WWII era Civilian tents

[kiwilrdg]

After the sunburn that my wife got this weekend doing a homefront interpretation/display we are in agreement that the next addition needs to be a tent. We do have a white canvas tent that we use for Western and fur trapper events
and I was wondering if anyone knows if white was a common color for civilian tents.

 

[RBH]

This is not an answer for you but I ran across it and its pretty cool.
Good luck!!!

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/aug/13/austerity-1940s-war-vintage-fashion

 

[de Stokesay]

I'm not sure how much help this will be but if you look at pictures of civilian tents from that time (boy scout camps, hunting camps both in North America as well as Africa) all the tents seem to be white but of course these pictures are in black and white to it's hard to tell exactly what shade of white was used. Also, for what it's worth, in Canada civilian tents were always white until well after the war (whenever nylon tents came in). Both my parents and grandparents camped in white tents before and after WWII.

de Stokesay

 

[Stanley Doble]

WW2 bell tents were brown.

 

[Stearmen]

WWII American Pup tents were open at the bottom with no floor. Made it easy for critters such as Skunks to come in and sleep with you. Don't ask me how I know this!

 

[Dragon Soldier]

UK civi tents went green or brown for the duration, manufacturers sold fly sheets and stain in the appropriate shades.
It was also recommended that civilian campers, Scouts, Guides etc. not pitch in rows.

Strangely enough I read this all recently on another forum. I'd love a period civilian tent, but I have two military ones already, one which is the British equivalent of an American "pup" and a much larger one which would be a roughly analogous to a US Small Wall, although it's a bit smaller.

 

[kiwilrdg]

I have found some 1920s and 1930s pictures with wall tents like the one I have that appear to be white. The age of my tent would make it appropriate to use since it is the same age as a late '20s tent in WWII.

It is interesting to research the civilian end of a period that has such exact documentation from the military aspects. Since everything was "for the boys" a lot of what happened at home never was recorded.

 

[Mojave Jack]

For homefront stuff your tent will do perfectly. Wall tents haven't changed much since the 19th century, and the designs have persisted. There's a decent book called Past Tents that shows the variety of tents used for civilian camping, and I was amazed at the variety of tents used throughout the early 20th century, especially the number of striped materials. From what I've seen I think your western/fur trapper type tent would fit right in any time from the late 19th century through the post-WWII years.

 

[Dinerman]

Here's a tent catalog from 1940.