You are mainly seeking 35mm film containers placed at the base
of a metal post or in a guard rail. However there are a few
magnetic key holders. They are only hidden in areas with wide
shoulders and/or ample parking and they tend to shy away from homes
and businesses. As always, be careful as you hunt them, the world
can be a dangerous place.
Tenth Edition /
1990
Cover artwork is a glossy cover with three color action
photographs (rappelling, camping/hiking, white-water rafting)
superimposed on a photograph of a pine branch, compass, Eagle
medal, First Class badge, merit badge sash, baseball & bat, and
carabineer, spread across the front and back cover.
The Tenth Edition differs most obviously from other recent
editions by the use of color photographs (over 900 of them) in
addition to numerous color drawings. Even the cover consists of
photos (another first). This edition is about a hundred pages
longer than the last edition. This is definitely the heaviest
Handbook; at a full inch thick (25 mm), it ties the Eighth Edition
in bulk, but it has nearly 40% more pages.
The Tenth Edition represents a Scouting program very similar to
the program in use before 1972. The BSA even changed the background
colors of most of its badges to be more similar to the pre-1972
badges, including the return to green bars for troop offices
instead of the silver and gold bars used from 1972-89. The Handbook
drops the skill awards, but still groups skills by subject rather
than by rank (information for the lower ranks is flagged with a
'T', '2', or '1' for Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First
Class).
This Handbook is packed with information about camping, cooking,
fire building, and other traditional Scout skills. But the Tenth
Edition also is filled with detailed information on low-impact
camping, with much emphasis on the need for careful use of the
environment. This is the first Handbook to include a section on the
use of backpacking stoves (stoves were widely used in the fragile
wilderness for 20 years before they were mentioned in the
Handbook—indeed, for years, the BSA's Philmont Scout Ranch
wilderness base trucked wood in to heavily-used campsites rather
than require the use of backpacking stoves).
The Handbook contains chapters on bicycling, canoeing, rowing,
the new Venture Scouting and Varsity Scouting options for older
Scouts, and the separate Varsity Scouting program (which began in
1984).
The Tenth Edition has a lengthy chapter on prevention of child
abuse and molesting, as well as drug abuse. Along with later Ninth
Edition printings, it also contains a tear-out insert for parents
discussing prevention of drug/alcohol abuse and child
abuse/molesting. The Tenth Edition has a good discussion on sexual
responsibility, but no discussion at all about puberty.
This edition slightly modifies the explanatory wording for the
Scout Law.
The artwork and photos in this Handbook are interesting also
because the full Scout uniform ("field uniform") is rarely seen.
Instead, the BSA tried to promote its new (and expensive)
"activities uniform" option by showing it in almost every photo and
drawing. This optional uniform didn't replace the standard uniform,
it was in addition to it. It required not only a separate
polo-style shirt, but also different shorts from the standard Scout
shorts. Most troops continued to do what troops have done for
decades—they designed their own troop T-shirt (or used one of
the standard ones in the Scout catalog), which could be worn with
the regular Scout shorts.
The Tenth Edition contains only the requirements for the 14
Eagle merit badges and color pictures of all the other merit
badges. It uses the "perfect" binding. Like the Ninth Edition, this
is as much a Fieldbook as an advancement manual.
There were over 3,000,000 copies printed.
