YMCA Conference of Physical Directors, 1889

Item Information

Title:
YMCA Conference of Physical Directors, 1889
Description:
This group photograph depicts the participants of the Conference of Physical Directors of 1889 which was held at the International Convention of the Y.M.C.A. in Philadelphia, Penn. Men are standing and seated for the portrait. There is a fur rug on the floor in front of them. Luther Halsey Gulick is standing in the top row, center. The other men are unidentified at this time.
Date:
1889
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
College Archives Digital Collections
Series:
IMLS YMCA Historical Image Collection
Subjects:
Young Men's Christian Association of North America
Springfield College--Faculty
Springfield College
Gulick, Luther Halsey, 1865-1918
YMCA
Philadelphia (Pa.)
Group portraits
Places:
Massachusetts > Hampden (county) > Springfield
Extent:
24.25 x 38 cm.
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15370coll2/id/9946
Terms of Use:
Text and images are owned, held, or licensed by Springfield College and are available for personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that ownership is properly cited. A credit line is required and should read: Courtesy of Springfield College, Babson Library, Archives and Special Collections. Any commercial use without written permission from Springfield College is strictly prohibited. Other individuals or entities other than, and in addition to, Springfield College may also own copyrights and other propriety rights. The publishing, exhibiting, or broadcasting party assumes all responsibility for clearing reproduction rights and for any infringement of United States copyright law.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
Springfield College
Notes:
Luther Gulick was the father of physical education and recreation in the United States. Luther Gulick came to the School for Christian Workers, now Springfield College, in 1887, where he helped found the physical training department and served as its first director. “The YMCA did not see physical training as the integral part of its program, but merely as a bait to draw young men to what the YMCA considered its main mission – religious work. Physical directors tended to be former athletes, pugilists, ex-soldiers, and former circus performers who mostly lacked a serious commitment to the Christian mission of the YMCA. Luther Gulick changed that by instituting a training program for physical directors, who would combine preparation in physical education with Christian commitment and the abilities of a good teacher. Luther Halsey Gulick’s goals for physical education were wide-ranging. He aimed at bodily symmetry, muscular strength and control, endurance, agility, grace, courage, self-possession, and expression. Physical education, he believed, would make better men and fathers. To convince the YMCA as a whole of the value of such an approach took time, though. It was only at the 1889 International Convention of the YMCA in Philadelphia that the association made Gulick’s approach program” (Winter, 2004 ‘Luther Halsey Gulick’, the encyclopedia of informal education).
In the verso of the photograph a penned caption reads “Conference of Physical Directors 1889”. Another pencilled caption reads "Dr. McCurdy identifies as Conference of Physical Directors 1889 lead in connection with International Convention Philadelphia 1889”; The photograph is damaged in the upper left corner, upper left corner torn off, and upper right edge ripped; This original is quite fragile;
Identifier:
SC18767