PAST EVENTS
Explore videos, transcripts, and items from our collection related to past events.
Each year, the Congregational Library & Archives hosts a variety of virtual and in-person programs about the 400+ year Congregational story and the archival and preservation practices required to protect and promote it.
Scroll down to browse past events, find links to program videos, and access related resources in the CLA's collection.
Acquisitions Afternoon 2026: Uncovering Treasures from Revolutionary America
January 20, 2026
A virtual program launching our 2026 Adopt-a-Book program, featuring historian and collector, Dr. Phillip Mead discussing the research, persistence, and sometimes serendipity involved in locating Revolutionary-era materials.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Adopt-a-Book 2026
Christmas with the Puritans
December 10, 11, and 16, 2025
A festive program celebrating the Christmas season by exploring the history of puritan objections to the holiday, centered on the question: Did seventeenth-century puritans really hate holiday fun, or are they misunderstood?
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Cotton Mather, Grace Defended: A Censure on the Ungodliness . . . on Such a Repentance Received unto Mercy? (1712)
Archives Behind the Scenes: The Historic Connecticut Conference Collection Project
December 15, 2025
A hybrid lunch and learn event featuring Project Archivist Anne Woodrum discussing her first six months of work with the Historic Connecticut Collection.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: General Association of Connecticut Records (1708-1952)
“The Just and Good Governor of the World:” John Hancock’s Congregationalist Roots and Religious Commitment
November 19, 2025
A virtual talk exploring John Hancock's Congregational roots, support of churches throughout New England, and use of religious traditions through the lens of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts' Papers of John Hancock project.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Lorenzo Sears, John Hancock: The Picturesque Patriot (1912)
Sacred Rebellion Virtual Exhibition Tour
November 13, 2025
An encore virtual tour of our in-person exhibition, Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts, featuring opportunities to view and discuss the exhibition with Dr. Kyle Roberts and Dr. Tricia Peone.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Timothy Dickinson Autobiography (undated)
Armenian Congregationalism: Past, Present, and Future
November 12, 2025
A virtual program exploring the historical and theological foundations of Armenian Congregationalism, with a particular focus on how the community has persevered through crisis.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Hami İnan Gümüş, American Missionaries in the Ottoman Empire (2017)
The Archives Edit: A Workshop in Arranging Your Church's Archive
November 7, 2025
A workshop with the CLA's archivists, Zachary and Billy, covering the basics of physically and intellectually arranging a church's archive.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Newton, Mass. First Church Records, 1664-1974
NEHH@20: Re-Examining Stories from New England Communities Digital Exhibition Launch
October 29, 2025
A virtual program celebrating twenty years of New England's Hidden Histories and launching our new digital exhibition, NEHH@20: Re-Examining Stories from New England Communities.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: NEHH@20: Re-Examining Stories from New England Communities
The Bicentennial of the American Unitarian Association and Congregational History
October 21, 2025
A virtual talk with Dr. Dan McKanan marking the 200th anniversary of the founding of the American Unitarian Association after a generations-long family quarrel within the Congregational churches of Massachusetts.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: American Unitarian Association, One Hundredth Anniversary, 1825-1925 (1925)
Finding an Archival Home: Understanding the Accessioning Process
October 15, 2025
A virtual workshop with the CLA's archivists, Zachary and Billy, exploring accessioning, the process a church engages in when working with an archive to donate materials, and the basics of a gift agreement.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Rhode Island Conference of the United Church of Christ Records, 1812-2019
Spirits in the Stacks: A Ghostly Tour at the Congregational Library & Archives
October 8 and 14, 2025
A spooky tour, led by Dr. Tricia Peone, exploring the legacy of New England's supernatural landscape, featuring ghost stories drawn from Congregational history and rare books and manuscripts from the CLA's collections.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Some Account of the Vampires of Onset, Past and Present (1892)
Gathered Into a Church: Indigenous-English Congregationalism in Woodland New England
October 1, 2025
A virtual book talk with Dr. Lori Rogers-Stokes sharing how Massachusetts church records, digitized and made available through our New England Hidden Histories project, reveal a more realistic picture of the Indigenous-English Congregational experience.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Hassanamisco Church Book, 1731-1774, Hassanamesit/Grafton, MA
Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America
September 18, 2025
A virtual book talk with Dr. Karin Wulf on her new book about genealogy's attraction and power for individuals, families, and institutions in eighteenth-century British America.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Michael J. Leclerc, Genealogist's Handbook for New England Research (2012)
Editing Cotton Mather's Biblia Americana (1693-1728): America’s First Bible Commentary and Storehouse of Early Modern Learning
September 3, 2025
A hybrid program with Dr. Jan Stieverman and Dr. Theodore Delwiche, editors of the most recent volume of Cotton Mather's Biblia Americana, reflecting on the work of creating critical editions of important religious texts.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Congregational Library & Archives' Cotton Mather Bibliography
The Archives Edit: A Workshop in Arranging Your Church's Archive
July 18, 2025
A workshop with the CLA's archivists, Zachary and Billy, covering the basics of physically and intellectually arranging a church's archive.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Newton, Mass. First Church Records, 1664-1974
Voices from the Past: Working with Records from the New England's Hidden Histories
July 11, 2025
A workshop with New England's Hidden Histories (NEHH) Project Director, Dr. Tricia Peone, on how to use the NEHH digital archive and other CLA resources to explore New England Congregational history from 1620-1820.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Mary Cleaveland Diary, 1742-1762
Researching the Revolution Using New England's Hidden Histories
July 1-29, 2025
A five-week virtual course with Drs. Kyle Roberts and Tricia Peone discussing primary source documents, religious life during the Revolutionary era, and how to conduct a historical research project.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers Record Book, 1749-1789
Church Stewardship Initiative Summer Camp
June 12 - August 7, 2025
A five-week virtual course with the CLA's archivists Zachary and Billy covering the first steps needed to successfully begin archiving a church’s archive.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Boston, Mass. City Mission Society Records, 1820-2006
Insensible of Boundaries: Studies in Mary Ann Shadd Cary
June 19, 2025
Our 2025 Juneteenth Lecture delivered by Dr. Kristin Moriah on her new book about the life and legacy of Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893), trailblazing Black feminist, activist, journlaist, and educator.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Walter Dyson, Howard University, The Capstone of Negro Education, A History: 1867-1940 (1941)
Library Behind the Scenes: The Print Inventory Project
June 9, 2025
A hybrid lunch and learn program featuring Collection Accessibility Project Specialist Téa Belog discussing her progress on inventorying the CLA's entire print collection.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Finding Aid: American Congregational Association Records, 1846-2022
Archives and Church Legacy: Safeguarding Your Church's Mission and Memories
June 4, 2025
A virtual Church Stewardship Initiative workshop with the CLA's archivists Zachary and Billy on the importance of a church's records to the legacy process.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Church Legacy Study Guide
Sacred Rebellion: Behind the Scenes with the Curator
May 29, 2025
A virutal look into the creation of the CLA's in-person exhibition, Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts, with curator Dr. Tricia Peone.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Timothy Dickinson's Autobiography
Religion in the Lands That Became America
May 14, 2025
A virtual book talk with Dr. Thomas Tweed to celebrate the release of Religion in the Lands That Became America, which provides a sweeping new retelling of American religious history.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Joel W. Martin, The Land Looks After Us: A History of Native American Religion (2001)
Processing in Practice
May 12, 2025
A hybrid lunch and learn program that featured Rebecca Arabian and Olivia Murphy reflecting on the collections they processed during their time with the CLA as archives interns in the spring 2025 semester.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Finding Aid for the Roxbury, Boston, St. Mark's Social Center Records, 1941-1966 Collection
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People
May 6, 2025
A virtual book talk with Dr. Matthew J. Tuininga to celebrate the release of his book, The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People, on the spiritual and military conquests of the Pequot War and King Philip's War.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Margaret Ellen Newell, Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery (2015)
Sacred Rebellion Curator's Tours
May 2, 2025 and June 7, 2025
Special tours of our in-person exhibition, Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts with New England's Hidden Histories Project Director and Exhibition Curator, Dr. Tricia Peone.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Benjamin Franklin's Baptismal Record (1706)
Calling Holy War in Boston
April 30, 2025
A virtual talk with CLA Research Fellow Dr. Thomas Lecaque on the rhetoric of apocalyptic holy war, as found in sermons, diaries, letters, and marginal notations in books from colonial New England.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Ray Allen Billington, The Protestant Crusade, 1800-1860 (1938)
Making Local Church History Collections Accessible
April 28, 2025
A hybrid lunch and learn program that featured Sarah Ortel, Isabella Rodrigues, and Hattie Tauson reflecting on their work during their time with the CLA as library interns in the spring 2025 semester.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Church Stewardship Initiative Webinar: Sharing Your Story: Using the Archives to Write Your Church’s History
Sacred Rebellion Virtual Exhibition Tours
April 24, 2025 and June 3, 2025
Virtual, small group tours of the Congregational Library & Archives' in-person exhibition, Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts, led by Dr. Kyle Roberts and Dr. Tricia Peone.
LEARN MORE: April Event Overview | June Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Religion of Revolution: Congregational Voices on Liberty
The People's Music: Religious and Political Songs of Revolutionary New England
April 23, 2025
A virtual talk with Dr. Stephen Marini about the musical culture of Revolutionary New England. Part of our Revolutionary Stories series.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Norumbega Harmony's Performance at the Congregational Library & Archives' 2024 Open House
Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity
April 16, 2025
A book talk with author Rev. Prof. Diarmaid MacCulloch to celebrate the release of his new book, Lower than the Angels, that tells a three-thousand-year-long tale of Christians encountering sex, gender, and the family.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Gillian Frank, Bethany Moreton, and Heather R. White, Devotions and Desires (2018)
Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts Opening Reception
April 4, 2025
An evening reception celebrating the opening of the Congregational Library & Archives' in-person exhibition, Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Mary Counce's Boston Massacre Poem, Hunt Family Correspondence, 1768-1789
Knowing Your Collection: How to Identify Church Records
April 2, 2025
A Church Stewardship Initiative virtual workshop with the CLA's archivists, Zachary and Billy, on assessing, identifying, and labeling paper and born-digital materials in a church's archive.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Congregational Library & Archives' Church Records Collecting Guidelines
Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition: A Virtual Roundtable
March 25, 2025
A virtual roundtable conversation with Mark Elsdon and Gone for Good? contributors about the steps congregations can ake to ensure their church's legacy will be directed toward communal good.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Living Legacy: Church Legacy & Closure Resource (2015)
The World of Mary and Roger Williams
March 19, 2025
A virtual book talk with Dr. Charlotte Carrington-Farmer about her new book, Roger Williams and His World: A History in Documents, and her recent research on the life and influence of Mary Williams.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: John Cotton, The Bloudy Tenent, Washed, and Made White in the Bloud of the Lambe (1647)
Religion and Black Abolitionism in the Era of the American Revolution
March 12, 2025
A virtual talk by Dr. Christopher Cameron on the advent of Black petitioning and other forms of antislavery writing in Massachusetts and its origins in puritan religious ideology.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Congregational Library & Archives' Black & Indigenous Research Guide
The Afro-Christian Convention: Exploring our Deeper Roots
March 7, 2025
An in-person workshop at 14 Beacon led by Dr. Julia Speller exploring the history and legacy of the Afro-Christian Convention as the fifth stream of the United Church of Christ (UCC).
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Yvonne Delk, Afro-Christian Convention: The Fifth Stream of the United Church of Christ (2023)
Belonging: An Intimate History of Slavery and Family in Early New England
March 5, 2025
A book talk with author Dr. Gloria McCahon Whiting to celebrate the release of her recent book, Belonging: An Intimate History of Slavery and Family in Early New England, winner of the 2025 Winthrop Prize.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Christopher Cameron, To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement (2019)
Enslavement in the Puritan Village: The Untold History of Sudbury and Wayland, Massachusetts
February 20, 2025
A book talk with author Jane Sciacca to celebrate the release of Enslavement in the Puritan Village: The Untold History of Sudbury and Wayland, Massachusetts.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Jared Ross Hardesty, Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds (2019)
"The Four-Fold Line of Mathers" +One: Hannah Mather Crocker in Words, Deeds, and the Archival Record
February 12, 2025
Our 2025 Cotton Mather Lecture about Hannah Mather Crocker's life in the shadow of her Mather forebears and her work to establish her own place in history as an advocate for women's intellectual equality.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Hannah Mather Crocker, Antiquarian Researchers Exemplified Pleasant and Easy by an Original Antiquarian (undated)
Acquisitions Afternoon 2025: Building a Library of Puritan History with Dr. Frank Bremer
February 5, 2025
A discussion with Dr. Frank Bremer about how a scholarly library of puritan history is built and an introduction to our 2025 Adopt-a-Book program.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Adopt-a-Book 2025
New England Congregationalists and the American Revolution
January 22, 2025
A virtual book talk with Dr. Katherine Carté focused on her 2021 book, Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Samuel Adams' Admission Record to Old South Church in Boston (1789)
2024 EVENTS
Protestant Modernist Pamphlets: Science and Religion in the Scopes Era
December 11, 2024
A virtual book talk celebrating the release of Protestant Modernist Pamphlets: Science and Religion in the Scopes Era with author, Dr. Edward B. Davis.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Henry Ward Beecher, Evolution and Religion (1886)
Handling History: An Intern's Reflection on the Archival Process
December 9, 2024
A hybrid brown bag program that featured Kat Kowlayck reflecting on the collections she processed during her time with the CLA as an archives intern in the fall 2024 semester.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: The Congregationalists in the War Surveys (1919)
Christmas with the Congregationalists 2024: A Collections Tour
December 7, 2024
An in-person viewing of materials in the Congregational Library & Archives’ collection related to Christmas with Executive Director Dr. Kyle Roberts and Librarian Meaghan Wright.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Harriet Cheever, Little Miss Boston: A Christmas Story (1890)
Congregationalists and the American Revolution: A Virtual Collections Tour
December 4, 2024
A virtual reprise of our popular tour of original materials related to the American Revolution with Executive Director Dr. Kyle Roberts and New England’s Hidden Histories Project Director Dr. Tricia Peone.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: The John Cleaveland Papers, 1741-1810
Sharing Your Story: Using the Archives to Write Your Church's History
November 20, 2024
A Church Stewardship Initiative virtual workshop with the CLA's archivists, Zachary and Billy, on using materials in a church's archive to write their congregation's history.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Ronald M. Bernard, The Little Brown Church of New Boston, Mass. and the Lives of its Pastors (2023)
Colonization and the Wampanoag Story
November 14, 2024
A virtual conversation with Linda Coombs about her book, Colonization and the Wampanoag Story, that shares the story of America's earliest days from the perspective of New England's Indigenous Nations.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Jessie Little Doe Fermino, An Introduction to Wampanoag Grammar (2000)
Squanto: A Native Odyssey
November 12, 2024
A virtual conversation with Dr. Andrew Lipman celebrating the release of his new book, Squanto: A Native Odyssey that explored many of the mysteries that still surround Squanto's life.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: David J. Silverman, This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and The Troubled History of Thanksgiving (2019)
2024 Open House
November 2, 2024
Our annual Open House at 14 Beacon celebrated the launch of our new online exhibition, Religion of Revolution, with a display of materials from Revolutionary America and a performance by Norumbega Harmony.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Religion of Revolution: Congregational Voices on Liberty Digital Exhibition
Office Hours with the Archivists
October 25, 2024
An Archives Month virtual Q&A session with the CLA's archivists. Zachary Bodnar and Billy McCarthy followed up on questions from previous Church Stewardship Initiative programs and took new questions from audience members.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Pueblo, CO, First Congregational Church Scrapbook, 1959-1960
The Stones Cry Out: Early New England Epitaphs in Context
October 16, 2024
A virtual discussion with John Hanson about his research into the ways gravestone epitaphs give voice to eighteenth-century Congregationalists' attitudes towards death and dying.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Walter Rowlands, Curious Old Gravestones In and About Boston (1924)
Christianity and Comics: Stories We Tell about Heaven and Hell
September 25, 2024
A virtual book talk with Dr. Blair Davis celebrating the release of Christianity and Comics: Stories We Tell About Heaven and Hell and discussing the comics industry's 80-year history of drawing from biblical source material.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Marvel Team-Up "A Witch in Time!" (1976)
Celebrating Your Church's Anniversary: Tips and Tricks for a Memorable Commemoration
September 18, 2024
A virtual roundtable with Keiko Denbeau, Linda Lacy, and Norm Erlendson focused on sharing ideas for your church's next anniversary and celebrating some great ways Congregational churches share their community histories.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Alvin D. Johnson, Celebrating Your Church Anniversary (1968)
Cotton Mather and the Salem Witch Trials: Separating Fact from Fiction
August 8, 2024
A virtual roundtable with Marilynne Roach, Rachel Christ-Doane, and Dr. Tricia Peone about Cotton Mather's writings on witchcraft, misconceptions about his role in the Salem witch trials, and his legacy today.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: The CLA's Salem Witchcraft Trials Research Guide
The Quebec Act at 250
June 27, 2024
A conversation with Dr. Brendan McConville to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Quebec Act and explore why this legislation made 18th-century Congregationalists profoundly uncomfortable.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: The Quebec Act: A Primary Cause of the American Revolution (US Catholic Historical Society, 1936)
A Theology of Brotherhood: The Federal Council of Churches and the Problem of Race
June 19, 2024
A book talk with Dr. Curtis Evans to celebrate the release of A Theology of Brotherhood: The Federal Council of Churches and the Problem of Race.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: George Edmund Haynes, Negro New-Comers in Detroit, Michigan: A Challenge to Christian Statesmanship (1918)
The Surprising History of a Hymn: "The Little Brown Church in the Vale"
June 12, 2024
A discussion of what the history of this beloved Congregational hymn reveals about nostalgia and the historical construction of evangelicalism with Dr. Christopher Cantwell.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Local Church History File for "Nashua, IA: Little Brown Church"
Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church
June 5, 2024
A book talk with Dr. Abram Van Engen to celebrate the release of Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Isaac Watts, Horae Lyricae: Poems, Chiefly of the Lyric Kind (1781)
What Does Congregational Worship Sound Like Today?
May 29, 2024
A conversation about what Congregational worship sounds like today from people who plan for it each week, featuring music ministry directors from Chicago, Boston, Norfolk, and Greensboro.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Brian Parks, Musics of a Village Church: A View from the Organ Bench (2013)
Congregationalists and the American Revolution: A Collections Tour
May 22, 2024
An in-person opportunity to view materials that teach us what the individuals who sat in New England's Congregational church pews experienced during the Revolutionary era.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Richard Price, Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution (1784)
Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations
May 15, 2024
A book talk with Dr. Emily Conroy-Krutz to celebrate the release of Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: 19th Century ABCFM Reports
Exploring Culture and Heritage through Congregational Church Records
May 7, 2024
A presentation by spring 2024 archives intern Rachel Groh about her work at the CLA and a few of the ways that church records can help us explore culture and heritage through the lens of Congregational history.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Finding Aid for the Berkeley Temple Congregational Church Records
The Sounds of New England Congregationalism in the 18th Century
May 1, 2024
A presentation by Dr. Nym Cooke about the fascinating changes to the sounds heard in Congregational churches as musical philosophies shifted across the eighteenth century.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: William Billings, The Psalm-Singer's Amusement: Containing a Number of Fuging Pieces and Anthems (1781)
Exploring Family History at the Congregational Library & Archives
April 25, 2024
An in-person workshop held at 14 Beacon that offered attendees the opportunity to learn how to use the New England's Hidden Histories digital archive and other resources at the CLA to conduct their own family history research.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: La Verne C. Cooley, A Short Biography of the Rev. John Cotton of Boston and A Cotton Genealogy of His Descendants (1945)
Stripped and Script: Loyalist Women Writers of the American Revolution
April 23, 2024
A book talk with Dr. Kacy Dowd Tillman about her then-recent book, Stripped and Script: Loyalist Women Writers of the American Revolution.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: E. Alfred Jones, The Loyalists of Massachusetts, Their Memorials, Petitions, and Claims (1930)
To Keep or Not to Keep: The Value of the Retention Schedule
April 17, 2024
A virtual workshop with the CLA's archivists on creating a retention schedule to detail how your church's records should be handled in the future.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Zachary and Billy's Model Retention Schedule
Preserving the History of British Congregationalism: Dr Williams’s Library and the Congregational Library, London
March 20, 2024
A discussion about the fascinating histories of the CLA's sister institutions in England with Alan Argent and David Powell.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Dr Williams's Trust and Library: A History
Finding and Using Sources for African American History at the CLA
March 6, 2024
A workshop led by Dr. Richard Boles on accessing records related to 18th and 19th century African Americans at the CLA and in New England's Hidden Histories online.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Lemuel Haynes, Sermon on 2 Timothy 2:25 (1801)
What a Library Means to a Church: Congregational Philanthropy & Print Culture
February 29, 2024
A presentation by Dr. Jonathan Beecher Field on the early history of printing in Boston and the impact of its print culture on the city's spiritual and intellectual activity.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Your Church Library: A Manual for Church Librarians
Acquisitions Afternoon: Collecting Congregationalism and the Founding 56 Adopt-a-Book Program
February 22, 2024
A conversation with Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree about her journey as a book collector and decision to donate materials to the CLA.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Finding Aid for the Davida Foy Crabtree Papers
Cotton Mather and the Women He Loved
February 14, 2024
A lecture by Helen Gelinas about Cotton Mather's relationships with the women in his life: his three wives, his daughters, his sisters, and the one woman he strove to understand perhaps more than any other, Eve.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Cotton Mather, Victorina (1717)
Why Study Library History?
February 7, 2024
A discussion with Dr. Sophie Jones, Dr. Laura Miller, Dr. Matthew Sangster, and Dr. Norbert Schürer about the diverse ways that library history can illuminate facts of the past.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: 1853 Catalog of Books Belonging to the Congregational Library Association
Protecting and Providing: A Guide to Reference Services for Church Collections
January 24, 2024
A virtual workshop with the CLA's archivists on showing your church's records with your community through starting a reference desk and developing reading room policies.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube | Video Transcript + Resources
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: The CLA's Reading Room Policies
To “Revive Their Spirit”: Collecting Books and Shaping Archives in Nineteenth-Century New England
January 17, 2024
A presentation by Dr. Lindsay DiCuirci about the people, methods, and philosophies that informed antiquarian practices in the early United States and built collections like the Founding 56.
LEARN MORE: Event Overview | Video on YouTube
EXPLORE AT 14 BEACON: Founding 56 Digital Exhibition