Treatises on Woodcraft from the Late 1800s and Early 1900s

Woodcraft is a term that denote skills and experience in matters relating to living and thriving in the woods—such as hunting, fishing, and camping—whether on a short- or long-term basis. Woodcraft pertains to subsistence lifestyles, with implications of hunting-gathering. Traditional woodcraft has particular importance in American folklore, especially that relating to the early American frontier.

Woodcraft is also a recreational/educational program devised by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1902, for young people based on camping, outdoor skills, and woodcrafts. Thompson Seton's Woodcraft ideas were incorporated into the early Scout movement, but also in many other organizations in many countries.

In his 1916 book Camping and Woodcraft, Horace Kephart wrote: “Woodcraft may be defined as the art of getting along well in the wilderness by utilizing nature’s storehouse. When we say that Daniel Boone, for example, was a good woodsman, we mean that he could confidently enter an unmapped wilderness, with no outfit but what was carried by his horse, his canoe, or on his own back, and with the intention of a protracted stay: that he could find his way through the dense forest without man-made marks to guide him; that he knew the habits and properties of trees and plants, and the ways of fish and game; that he was a good tracker and a good shot; that he could dress game and cure peltry, cook wholesome meals over an open fire, build an adequate shelter against wind and rain, keep himself warm through the bitter nights of winter – in short, that he knew how to utilize the gifts of nature, and could bide comfortably in the wilderness without help from outside.”

There is a lot of very useful information in books about woodcraft from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Because of the age of these books, they are all in the public domain and can be downloaded for free from the Internet Archive and similar sites. Some of these books, that I have read and enjoyed, include:

Book of Camping -by Alpheus Hyatt Verrill (1917)
Book of Woodcraft -by Ernest Thompson Seton (1913)
Boys Book of Hunting and Fishing -by Warren H Miller (1916)
Camp and Trail -by Stewart Edward White (1911)
Camp Cookery -by Horace Kephart (1910)
Camp Kits & Camp Life -by Charles Stedman Hanks (1906)
Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making -by W. Hamilton Gibson (1881)
Camping and Woodcraft -by Horace Kephart (1916)
Forest Runes -by Nessmuk (1887)
How to Camp Out -by John M Gould (1877)
Hunter's Guide, and Trapper's Companion -by N.H. Hinsdale, An Experienced Woodsman (1887)
Indian Scout Talks - A Guide for Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls -by Charles Alexander Eastman (1914)
Scouting for Boys -by Robert Baden Powell (1915)
Shelters Shacks and Shanties -by DC Beard (1916)
The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians -by Ernest Thompson Seton (1907)
Touring Afoot -by Charles P Fordyce (1916)
Trail Craft -by Charles P Fordyce (1922)
Way of the Woods -by Edward Breck (1908)
Woodcraft -by E.H. Kreps (1919)
Woodcraft -by Nessmuk (1888)