National Recreation Association

Founded in 1906 as the Playground Association of America, the organization soon changed its focus to a more dynamic conception of recreation dedicated to improving the human environment through park, recreation, and leisure opportunities. Recruitment and training of recreation leaders, city planning, dissemination of information, technical assistance to local communities, and association activities during the two world wars are issues reflected in the collection. Reflecting the organization's changing mission, it changed its name, and was known from 1911-1930 as the Playground and Recreation Association of America, and from 1930 to 1965, as the National Recreation Association.

The National Recreation Association was founded in 1906 as the Playground Association of America (PAA) by eighteen men and women from playground associations, public school and municipal recreation departments, settlements, teachers’ colleges, the kindergarten movement, and charity organizations. Industrialization and growing urbanization prompted a perceived need to encourage positive citizenship through supervised playground and leisure time activities. The organization was dedicated to improving the human environment through park, recreation, and leisure opportunities. Its concept of recreation evolved from the development of supervised playgrounds to one that includes a broad range of leisure-time programs and facilities that enrich the human environment. Reflecting the organization's changing mission, it changed its name to the Playground and Recreation Association of America (1911-1930) and the National Recreation Association (1930-1965). Ultimately, the National Park and Recreation Association was formed by a merger of the National Recreation Association, American Institute of Park Executives, the National Conference on State Parks, the National Recreation Society, and the National Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums.

At the organizational meeting in April, 1906, Luther H Gulick, director of physical education in the New York City school system and founder of the Public School Physical Education Society and the Academy of Physical Education, was elected as the association’s first president. Gulick brought a YMCA-influenced belief in the connection between physical and spiritual health to the PAA. Henry S. Curtis, supervisor of playgrounds for Associated Charities of Washington, D. C., became the secretary. The PAA promoted health and character through exercise and organized sports and the improvement of conditions for the poor through supervised recreation. It fought for public funding of playgrounds and recreation programs and provided consultation and training services for recreation professionals. The association’s journal, Playground, was a source of practical advice, programming ideas, and playground theory

Initially, PAA was funded by private sources and volunteers until the Russell Sage Foundation agreed to help fund services and start up costs. With more financial security, the organization was able to build, and hired the first professional executive secretary, Howard Braucher, a social worker who held the position for forty years. The organization flourished under the leadership of Braucher and new president Joseph Lee. In 1911, the name was changed to Playground and Recreation Association of America (PRAA), symbolizing its expansion into adult as well as childhood activities. PRAA put a new emphasis on field service and began to hold annual congresses. They also began an eventually successful lobby effort for local government responsibility to meet the recreation needs of its citizenry.

With the start of World War I, the PRAA expanded to provide services to troops at training camps. Due to poor physical fitness results of prospective recruits, fitness became a large concern in America. The entire post-war decade was one of large growth for the PRAA. It established the National Recreation School to train professional recreation leaders, funded scholarly research, and promoted physical fitness programs in schools and for African Americans. In the mid-30s, the name of the organization changed to the National Recreation Association (NRA), reflecting its efforts to increase support for and broaden the definition of recreation and leisure.

During the depression, the NRA cut back and, by the end of World War II, many government programs took over the majority of the recreation activities. Howard Braucher died in 1949, leaving the NRA without an effective leader. They continued to be a resource center, published literature and studies, and trained leaders. In 1965, many groups merged to form National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), with a goal to promote public interest in park and leisure opportunity.

Sources: For a more detailed history of the National Recreation Association, see William Wallach's essay in Peter Romanofsky, ed. Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Institutions, Social Service Organizations :,Vol. 2, 1978, pp. 587-592, from which this summary was drawn. See also Richard Knapp and Charles Hartsoe. Play for America: The National Recreation Association, 1906-1965, National Recreation and Park Association, 1979.) Additional information about the founding of the Playground Association of America was drawn from the National Recreation Association records as summarized in Linnea Anderson. “The Playground of Today is the Republic of Tomorrow:' Social Reform and Organized Recreation, 1890-1930’s" in the proceedings of the History of Community and Youth Work Conference, forthcoming.