Camp Trinity
Camp Trinity was an athletic and social camp for students and alumni held from June 28 through July 6 in the summer of 1890.
Alumni and Board of Trustees member Robert H. Coleman, Class of 1877, invited the whole College to attend an outing at Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania. The original intent was for Coleman to give the current Trinity baseball team a tour of Pennsylvania using his private railway car. However, he decided to expand his vision and make it a social event open to the entire College community, including alumni, to watch the baseball team's games in one location and be entertained in a variety of other ways.
On June 28, 159 undergraduates and alumni arrived at Camp Trinity. In order to accommodate them, 180 tents were set up on Lake Conewago in Pennsylvania. The tents each contained washstands and cots, and some were set up to function as post offices, barbershops, newsstands, and reading rooms.
An array of other events took place at Camp Trinity, including fireworks, live music, hiking, marches, tub and boat races, tennis matches, mountain climbing, ring dances, and excursions to the Pennsylvania Steel Works, Coleman Iron Furnaces, and Coleman ore banks.
“Camp Trinity” has also been used as a nickname to describe time students spent living on campus. For example, alumni will reflect on their four undergraduate years and refer to them as time at “Camp Trinity.” The use of this nickname goes back to at least the mid-1970s.
Sources
The Trinity Reporter, Winter 2005, p. 101.
The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, p. 213.
The Trinity Tripod, 11/11/1975.
Trinity College Bulletin, July 1952, p. 11.