The photograph is autographed "Your Uncle Dan Beard."
Beard was one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, and was known as "Uncle Dan" by generations of Scouts and Scouters. In the column, I discuss the concept of muscular Christianity, as practiced in late 19th Century America, which saw not only the rise of Scouting organizations, such as Beard's Sons of Daniel Boone, but of Eastern prep schools such as Groton, which emphasized athletics to a degree earlier schools had not done.
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