Daniel Carter Beard was born on June 21, 1850, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and he studied in New York City at the Art Students League. Taking the knowledge he had learned at school, Beard started illustrating books, (one of these included the first edition of A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain), as well as teaching others how to draw animals. He published The American Boy's Handy Book in 1882. He filled this work with chapters focusing on outdoor skills, information, and how to have fun outside, concepts that had been lost in the new age of industrialization. However, the desire to learn them again caused Beard's book to gain bestseller status. After founding the organization "Sons of Daniel Boone", which taught outdoor activites to young boys, and viewing its sucess, Beard teamed up with Ernest Thompson Seton to form the Boy Scouts of America in 1910. Beard was known to the boys around the nation as Uncle Dan and even had the mountain ajoining Mt. Mckinley named after him. He served as national scout commisioner and chairman of the court of honor until his death on June 11, 1941.
His books include:
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The American Boy's Handy Book
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Boy Pioneers and Sons of Daniel Boone (1909)
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American Boys' Book of Wild Animals (1921)
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Wisdom of the Woods (1927)
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