Processed by
Pamela Tranfield
27 January 2003
Revised by Dorothy Nicholson
15 March 2004
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
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VOLUME OF |
1 folder |
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COLLECTION |
Ca. 1947-1948 |
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PROVENANCE: |
Herbert W. Laffoon, Jr., P.O. Box 4983 Carson, CA 90745, July 1988 |
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RESTRICTIONS: |
None |
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COPYRIGHT: |
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REPRODUCTION |
Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained from the Indiana Historical Society. |
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ALTERNATE |
None |
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RELATED |
None |
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ACCESSION |
1994.1267 |
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NOTES: |
Please credit photographer (Marvin Shelton or Herbert W. Laffoon, Jr.) on all reproductions. |
The YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) was founded in London, England, ca. 1844. The first YMCA in the United States was established in Boston, Massachusetts, in December 1851. In 1853 Anthony Bowen, a freed slave, founded the first African-American YMCA, in Washington, D.C.
The cornerstone of the Senate Avenue YMCA (Indianapolis) was laid in October 1912 at Michigan and Senate Avenues. Booker T. Washington dedicated the building in 1913. Until the early 1960s the Senate Avenue YMCA held the largest membership of any African-American branch in the United States. The facility provided cultural and recreational activities as well as vocational guidance for young men. The center closed in 1959 following the opening of the Fall Creek YMCA.
The Hi-Ys was a boy’s club founded in the mid-1940s by the national YMCA movement. Hi-Y groups operated out of high schools as part of the YMCA’s core youth program and were popular until the 1960s.
Sources:
Material in the collection.
“A Brief History of the YMCA Movement,” (www.ymca.net/about/cont/history.htm). Accessed 13 January 2003
Laffoon, Herbert W., Jr. Letter to Stephen J. Fletcher, 2 May 1994. Accession file 1994.1267, Indiana Historical Society.
Mjagkij, Nina. “Senate Avenue YMCA.” In The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, edited by David J. Bodenhamer and Robert G. Barrows, 1249-1250. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994. F534.I55 E4 1994
The collection contains five group photographs of delegates to a spring Hi-Y Conference at the Senate Avenue YMCA in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1947 or 1948. The participants, mainly young African-American men, belonged to the Indiana and Evanston, Illinois, Hi-Ys. The donor identified a number of individuals in the photographs. Marvin Shelton of Terre Haute, Indiana, made four photographs in the collection. Herbert W. Laffoon, Jr., made one image.
The Evanston, Illinois contingent joined the Indiana group due to the close association of Thomas E. Hummons to the Senate Avenue YMCA. Hummons was executive director of the Evanston branch during the 1940s, and his father, Dr. Henry L. Hummons, was a founder of the Senate Avenue branch. Neither Hummons is identified in any of the photographs.
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CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
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Delegates to Spring Hi-Y Conference, Senate Avenue YMCA, ca. 1947–48 |
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://157.91.92.2/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
3. Select "Call Number" from the “Search In:” box.
4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, P 0394).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.