(The documents and
images featured here are for the personal use of students, scholars and
the public. Any commercial use or publication of them is strictly
prohibited.)
Campaign interior during one of
Sunday's meetings in Bloomington, Illinois. This particular meeting was
on January 19, 1908. The dates of the Bloomington meetings were December
27, 1907-February 3, 1908.
Portrait of Billy Sunday, 1916
Billy
Sunday is still one of the twentieth century's best known evangelists.
By the time of his death in 1935, he had preached to millions, and it is
estimated that three hundred thousand men and women were led to faith in
Christ at his over two hundred campaigns. He was also recognized for his
determined contribution to passing the Prohibition Amendment, and
promoting the sale of war bonds during World War I. None of the
recognition, however, replaces the impact Sunday had on the lives of
those who hit the sawdust trail at one of his meetings.
Sunday himself was converted at the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago
(1886) while playing professional baseball for the Chicago White
Stockings. In 1891, he left baseball to enter full-time Christian work,
first at Chicago's YMCA, and then working for itinerant evangelists. He
held his first independent evangelistic crusade in Garner, Iowa, in
1896, beginning a career which spanned five decades.
Detail of the front
page from the New York American's "Extra" on Sunday in 1917
Outside tabernacle during 1912
Campaign in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
In his heyday,
Sunday's campaigns were held in temporary wooden structures or
tabernacles, built for the event. Sawdust covered the tabernacle floor.
Those who responded to Sunday's appeal to trust Christ walked up the
sawdust covered aisles to shake the evangelist's hand. These campaigns,
however, were preceded by extensive planning and prayer, and there was
usually a follow-up program.
Inside the tabernacle for the
1911 campaign in Toledo, Ohio
Group photo of the Sunday team
of the members of Sunday's team in 1913.
A Sunday campaign was the product of the contributions of many people.
Sunday developed a team of co-workers which traveled with him and
handled various duties, including administration and music. Key figures
on this team were his wife Helen (or Ma), musicians Homer Rodeheaver and B.D. Ackley, and businesswoman Virginia Asher. Local clergy and lay
volunteers were also instrumental in planning and running a Sunday
evangelistic campaign.
Detail from the back page of the
New York American's "Extra" showing campaign organization graphic,
1917.
© Wheaton College 2005
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