J. F. Rutherford in Philadelphia [1917] ... And others

 Our thanks to Tom S. and Raymond S. for these images. The first is a rare handbill from 1917.

The following is from July 20, 1913. A newspaper report is found in

Photo Drama Ticket - Stockton, California

Russell's Round-the-World Tour

Guest post by Liam C.

Part 1 of 2

     Many readers of this blog who are interested in Bible Student History and who like me spend too much time on the internet, may have come across a series of photos related to the I.B.S.A. Foreign Mission Investigation and World Tour. What is the story behind these photos? Below is my best attempt at answering this question.

     The photos are held at the Library of Congress in the George Grantham Bain Collection. George Grantham Bain was a New York photographer who also founded the first news photography service, Bain News, in 1898. He was:

     “A visionary who saw the potential of coupling photographs with words in newspapers and magazines, his news photo service focused on people and events, from politics to sports, disasters to celebrations. The Bain News Service accumulated photographs of worldwide coverage, which were distributed to various newspapers and were enhanced by receiving local pictures from its subscribers as part of their reimbursement” (i).

     The Library of Congress purchased the Bain collection in 1948 from D.J. Culver and thankfully made them available with no known restrictions on publication. Included in the Bain photographs are 39,744 glass negatives three of which are below:

     Although exactly how the Russell photographs came to be acquired by Bain is unknown, the fact that they are included in such a prestigious collection is perhaps a testament to Russell's popularity at the time and the widespread appeal of the Bible Student message.

     Photos in the Bain collection do not include much background information. However a bit of detective work actually reveals when and where the Russell photos were taken. In the margins of two of the above photos is the date (shown as 9/25/11 in reverse). The significance of this date can be found in the below extract from the January 1, 1912 Watch Tower, an issue entirely dedicated to publicising the world tour. Speaking of events in the year 1911 it says:

     By further comparing details from these photos with pictures of the original Waldorf Astoria's famed rooftop garden, it is almost certain that this is where these photos were taken. I have written to the Waldorf Astoria archives and can update this post if any additional information turns up.

     It’s kinda cool to envision that meeting, surrounded by the elegance of the Waldorf Astoria’s rooftop, with Russell and company laying out the blueprint for what would become an unforgettable four-month global expedition.

     What else can be known about the background of this legendary Round-the-World Tour? Read part 2.

 

Part 2 of 2

     A deeper dive into Russell’s Round-the-World Tour should probably start with a brief discussion of the Layman’s Missionary Movement and the Protestant missionary fields in the last few decades of the nineteenth century which at the time were filled with confidence and optimism.

     The Evangelization of the World in this Generation by John R. Mott, page 1 & 2 describes how in 1886 a movement arose among students primarily in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland that would eventually be attributed with adding 20,000 volunteers to the foreign missionary endeavour, therefore accelerating missionary work around the world. This movement called the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) inspired Protestant leaders to create institutions to offer financial support.

     One of these institutions was the Layman’s Missionary Movement (LMM). Between the years 1909-1910 The LMM arranged a series of three to four day conventions held in more then 50 cities averaging well over 1,000 in attendance. While the students of the SVM had adopted the slogan “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation”, The LMM took this further and advertised their conventions with the slogan “$30,000,000 to Convert the World” (ii) & (iii)

     This slogan caught Russell’s attention. Russell was somewhat sympathetic to the missionary cause and even once recalled how as a boy of seven years of age he told his mother that he wanted to be a missionary (iv). As he developed the unique interpretation of scripture known to readers of this blog, his missionary aspirations were adjusted to fit his overall understanding of God’s plan as revealed in scripture. Part of this understanding was that the mainstream Christianity of his day was not a model of Christ’s kingdom but had been judged unworthy of it. Therefore converting people of non-Christian lands to this form of Christianity would be counterproductive. He pointed out that doctrines such as the “conviction that there is no hope for any who die in ignorance of the only name whereby we must be saved” (v). when thought through, were abhorrent to people of non-Christian backgrounds, as they offered no hope for their ancestors or family members that had not accepted Christ. He further saw in the Scriptures a future age following Christ’s Advent, where all who died in ignorance of Christ would be given another chance, without question a more hopeful view. Russell’s criticism of mission work included the observation that missionary successes were often overstated and that behavior of people in “Christian” lands was anything but Christian while non-Christian peoples were more moral than supposed.

     Russell’s response to the Layman’s Missionary Movement came in July 1911 with the article “$30,000,000 to Convert the World is the Proposition a Joke?” (vi). In this article Russell references the LMM and lays out his criticism of mission work, contrasting it with the early successes of his own missionaries in India and Africa. But he didn't stop there. Several months later at the annual Bible Students convention at Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, September 1-11, 1911 a committee was formed to “supply an unvarnished report of the true condition of affairs in Oriental lands amongst the peoples usually termed “heathens”.(vii). This was followed on September 25 by the committees first meeting at the Waldorf Astoria as discussed in Part 1. This committee was named the I.B.S.A. Foreign Mission Investigation Committee.

     To be sure, one goal of this tour and subsequent report was to assess the feasibility of the claim made by the LMM. Russell had other reasons for travelling to foreign mission fields at this time though. One of the conclusions drawn from the framework by which he saw the Bible’s message was that during the unique time period him and like minded Bible students were living through, they were tasked with gathering from the churches of nominal Christianity any remaining saints, a responsibility which they worked diligently to accomplish. But what of the growing number of Christians living in traditionally non-Christian lands that due to distance or language barriers had not heard the Bible Student message? Seeing conditions first hand would help him decide whether directing further resources there was warranted.

     The  I.B.S.A. Foreign Mission Investigation Committee would come to include chairman Charles Taze Russell, secretary Fredrick Homer Robison/Robinson (called Professor). Doctor Leslie Whitney Jones (1872-1946), Adjunct General of the United States Army, William Preble Hall (1848-1927), Washington D.C., grocery store chain owner John Donaldson Pyles (1857-1943) and two well known Ohio businessmen Robert Bowie Maxwell (1840-1912) of Mansfield and Ernest W.V. Kuehn (1863-1925) of Toledo, whose business dealings earned him the moniker “great clover-seed merchant”. Also added were unofficial members Ingram I. Margeson (1871-1935) who acted as director, George F. Wilson (1857-1945) and wife Olivia E. Wilson (1864-1957) of Oklahoma City and George Chester Driscoll, who for the first half of the trip traveled several weeks ahead of the group to assist with press and any other arrangements that needed to be made.

Foreign Mission Investigation Committee (minus G C Driscoll) pictured with a group of Japanese gentlemen associated with the Japan Y.M.C.A. including Kuninosuke Yamamoto (back row far right). Picture from 1912 Bible Students' Convention Souvenir Notes, page 22. 

     Further details about the tour can be found in the 1912 Bible Students’ Conventions Souvenir Notes and the Committee Report published in the Watch Tower April 15, 1912.

End notes

ⁱ "George Grantham Bain," Legends of America, accessed January 28, 2025, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/george-grantham-bain/

^[ii] A more detailed discussion of the SVM and LMM can be found in Dawson, David. “Mission and Money in the Early Twentieth Century.” The Journal of Presbyterian History (1997-) 80, no. 1 (2002): 29–42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23336304.

^[iii] An example can be found in the New York Times December, 13, 1909

^[iv] Zions Watch Tower, June 15, 1899 page 2489

^[v] Zions Watch Tower August 15, 1901, page 264

^[vi] The Watch Tower, July 1, 1911, page 202-204

^[vii] Report on Foreign Mission Work, International Bible Students Association, April 15, 1912, page 123

Photo Drama Card

 My thanks to Tom S. who sent this photo to me.

Peoples' Temple, Los Angeles, California, Courtesy of Tom S.

Millions Now Living Talk Invitation

My thanks to Tom S for sending.

 

Translation Help

 Please translate this card.

Local Convention 1921

 Tom S. sent me a mass of material for which I am very thankful. This is a handbill for a local convention. There were many of these in the 1920s; they're mentioned and described in some detail in The New Era Enterprise. 

The Gamut Club

Front

 Reverse

Tom S. has a long history with the Watchtower Society as did his father before him. I wish more would contribute material to my blog and by all means consider donating to the Society's museum collection. Follow the instructions if you decide to do that. Contact them first.

Ready for Work

 This photo is for sale on ebay. It is, of course, way past the era we cover here, but it is interesting. The brothers and sisters and children stand outside a Kingdom Hall in a rented store front. I remember meeting in rented space before we built our first Kingdom Hall. Comments and thoughts are welcome.

Another photo from the same ebay group, showing a sister with her phonograph. It was taken in St. Helens, Oregon.

We get comments...

    

This blog invites comments on historical matters, but sometimes receives responses of a highly negative nature. These normally just get deleted; people who want to criticise or debate can no doubt find homes elsewhere. But a recent comment on an old post that I wrote back in 2012 prompted this post. It is to clarify a couple of things that crop up from time to time related to Joseph Lytle Russell and Emma Ackley and their marriage.

    I am not going into great detail – researchers can check matters out for themselves and most points have already been covered in the past on this blog.

    The post is:

    https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2012/02/marriage-of-joseph-lytel-russell-and.html

    It establishes that over a year after CTR and Maria married, JLR and Emma were still single but living in the Russell household. The census return for their street, Cedar Avenue, is dated June 14, 1880.

    There are four occupants of the house, C T Russel (sic), married, occupation: merchant; Maria F, married, wife, keeps house; J L, widowed, father, occupation: merchant; and E H Ackley, single, sister (step), occupation: at home.

    (The relationship entry for Emma in the schedule is incorrect. Her relationship to the head of the household at this time is sister-in-law.)

    The issues raised in the comment are basically threefold.

1.      Did Joseph and Emma ever marry?

2.      What was going on in that house with four of them there?

3.      The difference in ages between Joseph and Emma.

    The comment starts with: “I’m good at genealogical investigations and I cannot find any record that indicates that Joseph Russell and Emma Ackley married.”

    I would agree there is no apparent record. But there is a good reason for that. The State of Pennyslvania did not require marriages to be officially registered until 1885, and “common law” marriages continued to be “common” for years thereafter. If you married before then, generally your immediately family would know, but no-one else would unless you put it in the newspaper or had legal matters to attend to. If you wanted a “quiet” wedding, it really was quiet.

    To illustrate the situation, perhaps readers can find an official document for CTR and Maria’s marriage? Like Joseph and Emma’s, it is not there. But we know about them because they chose to put an announcement in the local paper and CTR was sufficiently well known in Allegheny for it to make a short paragraph in the papers. Both the Pittsburgh Gazette and Pittsburgh Post (March 14, 1879) carry news of the marriage at the home of Maria’s mother the day before with J H Paton officiating.

    As an aside, this lack of documentation did not just apply to marriages. You will not find a primary source for J F Rutherford’s birth. When he needed to renew a passport, his mother Lenora, had to extract a reference from a family Bible and sign an affidavit to that effect. There were no other records extant.

    Returning to Emma, when it came to JLR’s last will and testament, part was disputed by Emma who believed that as his wife she should have inherited more. In all the legal documents on the case he is the husband and she is the wife. Joseph’s obituary found in several newspapers calls her his wife. You can check the details if you are so minded.

    The second criticism is that it was strange for the four to all be in the same house. The writer makes all manner of salacious accusations against both Joseph L and Charles T in that same household, without a shred of evidence.

    I am not going to even dignify this with comments, other than to say that I see no problem with the four people living under the same roof in the snapshot of June 1880 for Cedar Avenue. I’ve visited the Cedar Avenue houses. They are large. Years later Maria was able to take in a number of lodgers in one.

    Why were they in the same home? Well, why not? CTR and Maria were close at this time, committed to their religious work. Emma and Maria were very close and would spend the last decades of their lives together. CTR and his father Joseph were very close. There would be nothing surprising about them being under the same roof at some point, and that may even have led to the two unattached becoming a married couple. As already noted the house in Cedar Avenue was large with plenty of space.

    We do not know how long they were all at the same address. The census is a snapshot of one day, June 14, but one can assume that any marriage came quite soon after that date since Emma’s daughter Mabel appears to have been conceived around December that year.

    The December date comes from Mabel’s birth date in September 1881, and that can be confirmed from her marriage certificate when she married Richard Packard in 1903. It gives her birth date as September 1881 but does not give the actual day. If she was born in September 1881, then obviously she was conceived around December 1880. That would be 5-6 months after she and Joseph were living under CTR’s roof while both single. That gives us a window of a few months for a marriage.

    We might here note that to try and bolster the slurs made against Charles and Joseph, the writer comments on the period June-December 1880 with the statement: “That does not leave a lot of time for the two (Joseph and Emma) to fall madly in love and wed.” What sort of logic is that? Who is to say they didn’t “fall in love” some time before the census, and were at the same address on census night planning the wedding for the following week? We just don’t know. We certanly have no basis for filling in the gaps to support an obvious negative program.

    When married, and after a baby came along it would make more sense for them all to look for separate homes, but even then, they were near each other until Joseph, Emma and Mabel went to Florida.

    The suggestion that there was something bad about all of this is a large leap of imagination with an obvious agenda. They were all close at the time. It is very sad what happened later.

    The third criticism that is dredged up yet again is the disparity in ages. Why would a woman in her 20s want to marry a man in his 60s?

    Don’t be too critical about other people’s decisions.  Just look around in the world of entertainment and politics, the same thing occurs today. As it happens, the same has happened in my own extended family. But back in the 1880s an obvious reason for a woman was to be provided with stablity and financial security. That is something I venture the Ackley girls were always concerned about by their later actions. And as a potential bonus, Emma was able to have a child, which may have been very important to her.

    So, whoever wrote the comment, please leave the sordid speculation alone. And if you can’t do that, just don’t send it here.

Help!

 I need help with my young adult book. The text is done, but I can't seem to create my cover. I want to use a previous cover, one used on a rough draft printout. But nothing is working for me, probably because I'm currently on very potent prescriptions.

Any volunteers?

The issue has been resolved. Thanks

Talk Invitation c. 1920-22

 Currently on ebay. No I do not profit from this. It's just interesting.