Summer vacation-that golden time between Memorial Day and Labor Day when American children are freed from the shackles of school to enjoy long sunshiny days of play and perhaps a family road trip. Could there be anything more traditionally American? Thinking back on centuries past when most Americans lived on farms, we might assume kids spent their summers romping through meadows, climbing trees, fishing, and splashing about in the local swimming hole.

But the reality was very different. During our nation's first 250 years, there was no such thing as summer vacation; schools were in session year-round. In rural America, there were only brief breaks in the spring and fall so that farm kids could help their parents with planting and harvesting. This means that during the summer, the mythic one-room country schoolhouse was filled with children stewing in their own sweat, batting away horse flies, and praying for a cool breeze to blow through the open windows.

In America's booming urban centers, city kids had it worse, hitting the books year-round with no breaks for planting and harvesting. Before the advent of electricity and later air-conditioning, when industries were fueled by steam and coal, the summer heat in the nation's crowded cities would be considered dangerous by modern health standards.

And yet Americans of that time worked year-round without complaint. Clinging to the old Puritan adage that idle hands are the devil's workshop, they viewed hard work as a virtue, leisure as a vice, and recreation as rare and fleeting.

That began changing in 1869, when William H. H. Murray, a handsome young preacher from Boston, published "Adventures in the Wilderness, or Camp-life in the Adirondacks." Filled with direct, straightforward "how-to" tips and humorous short stories about wilderness camping, Murray's book seized the public's imagination and became an instant bestseller.

Until then, most Americans thought of the country's majestic landscapes as obstacles to be conquered and "civilized." A lush green valley with a river running through it was only valuable because it might be the perfect place for building a farm or a large factory with housing for its workers. The idea of simply being in such a place while performing no profitable labor and doing nothing more than enjoying the fresh air and natural beauty was revolutionary-and probably struck many as wrong-headed and the epitome of laziness.

But Murray's book was very persuasive in making the case that hiking, canoeing, fishing, and "camping" in the wilds of nature were the ultimate health tonic for harried city dwellers whose constitutions were weakened by the demands of civilized life.

In 1869, barely four years after the Civil War, health was top of mind for many Americans. When Johnny came marching home from that war, it was often with a limb missing or a future filled with chronic pain from injuries and infections contracted during the conflict. The idea of leaving behind the worries of the world, even for a short time, must have been intoxicating to these veterans and their families-especially if breathing the fresh air of the Adirondacks and communing with nature might relieve pain and revive ailing spirits.

However, most Americans at the time couldn't afford such a trip, either financially or in terms of taking time off from work. Railroads to the Adirondacks were still being laid, while automobiles had not yet been invented. Though the Adirondacks were less than 300 miles from New York City, getting there could take a week or more, depending on the means of travel. When people invested that much time traveling somewhere, it only made sense to stay there for weeks, if not a month or more. Though many readers of Murray's bestseller felt nature's call, only the wealthiest Americans had the time and financial means to answer it.

Initially, newspapers were filled with humorous stories of wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians flocking to the Adirondacks with hastily purchased camping equipment they had no idea how to use. Many became lost less than 50 yards into the woods. Others were terrified, mistaking the rustling of rabbits or squirrels for those of bears and mountain lions and unsure of what to do when a deer crossed their path.
 

In response, entrepreneurs quickly bought land in the mountains, opening campgrounds, lodges, and hotels where the wealthy could safely enjoy untouched nature without leaving behind all the luxuries of city life. By 1875, some 200 hotels and camps operated in the Adirondacks, with stagecoach services rattling from the newly built train stations and steamboats plying the lakes. Other scenic destinations soon became hot spots for tourism, most notably Niagara Falls and the beaches of New England.

Soon wealthy families were leaving the city for the summer. Europeans had always referred to such extended trips as "going on holiday." Americans came up with new terminology. Come summer, it became fashionable for the well-to-do to "vacate" their homes in the city. Annual retreats to mountain, lake, or beach resorts became known as "vacations."

Initially, a luxury that only the wealthy could afford, these "vacations" had a broader effect on society. Come June, city school attendance suddenly dropped, throwing the entire education system into chaos. Because school attendance was not legally mandatory at the time, there was little anyone could do.

Legislators and labor unions began advocating for a summer break for all school children. Even if their families couldn't afford to go on vacation, it was argued that the brain was a muscle that required rest periods from the demands of learning. Requiring children to sit at a desk year-round wasn't good for them; several months of activity and play each year would promote physical health and strength. Summer vacation from school soon became a reality in the largest U.S. cities and spread nationwide to small towns and rural communities. By the early twentieth century, returning to school each September became the defacto start of a new year for most Americans, while "summer" and "vacation" became synonymous.

But extended summer travel remained an elite activity for well-do-do urban Americans. Even with the new nationwide system of railroads, "going on vacation" still meant an extended leave of absence from one's job-something average working Americans could not afford.

Changes began coming in the early twentieth century when Henry Ford made cars more affordable, and automobiles started populating the landscape. As major destinations benefited from auto travel, developers built roadside motels to accommodate motorists. In 1916, most of Yellowstone National Park's 30,000 visitors arrived by train. Two decades later, 409,000 people arrived in cars.

By 1930, only five percent of Americans were going on vacation annually. While more middle-class families were open to the idea, most assumed they could only afford one or two such trips during their lifetime.

Things changed dramatically following World War II. Thanks to the GI Bill, more Americans than ever became college graduates. American companies began competing for the brightest and best educated of them by offering "benefits" such as health insurance and two weeks of paid "vacation leave" annually.

By 1950, a host of social changes, 80 years in the making, finally aligned. Rising middle-class wealth, unprecedented car ownership, paid vacation leave for many workers, summer school breaks for American kids, and the newly constructed interstate highway system came together to give birth to the modern American summer vacation. Young married couples, raised during the Great Depression and having served in World War II, began enjoying their newfound financial stability by taking to the highway with their children each summer.

Natural wonders such as the Adirondacks, the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and Yellowstone became vacation magnets. Across the country, historically important sites were restored to attract vacationers, offering tours during the day and history-themed outdoor plays on summer nights. If some Americans weren't interested in natural wonders or history, a vacation could also be a trip to visit relatives.

A desire to spend more time with family gave birth to a significant unforeseen change to the American vacation. During the 1940s, one hardworking Los Angeles dad had been determined to spend quality time with his two little girls on Sundays-the only day of the week he usually had off from work. His daughters loved spending Sunday afternoons at a local amusement park, taking repeated spins on the carousel and rides on the roller coaster. One Sunday, this dad realized he was spending his precious "family time" sitting alone on a bench with other bored parents watching from a distance as his daughters rode various amusement park rides. It dawned on him that amusement parks only amused children and young people who enjoyed thrill rides. What about parents and adults who would feel foolish riding a merry-go-round and nauseous on a roller-coaster? Why couldn't there be rides and attractions that parents and children could enjoy together? Those questions got his wheels turning, and he began imagining new kinds of rides that would take people through a story-not just a series of physical thrills and sensations. And instead of cramming these rides in a carnival-like amusement park, he envisioned them spread out in different areas, each intricately decorated like a movie set so that visitors would feel as if they were entering another time and place.

This Los Angeles dad was Walt Disney-heralded worldwide as one of the twentieth century's most innovative, forward-thinking filmmakers. The end result of Disney's musings during frustrating Sunday amusement park outing trips was the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in 1955. Disneyland offered something the world had never seen-not an amusement park filled with thrill rides, but a place where visitors could visit different lands, each embodying a specific time and place-a specific theme. While amusement parks catered to local populations, Walt Disney produced a prime-time weekly TV show, "Disneyland," to spread the word about the world's first theme park. Thanks to the interstate highway system, families nationwide could drive cross country to Southern California, visiting historical sites and natural wonders along the way and capping the trip off with a few days in Disneyland.

Disneyland became an overnight sensation-eclipsing even Washington DC as the place foreign dignitaries wanted to visit while in the United States. Countless cheaper, smaller Disneyland imitations opened nationwide and failed within a decade. Established amusement parks that had thrived for nearly a century were now obsolete and uninteresting and folded. By the 1970s, new theme parks were opened across America, offering days of entertaining escapism to vacationing families.

In 1971, Disney moved ahead of the pack yet again, opening Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Measuring 47 square miles, Disney World became the home of four distinct theme parks and over two dozen luxury resort hotels. Florida's beaches, which had been vacation hot spots for nearly a century, took a back seat to Disney World, which, in turn, begat a new type of vacation destination: the theme resort-a one-stop vacation destination-where vacationers could spend a week or more without fear of boredom.

By the 1990s, even Las Vegas took a lesson from Disney as huge theme-resort hotels aimed at vacationing families were built along its famous strip, dwarfing the older casinos. At the same time, cruise ships-essentially theme resorts on the water-skyrocketed in popularity.

"Going on vacation" is now a part of American life. Current statistics show that U.S. families (now primarily with two breadwinners) are taking more vacations than ever-but they are of shorter duration. As of this past January, more than 70 percent of Americans planned to travel for pleasure in 2023. When it comes to just how much they plan on spending, 24 percent have set aside $4,000 for expenses. This year the number one vacation destination for American families is Florida, followed by New York City and Los Angeles.