The collection is open for research.
Onsite storage.
This collection contains pamphlets, reports, and correspondence regarding the YMCA 19th World Conference in Helsinki, Finland; pamphlets, correspondences, minutes, and questionnaires related to the YMCA Constantinople Branch in Turkey between 1926-1928; reports regarding the history and progress of the YMCA and YWCA in different countries; and pamphlets, questionnaires, records, and history of the YMCA in different parts of the world including Japan, Czechoslovakia, Poland, China and Belgium.
Series 1: YMCA 19th World Conference, 1925 -- 1926
This series contains pamphlets, reports, and correspondence regarding the YMCA 19th World Conference in Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki is referred to in the YMCA records as Helsingfors. Much of the correspondence, which is arranged alphabetically, regards preparations being made for the conference. The series also includes a report summarizing discussions and questionnaires at Robert College in Constantinople, Turkey, as well as an itinerary of unknown authorship indicating schedule and driving routes of the Helsinki Conference.
Series 2: YMCA Constantinople Branch, 1926 -- 1928
This series contains records such as pamphlets, correspondences, minutes, and questionnaires related to the YMCA Constantinople Branch in Turkey between 1926-1928. Much of the correspondence is either addressed to Dr. Edgar J. Fisher or noted on the letter as for his reference. Correspondence is ordered alphabetically and chronologically. Also included in the series is a program schedule for the All-Day Conference Board of Managers Meeting for the Constantinople YMCA that took place on February 19, 1926. The reports included in the collection regard developments in the Constantinople branch as well as how reforms and policies taking place in Turkey affected the YMCA.
Series 3: YMCA and YWCA Reports, 1930
This series contains reports regarding the history and progress of the YMCA and YWCA in different countries.
Series 4: YMCA General, circa 1920 -- 1949
This series contains pamphlets, questionnaires, records, and history of the YMCA in different parts of the world including Japan, Czechoslovakia, Poland, China and Belgium. Copies of questionnaires in German, French and English, Histories of the Foreign Program of the YMCA and the YMCA in Belgium, and "Japan Mail," a series of excerpts from cables and correspondences as well as short reports regarding the Japan YMCA are included in this series.
Missionary Research Library Archives: MRL12, Ecumenical/World Missions
This collection is arranged in four series: Series 1: YMCA 19th World Conference; Series 2: YMCA Constantinople Branch; Series 3: YMCA and YWCA Reports; and Series 4: YMCA General.
The collection is open for research.
Onsite storage.
Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.
Item description, MRL 12: YMCA and YWCA Records, series #, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Kautz Family YMCA Archives: http://www.lib.umn.edu/ymca.
Formerly part of the independent Missionary Research Library (MRL), these records were accessioned by the Burke Library at the time of the MRL's closure in 1976.
Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
Metal clips and staples were removed from materials. Fragile material photocopied. Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. YMCA material from this collection was pulled from several different unprocessed boxes as well as the circulating library collection. No original order existed; therefore order is imposed. The finding aid was created by Debbie Liu in 2012 and edited by Brigette C. Kamsler in 2013 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2024.
2024-02-27 PDF converted to EAD and description updated by Leah Edelman.
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.
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