[Tourist camp with tents and autos, probably near Wash., D.C.]

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Tents pitched beside parked cars give this scene its character: a camp set up for motorists rather than for a fixed household. Around 1918, touring by automobile was growing quickly in the United States, and travelers who could not find lodging along the road often slept in their vehicles or in canvas tents at roadside grounds like this one. The record places the camp probably near Washington, D.C., and dates it to about 1918, so the print documents an early stage of the informal camping that later grew into the public campgrounds and motels of the following decades.

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