J.A. Mitchell was an author and artist who was the co-founder and editor of the original Life (humor) magazine. He also wrote a remarkable science fiction novel, "Drowsy."
By The Australian Panther
I'm presuming he is being facetious and mildly sarcastic about the 19th century version of the American practice of 'sending the kids to Camp in the summer' ?
There is really only one joke repeated through the whole book tho.
You always have to wonder, and what were the Adults doing in the 'kids' absence?
Nice one Lyons.
By crashryan
Some Googling revealed that this book is poking fun at The Concord Summer School of Philosophy, which "was hosted in Concord, Massachusetts, by Bronson Alcott on his property. William T. Harris organized the school and its programs...with the intention of unifying the Hegelian Idealism of the St. Louis Philosophical Society with the Transcendentalism of Concord."
The abstract of a paywalled essay sums it up thus: "During its ten summer sessions (1879–88), the Concord School of Philosophy attracted hundreds of attendees who, for intellectual improvement and a glimpse of aging transcendentalists, endured lectures on the classics, philosophy, and comparative religions."
As the Panther notes, these cartoons all retell the same joke: people attend claiming they're seeking knowledge when in reality they're seeking a summer romance.
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