President Harding, on the left, joined Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone on one of their yearly camping trips. This photograph shows the men horseback riding in Maryland during their trip in 1921.

The Vagabonds -- Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone -- enjoyed their annual camping trips taken from 1916 to 1924. While the three men delighted in the outdoors, their accommodations weren't particularly rustic. This 1921 White truck traveled with them. It carried elaborate tents and camping equipment that provided many of the comforts of a good hotel.

In August 1918, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and naturalist John Burroughs embarked on a camping trip through the central Appalachian Mountain range. The self-named Vagabonds enjoyed hiking, exploring, sightseeing and just being in each other's company. The four Vagabonds and invited guests signed this log -- a souvenir of their outdoors adventure.

Calling themselves the Vagabonds, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs made yearly camping trips between 1916 and 1924. This photograph of Henry Ford is from their 1919 excursion, when the friends visited New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The next year, their wives would join, rendering the trips decidedly more formal and less adventurous.

Calling themselves the Vagabonds, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs made yearly camping trips between 1916 and 1924. This photograph of Henry Ford is from their 1919 excursion, when the friends visited New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The next year, their wives would join, rendering the trips decidedly more formal and less adventurous.

Calling themselves the Vagabonds, industrialists Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone, and naturalist John Burroughs, took annual camping trips between 1916 and 1924. In 1918, Ford met Firestone in Ohio before joining Edison and Burroughs in Pennsylvania. From there, it was on to West Virginia -- where this photograph was taken -- Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

Between 1916 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and naturalist John Burroughs embarked on a series of camping trips. They called themselves the Vagabonds, but they camped in style. These Vagabonds enjoyed retreating from the fast-paced world to explore nature and the pre-industrial countryside -- or just to relax and nap under a tree.

Between 1916 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs, calling themselves the Vagabonds, embarked on a series of camping trips. This image, from 1921, shows the Vagabonds (minus Burroughs, who had died earlier in the year) dining with family and friends near Hagerstown, Maryland. One of their friends at the table is President Warren G. Harding.

Between 1916 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs embarked on a series of camping trips. They called themselves the Vagabonds, but they camped in style. Numerous support staff set up and took down camp, cooked, took photographs, and maintained the cars and equipment trucks. This photograph shows the Vagabonds' automotive camping caravan in 1921.

Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs eat breakfast underneath a tent at Camp Cheat, near Bolar Springs, Virginia, in 1918. The group, calling themselves Vagabonds, took several camping trips together throughout the eastern United States.

Between 1916 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs, calling themselves the Vagabonds, embarked on a series of camping trips. This image, from 1921, shows the Vagabonds (minus Burroughs, who had died earlier in the year) dining with family and friends near Hagerstown, Maryland. One of their friends at the table is President Warren G. Harding.

Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs made yearly camping trips between 1916 and 1924. They called themselves the Vagabonds. In 1920 they traveled to New York's Catskill Mountains. This was the first outing to include wives. The trips became decidedly more formal and less adventurous when wives came along. And Edison himself confessed that the fun was gone.

Thomas Edison, John Burroughs, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone pose on a waterwheel at old Evans Mill near Lead Mine, West Virginia. The photograph was taken in August 1918. The group called themselves Vagabonds and made a series of trips between 1916 and 1924. On these trips they communed with nature, explored their personal interests and acted like boys again.

Between 1916 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs embarked on a series of annual camping trips. They called themselves the Four Vagabonds. This image shows the Vagabonds (minus Burroughs) with President Warren Harding, who joined them in 1921.

Between 1916 and 1924, industrialists Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone, and naturalist John Burroughs, took several camping trips together. These self-named "Vagabonds" camped in a style appropriate to wealthy gentlemen. Numerous support staff drove and maintained the vehicles, set up camp, started fires, did the cooking, made the coffee, and took photographs.

Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone, part of the self-proclaimed Vagabonds, are shown shaving and washing up during their 1921 camping trip. They are joined by Bishop William Anderson and President Harding. Newsmen and photographers documented and reported the Vagabonds' every move. It's hard to tell how many "informal" activities were staged for reporters.

President Calvin Coolidge, second from left, hosted the Vagabonds at his boyhood home in Vermont in 1924. The Vagabonds -- Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone -- took yearly camping trips from 1916 to 1924. President Coolidge is seen in this photograph presenting Ford with a sap bucket.

Thomas Edison relaxes and smokes a cigar during a 1921 camping trip with friends. His friends included Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone. Calling themselves the Vagabonds, the group took yearly trips throughout the eastern United States until 1924. Edison was considered the group's leader and served as route picker and navigator.

Between 1916 and 1924, industrialists Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone, and naturalist John Burroughs, took several camping trips together. This group, which called itself the Vagabonds, was informally led by Edison, who selected routes and served as navigator. This photograph shows him relaxing during a 1923 trip.

Perhaps a seemingly odd pair, automobile magnate Henry Ford and naturalist John Burroughs shared a love of nature. Here, the two friends pose in front of Woodchuck Lodge near Burroughs' birthplace in the Western Catskills of New York. Ford had helped him purchase the property outright in 1913. Burroughs summered here, writing and entertaining guests at Woodchuck Lodge.