Beard, Daniel Carter (1850-1941), was known to American Boy Scouts as “Uncle Dan.” In 1905, two years before the Boy Scout movement was started in England, Beard had organized the Boy Pioneers, Sons of Daniel Boone. When Boy Scouting came to the United States, he became active in the new movement. He was National Scout Commissioner from 1910 until his death in 1941. His work gave the Boy Scouts of America its distinctive lore, based on pioneer and American Indian life, rather than on Indian and African life as in the British Boy Scout movement (see Boy Scouts ).
Beard first became known as a naturalist and illustrator. His books for boys include What to Do and How to Do It (1882), Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties (1914), and Wisdom of the Woods (1926). He was born on June 21, 1850, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He died on June 11, 1941.
