Overview
The earliest evidence we have to date for the Glasgow branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association comes from the 1870s, about twenty years after the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) was formed in London, and about thirty years after the Young Men’s Christian Association was formed (YMCA). (For a history of the Young Women’s Christian Association, see ‘Admin History’ of the Young Women’s Christian Association on the Warwick Modern Records Centre online catalogue. For a history of the Young Men’s Christian Association, see ‘History and Heritage’, on the YMCA website.)
The 1877-1878 Glasgow Post Office Directory provides the following listing for this group:
‘YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. Institute and Boarding House, 59 Union Street […] The object of this Association is to promote the religious, moral, and temporal welfare of young women. Refreshment and reading rooms are open daily from 10 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. Educational classes and religious meetings are held. Lodgings are provided at a moderate charge’.
(‘Young Women’s Christian Association’, ‘Religious and Moral Institutions’, Post Office Glasgow Directory for 1877-1878… (Glasgow: William Mackenzie, 1877), p. 103)
At the start of the twentieth century, the association’s facilities, meetings and classes aimed to assist an increasing number of ‘young women engaged in business’ during this period:
‘GLASGOW YOUNG WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION. Institute, 80 Bath Street. […] The object of the Association is to promote the religious, moral and temporal welfare of young women. Refreshment and reading rooms are open daily. Educational classes and religious meetings are held. There is a large Boarding House for young women engaged in business, a Registry for female servants, and a Temporary Home for servants at the Institute, 80 Bath Street. Similar meetings, classes, &c., are provided at the Bridgeton Institute of the Association, 32 Muslin St., Bridgeton.’
(‘Glasgow Young Women’s Christian Association’, ‘Religious and Moral Institutions’, Post Office Glasgow Directory for 1902-1903… (Glasgow: Aird & Coghill, 1902), p. 151)
Date of Existence
1877?-?
Source of Information
1. Records of the YWCA, 1855-1995, 116 boxes (92 [MSS.243], 14 [986], includes branch records) (WMRC, MSS243; 986) (see records from Glasgow branch, mostly from 1920s);
2. ‘Young Women’s Christian Association’, ‘Religious and Moral Institutions’, Post Office Glasgow Directory for 1877-1878… (Glasgow: William Mackenzie, 1877), p. 103;
3. ‘Glasgow Young Women’s Christian Association’, ‘Religious and Moral Institutions’, Post Office Glasgow Directory for 1902-1903… (Glasgow: Aird & Coghill, 1902), p. 151
Repository
Mitchell Library (Glasgow Post Office directories)
National Library of Scotland (Glasgow Post Office directories)
Warwick Modern Records Centre (WMRC)
Reference Number
(See Source of Information)
Additional Notes
See also Glasgow Young Men’s Christian Association.
The Glasgow Post Office directories are available at the Mitchell Library and the National Library of Scotland. Digitised copies are available through the NLS website: https://www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office/index.cfm?place=Glasgow