The materials within this collection relate primarily to an address given by Sir George Williams to the students of the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College, during the Golden Jubilee celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the YMCA. When Golden Jubilee plans were being made by YMCAs throughout the world in 1894, the directors of the School invited Sir George Williams, the founder of the Movement, to address the Jubilee graduating class. Sir George was unable to travel to America (he was then seventy-three years old) but he wrote an address to the class and recorded it onto a wax cylinder at Edison House in London on May 23, 1894. The wax cylinder was shipped across the Atlantic to the college, where it was played at the commencement exercises. The wax cylinder and its original shipping box have been preserved in the Springfield College archives ever since.

Accompanying the cylinder are a hand-written, signed transcript of the address by Williams and an explanatory letter by W.H. Mills, Secretary of the YMCA’s National Council in London. The collection also contains an article about the address and the Jubilee from Training School Notes written in the same year.

In addition there are a number of photographs and images of George Williams, his childhood home, images related to the earliest locations of the YMCA, and images honoring him. Of interest is a Silver Etching of a famous portrait photograph taken when he was young done by an unidentified Dutch Artist and a series of images showing materials that have been preserved from his life, of him, and places that relate to the founding of the YMCA.

It is worth noting that this collection also contains an earlier hand written letter from Williams to the YMCA Training School Class of 1888. There are also several photographs and lantern slides of and related to Williams, photocopies of newspaper articles from the Jubilee year (1894) and the years surrounding Williams’ death (1904-1907), and some later correspondence about the wax cylinder and the copies that have been made of it.

The recordings can be divided as follows:

Version 1 (folder 9). The original wax cylinder recording, dated 1894, is of Williams reading his own address to the students of the International YMCA Training School.

Version 2 (Folder 10). The earliest known copy or re-recording, dating from circa 1937-1946, contains an introduction to the recording by American radio broadcaster Milton J. Cross, an introduction to the Williams’ address by Eugene E. Barnett, General Secretary of the National Council of the YMCAs of the United States, a complete reading of a transcript of the Williams’ address by Barnett, and an excerpt of the original Williams’ recording from the wax cylinder. This version does not contain the entire text read by Williams. This version was first recorded as standard, 78 speed record and has—at various times—been copied as a reel-to-reel tape, a cassette tape, and a CD (or digital file).

The sleeve for the record contains the following information about the recording:

“[…]Recently, Dr. E.M. Best, president of the college, discovered the package and realized the historical value of this rare recording, which is considered a museum piece. He sent it to New York, where the National Council Public Relations Office had this re-recording made. Early playing of this record has caused scratching of the surface, and through its long period of storage in the archives some of the accuracy of the wax impression has been lost. But there remain some lines which bring forth Sir George’s voice clear and life-like. This re-recording was made with the most modern American equipment in a studio specializing in this type of voice restorations and preservations. The re-recording was produced under the supervision of Henriette K. Harrison, National Radio Director of the YMCA. The original recording has been returned to Springfield College.”

This folder contains two CDs and one cassette tape, each with this recording.

Version 3 (Folder 11). This version is identical to Version 2, except that it contains two readings of the entire address by Williams himself. This full version of Williams’ reading was presumably copied directly from the wax cylinder, although the date is unknown. This version exists as cassette tapes and was digitized in 2009. No documentation was found with the cassette tapes. The folder contains two cassette tapes with the wax cylinder recording only, a CD with two versions of the wax cylinder recording and a version of the recording with the introduction by Cross and Barnett, a cassette tape with the same recordings as found on the CD and a 1 ½ mil acetate reel to reel tape.

Version 4 (Folder 12). The last known copy or re-recording was made in London in 1964. It contains an introduction by British radio personality Franklin Engelmann, a complete reading of a transcript of the Williams’ address by Stuart Hibbard, known as “The Voice of BBC,” and an excerpt of the original Williams’ recording from the wax cylinder. This excerpt is identical to the excerpt that can be found on versions 2 and 3. Like version 2, this version does not contain the entire text read by Williams. This version was first recorded as a small, 45 speed record, and it was digitized in 2009.

The sleeve for the record contains the following information about the recording:

“Recorded by Special Recording Dept., E-M-I Studios LTD, London, England / Recording first published 1964 / The Voice of the Founder of the YMCA / Sir George Williams / Introduction by Franklin Engelmann / Sir George’s Letter Read by Stuart Hibbard / Issued by the National Council of YMCAs (Inc.)”

This folder contains 3 E.P. records and one CD this recording.

Version 5 (Folder 13). Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) recording using IRENE (Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.) technology. For more information on the process see https://www.nedcc.org/audio-preservation/irene.

Included within this folder are the email communication between Springfield College and NEDCC, NEDCC project proposal and initial review, email communications with audio engineera Toby Mountain and George Blood, flash drive with all files created by NEDCC (including jpgs, tiffs, wav and mpg files), and audio files created by Toby Mountain that refined the initial results. All Digital Files are maintained in main Digital Archives, but only “use” files are accessible in online Digital Collections.

Results of process was not very productive, and files did not improve upon original recordings of wax cylinder. Also, inconclusive dating on the cylinder. NEDCC contact wrote that “There were extremely low audio recording levels of 5 microns on the cylinder-usually commercial cylinders have 20-50 microns levels. This is often the case when the original cylinder recording was recorded improperly without a good level being obtained. So I think it may be one of the original cylinder recordings made of his greeting. Of course I don’t know for sure. It certainly wasn’t mass produced.”