SC Scrapbook: YMCA College Men in the Great War (classes 1920-21)

A scrapbook created by Springfield College, at the time known as the International YMCA College, titled "YMCA College Men in the Great War: Classes 1920-21 (Pictures no. 251-276)". The scrapbook is one of six scrapbooks that contain photographs and other materials on the Springfield College Alumni who served in the YMCA, the Allied Armed Forces, or directly supported the war movement, during World War I. The scrapbooks mostly contain portrait photographs of the men in their uniforms, though there are other photographs, including group photographs and photographs where the men served. Most of the photographs were sent at the request of the Springfield College president Laurence L. Doggett (see letters in Series 01a). There are also some documents, including letters, news articles, and pamphlets in the scrapbooks. For some of the men there is written information about their rank, location, and responsibilities.Due to the multinational composition of Springfield’s student body, many alumni enlisted in 1914 at the outbreak of World War One. These young men fought in northern France,particularly in the Battle of the Somme which lasted between July 1 and November 18 1916.Aside from those in the trenches, the College’s ties with the YMCA resulted in many alumni, students and faculty going overseas to work as YMCA camp secretaries. The United States entered the World War One on April 6 1917 and in response Springfield College offered war work courses for YMCA secretaries beginning on June 51917.The training of war work secretaries and physical education directors were important contributions to the war effort by the college.During the digitization process, blank pages between filled pages in the scrapbook were removed and placed in the back of the scrapbook. Also, all blank pages at the end of the scrapbook were not digitized. The reason for this was to create a more usable online digital object and to cut down on the time and expense of the digitization process. All other pages, including blank pages and both sides of the front and back of the covers were digitized