Introduction

Biography

John was the son of John New­ton Camp and Ma­ry Ger­trude Glea­son, and hus­band of Su­san Hea­ly.

He gra­du­at­ed from Wes­ley­an Uni­ver­si­ty in 1878, and re­ceived a Mas­ter of Arts de­gree in 1881. He went on to stu­dy law, but found mu­sic was his true vo­ca­tion.

In 1882, he be­came the or­gan­ist of Park Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church, Hart­ford, Con­nec­ti­cut, and in 1906 or­gan­ist at the Cen­ter Church in Hart­ford. He left the Cen­ter Church in 1921 to be­come di­rect­or of the Aus­tin Or­gan Com­pa­ny.

He was award­ed a Doc­tor­ate in Mu­sic by Tri­ni­ty Col­lege in 1921, and a second doc­tor­ate from Wes­ley­an Uni­ver­si­ty in 1933.

Camp was a found­er of the Am­eri­can Guild of Or­gan­ists (1896) and Pre­si­dent of the Con­nec­ti­cut Mu­sic Teach­ers’ Guild (1898). For ma­ny years he con­duct­ed Hart­ford’s Phil­har­mon­ic Or­ches­tra, which he or­gan­ized. Among his be­ne­fac­tions is the John Spen­cer Camp Pro­fes­sor­ship of Mu­sic at Wes­ley­an Uni­ver­si­ty.