Chris Brightwell

Scouting Historian & Visual Storyteller

I'm a visual storyteller and accidental Scouting historian from Huntsville, Alabama. I do a lot of different stuff, but most of it is Scouting-related. Feel free to send me an email at chris@dimwell.net.

#NOAC2024 Training Files

As part of my GEO duties at NOAC, I am teaching a session called "Oral History Project: How to Capture Your Lodge's History". Here are a few resources related to that training session:

The Goodman-Edson Observatory (GEO) at the NOAC 2024 features a 5,000 sq. ft. exhibition museum with 50+ exhibits. Be sure to visit us, Tuesday through Thursday, from 8am until 5pm, at the University Memorial Center (UMC), Room 235.

Podcasts (Past and Present)

My Favorite Patch (NEW!)

This is a show about Scouts, Scout leaders, and the stories behind their favorite patches. Each episode will be fairly short, maybe 10 minutes or less, but that's enough time to talk to someone about their favorite patch and the story behind why it's their favorite.

Listen: Spotify, Amazon Music, (MORE COMING SOON!)

Visit the show online here: linktr.ee/myfavpatch.

Scouting Memories Podcast

Scouting Memories Podcast is an official part of the Scouting Memories Project, which is an officially-chartered national project of the Boy Scouts of America. Each episode, we bring you the best personal, interesting, or unique stories we can find across all of Scouting.

Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible

Visit the show online here: scoutingmemories.org/podcast.

ClothTalk (2005-2006)

A podcast from 2005, this show explored Scouting's history through collectibles. I thought that I had lost all these files to a hard drive crash, but later found them in an old backup. I decided to post them online for posterity.

Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify

Visit the show online here: anchor.fm/clothtalk

Other Projects

Scouting Memories Project

The Scouting Memories Project is an officially-chartered project of the Boy Scouts of America. It is led by a team of volunteers across the country who work together to help collect and preserve personal, unique, or interesting stories from the entire history of Scouting and its 100,000,000 members and alumni. You can learn more about the project and see some of our work online at scoutingmemories.org.

Where To Go Scouting

Where To Go Scouting is something that I've been tinkering with this for a long time, but the basic idea is pretty simple: How do we give Scouts and Scout leaders a simple tool to help find nearby opportunities for camping, hiking, and other adventures? This is a modern take on an old idea, but it's still a work in progress. I have a basic prototype online at wheretogoscouting.org. If you're interested in helping, drop me an email.