Hotel Bibles are also called Gideon's Bibles after Gideon International, a group of male missionaries and Christian businessmen who took it upon themselves to provide this work to hotels across the nation.
In 1898, John H. Nicholson stayed at the crowded Central Hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin. The place was so crowded that he had to share a room with another person named Samuel E. Hill. They got to talking and discovered that they were both Christians. That evening, they prayed together and talked about creating an association of traveling Christian businessmen.
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