Camp Wolverton Staff

1948 This is the first year that 3 colors of felt patches were issued at Wolverton. The 1948 patches are easily identified because they are the only patches that are 3-1/2 inches in diameter instead of the normal 3 inches diameter. Similar oversized patches were also issued this year at Camp Emerald Bay and Camp Josepho. The 3 colors of patches are gold, white,and blue with no canvas backing. It is possible that some left over undated 1947 gold patches were also issued to campers during the 1948 summer. It is important to note that patches were made without a year on them so leftovers could be used in following summers. It is difficult to pin point exactly when some of the undated felt patches between 1947 and 1952 were actually made. It is suspected that some patches were issued at the Camp for several summers while others may not have even lasted through one summer. It is also important to note that although the undated felt patches for the 6 years from 1947 through 1952 may look the same at first glance, there are actually several differences. The oldest patches were made without canvas backing. The canvas backing probably started with some of the patches issued during the summer of 1949. Also, there are several varieties of bear design that were used during this 6 year period. It is easiest to tell the differences in the bears by the jags in the bottom of their neck and by the dimple mark at the end of the smile line. And, some of the patches were made with just ink on the felt while others were made with flocking added to the ink. Each of these varieties are the result of new art work and manufacturing differences at the factory each time more patches were ordered. It is unlikely that the varieties were intentionally requested by the Council. One additional thing that complicates identification and classification of the felt patches is that many of them, or maybe all of them, we made “two-up”. That means that two patches were made side by side at the patch factory. The result is that a single order can actually have two slightly different art works that created what we might call today two different patches, or varieties.

1949 This year of felt patches is also unique because they are 3-1/4 inch diameter instead of the normal 3 inches diameter. There are gold, white, and blue patches.  Some of the patches have felt backs and some of the patches have canvas backing material.  There are several varieties of the 1949 patches that are not shown here.  The varieties consist of visual differences in the neck jags and the mouth smile lines.  Despite the varieties, all of the 1949 patches measure 3-1/4 inches diameter.