YMCA and YWCA records, 1925 -- 1949

The Young Men's Christian Association was founded by George Williams in London, England on June 6, 1844 as a response to the unhealthy social and living conditions for young men living in big cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution. Williams and a group of fellow drapers, or cloth retailers, organized the first YMCA as a way to meet certain social, spiritual, and intellectual needs of young men who had migrated to the cities in search of work. By 1851 there were twenty-four YMCAs in Great Britain with a combined membership of 2,700. That same year, the first YMCA in North America appeared in Montreal on November 25, followed by a chapter in Boston on December 15, 1851. In 1853, the first YMCA for African Americans was founded by a former slave named Anthony Bowen. By 1854, there were 397 YMCAs in seven different nations with a combined membership of over 30,000 members. In 1855, the YMCA First World Conference was held in Paris, France with ninety-nine YMCA delegates in attendance. The Paris Basis, a common mission for present and future YMCAs, was drafted at the conference. It was at the Fourth World Conference that the need to develop the individual in mind, body, and spirit through activities like physical work and sports was addressed and acknowledged. In 1878, the official World Alliance of YMCAs was established in Geneva, Switzerland. By 1880, the YMCA became the first national organization to adopt a policy of equal gender and race representation. Today, YMCA membership is comprised of men, women, and children of all ages and ethnicities. The Young Women's Christian Association in England was founded as a result of war, religious revivalism, and growing concern over the welfare of women working in large cities. The same root causes also led to the appearance of YWCAs in North America, first in New York City in 1858, then in Boston in 1866. The British YWCA began as a convergence of two separate movements. In 1855, a Prayer Union was begun by Emma Robarts to create a space for women to come together for bible study and social activities. Simultaneously, Mary Jane Kinnaird established the first London Home where nurses following Florence Nightingale, going to or coming back from the Crimean War, could lodge for the evening. Bible and educational classes, additional homes, and employment agencies soon followed shortly afterwards. In 1877, Robarts and Kinnaird combined their separate organizations to formalize the YWCA. In 1894, the North American YWCA and British YWCA united to form the World's YWCA. At the first World's YWCA Conference in 1898, it was established that the YWCA was to be an interdenominational movement open to all who wished to participate in its programs. In 1946, the National Convention of the YWCA endorsed an "Interracial Charter," which pledged the YWCA to racial integration. The YWCA is the largest and second oldest women's organization in the world and continues to work to advance women's rights and liberties through education, physical activity, and recreation.