School for Christian Workers Trustee Meeting Minutes, 1884-1899

This is the board of trustees meeting minutes and reports for the School for Christian Workers for the years 1884 to 1899. Springfield College and the Bible Normal College, which eventually merged with the Hartford Seminary, both were born from this institution. These meeting minutes covers both these transitions in the school's life. The manuscript begins with the original agreement and by-laws and constitution of the school. Within it states that the purpose of this cooperation, according to the committee, is to prepare young men for Christian work. A list of the original Trustee member names can be seen on pages 6 and 7. The first meeting of the board was held on December 30, 1884. In 1889 and 1890, the meeting minutes go on to describe when the YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) splits from the School of Christian Workers (the Bible Normal College), including the complicated division of the property (specifically the building where basketball was first played) of The School for Christian Workers. Some of the things reflected in the meeting minutes include appointments of administration, staff and faculty; decisions about buildings and maintenance; budgets; reports of committees; bestowing of degrees and acceptance of students; and decisions on the curriculum of the schools. Important names that may be mentioned or may be involved in the decisions are Jacob Bowne, Dwight Moody, Robert McBurney, David Allen Reed, Claude Burrows, Henry Lee, Robert J. Roberts, and Luther Halsey Gulick. Of other import is the discussion of admittance of women and the change of the school's name to the Bible Normal College.There are blank pages at the end of the original document. These blank pages were not scanned due to space concerns in the digital file