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.
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
