Saturday 7 November marks the 97th birthday of the famous evangelist Rev Billy Graham. He is probably best known for his crusades during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. He visited Scotland in 1954-1955 in what became known as the “Tell Scotland” movement. This movement was led by Rev Tom Allan, whose papers are kept here in the archives at New College Library.

Music was a very large part of the crusades and the Tell Scotland evangelistic events, with choirs of sometimes of thousands of singers being involved. This is evident in the archives, which contains a copy of a specially printed hymn book for the Tell Scotland Gorbals Mission (ref. AA6.3.5)

and a hymn entitled “Tell Scotland” (ref. AA6.3.6) written by Ian B Doyle and dedicated to Tom Allan.

In addition, there is a photograph of the organisers of the Tell Scotland rallies with Billy Graham (front row, 4th from left) and his musical director Cliff Barrows (back row, 7th from left). Rev Tom Allan is front and centre next to Dr Graham.

Although now 60 years ago, the Tell Scotland rallies are well-remembered in Scotland for the significant impact they made. Hopefully, Billy Graham remembers them fondly too.

Happy Birthday, Dr Graham!

Kirsty M Stewart, New College Collections Curator

All of the above items can be seen at New College Library: http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/using-library/lib-locate/newcoll-lib