former Scoutmaster himself, he was overjoyed with the opportunity to help digitize Baden-Powell's work and bring it to a worldwide audience.

He said it's important for individuals now to understand his work.

"I hope (young men and women) will be inspired and will encourage them to do great things in terms of promoting the Scouting movement," Murphy said.

"I’m still involved in Scouts and I’ve always admired Baden-Powell, and have respected my entire life — what he has stood for and what he represents in terms of developing character and integrity in young men and young women.”

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