The Department of Archives and Special Collections (including the YMCA Archives) will be providing limited service the first week of January 2012. January 3-6 ASC will not be registering new researchers or pulling any materials for research use. Researchers who have registered with us by December 15 and have materials already available in the reading room will be accommodated. The reading room will be open 8:30-4:30 M-F beginning Monday, January 9. Wednesday and Thursday evening hours resume January 18.

Please also note: We are completely closed on December 26 and 27 as well as January 2nd. See our hours web page for more details.

Posted by Lara Friedman-Shedlov at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The YMCA in Wuhan, China, marked its 100th anniversary this year, and YMCA Archivist Lara Friedman-Shedlov was there to help celebrate the milestone. Founded in the same year (and in the same city) as the revolution that ended Qing dynasty and established the first republic in China, the Wuhan YMCA boasts a rich history of service in the community. Like most of the YMCAs currently active in China, it traces its roots to the workers (known as "foreign secretaries") sent by the American YMCA to spread the movement to Asia and other parts of the world. The records of those early years of the Chinese YMCA are now housed at the Kautz Family YMCA Archives, where they are available to researchers from around the World. Since of the Chinese Y's own records did not survive the Cultural Revolution and other political upheavals of the mid-20th century, the records in the YMCA Archives' collections have in many cases been a key resource for these Ys as they try to reconstruct their past. The YMCA Archives was pleased to be able to provide records and photographs to assist the Wuhan YMCA in researching its 100-year history and delighted to have a staff member in attendance at the celebration, which was held on October 26th.

Photo:Wuhan YMCA General Secretary Tu Hanqiao and YMCA Archivist Lara Friedman-Shedlov at the Wuhan YMCA 100th anniversary celebration

Posted by Lara Friedman-Shedlov at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)