This lantern slide shows a black background with blue text that reads, “Inform, Inspire, Act.” Meant to describe the role of the Y.M.C.A. and its workers abroad, this was created for a presentation by the Foreign Division of the American and Canadian Y.M.C.A.
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In 1889, the Y.M.C.A. International Committee sent a young American named David McConaughy to Madras to serve as the first foreign secretary in India. McConaughy encouraged the development of pre-existing Associations and held the first National Convention in 1891, which resulted in the formation of the National Council of India, Burma, and Ceylon. The Association’s most notable contribution in India was its rural development work, first begun by K. T. Paul in 1913. Paul established microloan programs that freed the rural poor from the grips of moneylenders and won many converts among India's lower classes. Joseph Hawkes, the slide’s creator, spent much of his life producing and coloring lantern slides from his home in New York. This slide is part of Springfield College’s lantern slide series depicting Y.M.C.A. work in India, Ceylon, and Burma in the early twentieth century. The series was prepared by the Foreign Division of the American and Canadian Y.M.C.A, which established self-sustaining associations staffed by trained secretaries in foreign lands.
Some deterioration; Text on border reads, "Made by Joseph Hawkes; New York City; 28; Inform, Inspire, Act."
Part of the Y.M.C.A. Work in India and Sri Lanka Lantern Slide Series
