A spirit of adventure inspired young women of the 1890s to go camping each summer in abandoned Sandy Spring houses, which seemed to abound at the time. They called their adventure Camp Dismal. Bringing furniture, hammocks for sleeping, a plentiful supply of food, and even a piano, they spent a week preparing elaborate meals, fishing, writing poetry and songs, and entertaining a steady torrent of visitors--often young males--who in one year numbered 198. The women recorded their activities in carefully choreographed photographs, such as this 1892 scene on the Patuxent, and in a daily journal now on file in the museum.

Creativity blossoms in the imaginative costumes of this 1880 Mother Goose Party. But glum expressions leave one wondering if they're having fun. Seated, from left, Joseph Moore, Jr., Beatrix Tyson (Rumford), Mary Moore Tilton, Janney Shoemaker, Martha Tyson Marshall, and George Moore; seated behind, Estelle Moore, Richard Lea, Rowland Moore, and Madge Moore; standing, Edith Hallowell, Thomas L. Moore, Clark A. Moore, Alice Tyson, Robert Miller, and Fanny Snowden.