Merit Badge History

The history of Merit Badges in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has been tracked by categorizing them into a series of merit badge types. In addition to the Boy Scouts of America, many other Scouting and Scouting-like organizations around the world, such as Pathfinders, Baden-Powell Scouts and Royal Rangers, issue merit badges or their equivalent; though they are sometimes called honors or proficiency badges. Other organizations, such as fire brigades, issue badges or awards that they refer to as merit badges, but that are in some respects different from the badges awarded by the BSA.

Merit badges have been an integral part of the Scouting program since the start of the movement in the United Kingdom on August 1, 1907. Scouting came to the United States in 1910; the BSA quickly issued an initial list of just 14 merit badges, but did not produce or award them. In 1911, the BSA manufactured the first official 57 merit badges and began awarding them. The number of badges available has been as high as 140 and, as of 2006, is 121. Merit badge types are identifiable by the cloth and manufacturing process used to make them. The classification of badges into types came about as a way for collectors to categorize and classify their collections. Merit badge collectors often collect other Scouting memorabilia as well.

American Business	American Cultures	American Heritage	American Labor	Animal Science
Archaeology	Archery	Architecture	Art	Astronomy
Athletics	Automotive Maintenance	Aviation	Backpacking	Basketry
Bird Study	Bugling	Camping	Canoeing	Chemistry
Cinematography	Citizenship in the Community	Citizenship in the Nation	Citizenship in the World	Climbing
Coin Collecting	Collections	Communications	Composite Materials	Computers
Cooking	Crime Prevention	Cycling	Dentistry	Disabilities Awareness
Dog Care	Drafting	Electricity	Electronics	Emergency Preparedness
Energy	Engineering	Entrepreneurship	Environmental Science	Family Life
Farm Mechanics	Fingerprinting	Fire Safety	First Aid	Fish and Wildlife Management
Fishing	Fly-Fishing	Forestry	Gardening	Genealogy
Geology	Golf	Graphic Arts	Hiking	Home Repairs
Horsemanship	Indian Lore	Insect Study	Journalism	Landscape Architecture
Law	Leatherwork	Lifesaving	Mammal Study	Medicine
Metalwork	Model Design and Building	Motorboating	Music	Nature
Nuclear Science	Oceanography	Orienteering	Painting	Personal Fitness
Personal Management	Pets	Photography	Pioneering	Plant Science
Plumbing	Pottery	Public Health	Public Speaking	Pulp and Paper
Radio	Railroading	Reading	Reptile and Amphibian Study	Rifle Shooting
Rowing	Safety	Salesmanship	Scholarship	Sculpture
Shotgun Shooting	Skating	Small-Boat Sailing	Snow Sports	Soil and Water Conservation
Space Exploration	Sports	Stamp Collecting	Surveying	Swimming
Textile	Theater	Traffic Safety	Truck Transportation
Veterinary Medicine	Water Sports	Weather	Whitewater
Wilderness Survival	Wood Carving	Woodwork

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Source of information on this page was kindly provided by: Wikipedia, search = History of merit badges (Boy Scouts of America)
The Merit Badge pictures and subsequent links th their respective requirements are from the National Council website.

Last revision was made on: November 10, 2008 by Dave Exter.