Beacon Street Blog

Operations
OR
March 8, 2013

We are looking for a strategic thinker with annual fund experience who can interact comfortably with members, donors, Board members and co-workers. This position focuses on development and includes administrative support to the Executive Director and Director of Development. As part of a team-oriented office, you will play an active role in planning and implementing all fundraising activities, institutional events and communications.

For more information, see the full job description.

 


UPDATE: The application period for this position has ended.

Content:
March 7, 2013

Last week I told you about a great surprise discovery in the Reed College digital collection — the Indian Converts collection. I mentioned in the post that there were a number of great study guides and lesson plans for educators associated with this collection. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"359","attributes":{"alt":"Estate Inventory (1718) of Joseph Daggett","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 282px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Estate Inventory (1718) of Joseph Daggett","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Today I would like to draw your attention to one specific guide: the study guide on Colonial American Handwriting.

The guide provides a brief history on the importance of handwriting in the American colonies, and on its evolution. The guide provides citations throughout, and encourages critical thinking by asking questions for which you can find the answer by clicking on the associated hyperlink. There is a small "test your skills" quiz at the end, or you can also practice reading and transcribing short bits of text. There are also links to several handwriting games you can play (warning: these are slightly addictive!).

Enjoy!

--Sari

 


Think this is really cool? Or perhaps you have discovered a talent for transcription of colonial handwriting? You can help us transcribe an 18th-century document!

Content:
March 5, 2013

Don't forget to let us know if you'll be joining us for tomorrow's lunchtime lecture.


[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"355","attributes":{"alt":"Cotton Mather, ca. 1700","class":"media-image","style":"width: 135px; height: 175px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Cotton Mather, ca. 1700","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Cotton Mather will forever be a fascinating man in the history of American culture, politics, literature, science, and religion. He even coined the term "American" as a distinctive type of cultural perspective. Michael Hall titled his biography of Cotton's father The Last American Puritan, and in this talk Rick Kennedy will look at ways in which Cotton Mather was the first American Evangelical. Richard Lovelace of Gordon-Conwell Seminary wrote from a European perspective about theology and piety in his book, The American Pietism of Cotton Mather: Origins of American Evangelicalism (1979). Professor Kennedy, on the other hand, will talk about the origins of American Evangelicalism in the ways Cotton Mather responded to the local culture and politics of Boston, Cambridge, and Charlestown between 1686 and 1707.

Rick Kennedy has published extensively on contemporaries of Cotton Mather — Thomas and William Brattle, Increase Mather, Charles Morton, Benjamin Colman — for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, the New England Quarterly, and the American Antiquarian Society. Presently he is writing a short biography of Mather and working with a group of editors in an international project to publish Cotton Mather's massive Biblia Americana. He is professor of history at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California.

Wednesday, March 6th
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Program begins promptly at noon.

Free.
Register through SurveyMonkey.

 


mezzotint portrait of Cotton Mather (ca. 1700) by Peter Pelham courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Content:
March 4, 2013

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"360","attributes":{"alt":"stacked books","class":"media-image","style":"width: 120px; height: 194px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"stacked books","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]We are pleased to announce that Evelyn A. Walker has joined us as temporary part-time rare book cataloger. Evelyn is a graduate of the Randolph-Macon Woman's College, received her MLS from State University of New York at Geneseo and her MA in history from University of Rochester. She has completed courses at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia and at Columbia University. Her previous experience is with the University of Rochester and with Houghton Library, Harvard University as a Rare Book Librarian. Evelyn will spend the next three months with us reviewing our Rare Book collection and revising our catalog records to bring them into rare book cataloging standards.

Content:
March 1, 2013

Your church anniversary is coming and the Congregational Library can help you make a difference. Learn to research and tell your unique history for maximum impact. Energize your church members and your greater community with your stories. Create a treasure for present and future generations.

Presenters:

  • Bonnie Hurd Smith – Keynote speaker
    acclaimed historian, author, and marketer
  • Dr. J. Mary Luti – Liturgy and Worship Services
    teacher, vibrant and creative liturgical leader currently at Andover Newton Theological Seminary
  • Rob Cooper & Pam Pacelli – Film & Video
    Verissima Productions, award-winning documenters of historical events and stories of individuals & beloved places
  • Peggy Bendroth – Writing Your Church History
    historian, author, and executive director of the Congregational Library
  • Jessica Steytler – Basics of Church Records Stewardship
    archivist of the Congregational Library
  • Claudette Newhall – Church Librarians Roundtable
    librarian of the Congregational Library

$65 per person, includes lunch

Take advantage of your church's membership benefits by bringing up to two free attendees. If your church doesn't have a membership, sign up for one now.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"361","attributes":{"alt":"First Church Shrewsbury spire","class":"media-image","style":"width: 117px; height: 114px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"First Church Shrewsbury spire","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Download the registration form.
Registration deadline: Saturday, March 9th

Saturday, March 16th
9:30 am - 2:30 pm

First Congregational Church of Shrewsbury
19 Church Road
Shrewsbury, MA 01545

Content:
February 28, 2013

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"362","attributes":{"alt":"First Church in Jamestown NY","class":"media-image","style":"width: 120px; height: 223px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"First Church in Jamestown NY","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]We recently mentioned the process of using the "MPLP" standard to make our collections available more quickly. One of our most recently processed collections is from the First Congregational Church in Jamestown, New York. This was my first foray into the MPLP methodology, which employs a different philosophy from traditional archive training.

Types of material found in this collection include records of the church's auxiliary organizations, committees, clerk's reports, membership information (including deaths and baptisms), and finances. Researchers are welcome to review the guide to the collection; it is entirely open for public use.

-Jessica

Content:
February 26, 2013

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"363","attributes":{"alt":"Jessica in the reading room","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 200px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Jessica in the reading room","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Those who've been looking at the workshop options at our Church Anniversary Event next month may have noticed that I am teaching a class called "Basics of Church Records Stewardship". So, what is this class? It's essentially what was billed as the Records Management class in previous years, however, we felt that the name didn't properly describe the breadth of topics that I cover. To go with the spiffed-up title, I have spent the last few months revising the resources that are shared at that class.

I will remind our readers if your conference, association, or club gathering is planning an event and needs more content, I welcome the opportunity to be part of the scheduled activities. Please contact me if you would like to arrange for this sometime in the next few months.

-Jessica

Content:
February 25, 2013

Every once in a while a quick trip to the search engine leads us to a new-to-us resource that is just too interesting and cool not to share. This occurred just recently when a search for information for use in a different blog post lead me to the Reed College's digital collection entitled the "Indian Converts Collection".

From the homepage:

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"364","attributes":{"alt":"Indian Converts Collection logo","class":"media-image","style":"width: 385px; height: 72px;","title":"Indian Converts Collection logo","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

First published in 1727 under the title Indian Converts, or Some account of the lives and dying speeches of a considerable number of the Christianized Indians of Martha's Vineyard, in New-England, Experience Mayhew's history of the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard provides a rare look at the lives and culture of four generations of Native Americans in colonial America. [...] [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"365","attributes":{"alt":"Cuttyhunk (Mass.) church and school","class":"media-image","style":"width: 180px; height: 222px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Cuttyhunk (Mass.) church and school","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]This website contains study guides with information about life on Martha's Vineyard for both Wampanoags and white settlers as well as an accompanying online archive with over 600 images and documents that further contextualize Mayhew's work.

The study guides are, in fact, impressive, as are the tools for educators. But just as impressive is the "browse" interface which allows you to browse by categories such as artifact type, time period, geographic region, ethnic group, and religious affiliation. You can also browse through a map interface which hyperlinks town, church, and cemetery names to item lists relevant to that place. You can also filter the map display to show just one type of location information, including tribal boundaries.

This is a really neat interface, and I encourage you to check it out and poke around.

--Sari

Content:
February 22, 2013

If you haven't been following the Explore Congregational Church History group on Facebook, you've been missing out on some interesting discussions.

One recent thread that caught my eye is about the earliest ordinations of women by Congregational societies. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"366","attributes":{"alt":"Antoinette Brown Blackwell","title":"Antoinette Brown Blackwell","height":221,"width":200,"style":"width: 120px; height: 133px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","class":"media-image media-element file-media-original"},"link_text":null}]]It mentions Antoinette Brown Blackwell, of course, but the focus is more on the unsung women of the ministry, many of whom were itinerant evangelists by necessity. Among them are Mary Moreland, ordained in 1889, and Rev. Dr. Sarah Dixon who served in several churches across northeastern Massachusetts.

As best I can tell, it's likely that most of the above forty-seven women ordained by Congregational Councils were very good preachers. The words of the Old Testament prophet Joel that, "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" [Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17] were sometimes quoted by Congregationalists in that period, to support their view that women should be allowed to be ordained. In contrast, my impression is that back then, it sometimes was more difficult for women to be accepted in the pastoral role of ministry, which may have been a reason why some of those early ordained women served as traveling evangelists.

It turns out that we have one of Rev. Dixon's sermons in our collection, as well as a number of writings by and about Rev. Blackwell.

Do you have a favorite female minister? Would you like to learn more about them? Join in the discussion.

--Robin

 


portrait of Antoinette Brown Blackwell from Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography via Wikimedia Commons

Content:
February 21, 2013

With more and more information being made available online, we're always on the lookout for resources that might be useful to our readers and researchers. Earlier this week we found out about a great partnership between Princeton Theological Seminary Library and the Internet Archive called Theological Commons.

This digital library contains thousands of books and journals on theology and religion, primarily materials that are out of copyright, or for which special permission has been obtained from the copyright holder. Typically, works published before 1923 are unambiguously out of copyright, and such works constitute the vast majority of content in the Theological Commons.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"367","attributes":{"alt":"Theological Commons homepage","class":"media-image","style":"width: 300px; height: 272px;","title":"Theological Commons homepage","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

Although Princeton Seminary is a Presbyterian institution, the Theological Commons contains materials about a number of Christian traditions and other religions, as well as related histories, literature, art, and more. Many are searchable, and some are even available for download as ebooks.

In addition to contributions from the PTS library, there is also significant participation from the University of Toronto, Library of Congress, University of California Libraries, New York Public Library, Brigham Young University, Boston Public Library, the University of Illinois, and many more Internet Archive users. The search filters can help you sort through the wealth of information to find exactly what you're seeking or maybe even something you didn't think to look for. What will you find?

--Robin

Content:
February 19, 2013

Your church anniversary is coming and the Congregational Library can help you make a difference. Learn to research and tell your unique history for maximum impact. Energize your church members and your greater community with your stories. Create a treasure for present and future generations.

Presenters:

  • Bonnie Hurd Smith – Keynote speaker
    acclaimed historian, author, and marketer
  • Dr. J. Mary Luti – Liturgy and Worship Services
    teacher, vibrant and creative liturgical leader currently at Andover Newton Theological Seminary
  • Rob Cooper & Pam Pacelli – Film & Video
    Verissima Productions, award-winning documenters of historical events and stories of individuals & beloved places
  • Peggy Bendroth – Writing Your Church History
    historian, author, and executive director of the Congregational Library
  • Jessica Steytler – Basics of Church Records Stewardship
    archivist of the Congregational Library
  • Claudette Newhall – Church Librarians Roundtable
    librarian of the Congregational Library

$65 per person, includes lunch

Take advantage of your church's membership benefits by bringing up to two free attendees. If your church doesn't have a membership, sign up for one now.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"361","attributes":{"alt":"First Church Shrewsbury spire","class":"media-image","style":"width: 117px; height: 114px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"First Church Shrewsbury spire","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Download the registration form.

Saturday, March 16th
9:30 am - 2:30 pm

First Congregational Church of Shrewsbury
19 Church Road
Shrewsbury, MA 01545

Content:
February 18, 2013

Ever since the founding of the United States, the religious affiliations of its leaders has been a frequent topic of conversation, particularly during elections. During the latest presidential race, quite a lot of airtime and column inches were spent discussing both President Obama's and Governor Romney's respective faiths. Massachusetts native John F. Kennedy, Jr., the only Catholic President so far, had to make it very clear on the campaign trail that his political policies would not be dictated by the Pope as some voters feared.

Some Presidents have been very open in their worship. Eisenhower was even baptized into the Presbyterian church shortly after he took office. Many of the early presidents, on the other hand, are generally considered to be deists who took a philosophical approach to religion rather than embracing any one dogma or denomination.

More than 3/4 of our presidents have claimed adherence to some form of Protestantism for at least part of their lives, though their individual levels of devotion have ranged from merely accompanying their wives to services on occasion to teaching Sunday School and overseeing religious institutions.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"368","attributes":{"alt":"Calvin Coolidge","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 150px;","title":"Calvin Coolidge","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]       [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"369","attributes":{"alt":"John Adams","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 150px;","title":"John Adams","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]
Calvin Coolidge   John Adams

Despite the predominance of Congregationalists in colonial New England, only two Presidents can rightly be called Congregationalists — Calvin Coolidge and John Adams. Though perhaps I should say one and a half, since Adams mostly attended Unitarian churches later in life. John Quincy Adams was born into his parents' Congregational church, but also became Unitarian as an adult. Many of the early Presidents were from Virginia, which was largely Anglican/Episcopalian at the time.

If you're interested in more details and statistics, there are some good summaries available on Wikipedia, the Pew Forum, and the companion materials to PBS's God in America series.

 


image of Calvin Coolidge courtesy of the Library of Congress via PBS.org

image of John Adams courtesy of the United States Senate via PBS.org

Content:
February 15, 2013

The Congregational Library will be closed on Monday, January 18th in observance of Presidents' Day.

All of our online resources will be available as usual. If you have questions for the staff, please send an email, leave a voicemail, or use our website's contact form, and we'll get back to you when we return to the office next week.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"370","attributes":{"alt":"Mount Rushmore","class":"media-image","style":"width: 320px; height: 240px;","title":"Mount Rushmore","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

 


photograph of Mount Rushmore by Sfmontyo via Wikimedia Commons

Content:
February 14, 2013

We're not sure how it has escaped our notice for so long, but last week we stumbled upon a great blog from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Mass Moments is "an electronic almanac of Massachusetts history" that started in 2005. Each day, it features a brief essay about an event from the past.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"371","attributes":{"alt":"Mass Moments logo","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 68px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Mass Moments logo","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Visitors to the Mass Moments website can choose to listen to a one-minute audio spot or read the script, and then explore the story further by reading a background essay and clicking on a primary source document, links to follow, and places to visit. You can also use the timeline to see when a given "moment" occurred and a map to see where it happened. Visitors post comments or questions on the Discussion Board and have the option of being notified when someone responds.

...

The 366 stories are searchable by key word, topic, time period, and region. Every web page can be printed individually.

The post that initially caught our eye was about the ordination of Jonathan Edwards in 1727. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"372","attributes":{"alt":"paper lace valentine","class":"media-image","style":"width: 100px; height: 89px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"paper lace valentine","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Today's essay commemorates the first American-made valentines, created in 1849 by the daughter of a Worcester stationer, and the flourishing business that grew out of them.

Go read, listen, and discuss these and other topics on Mass Moments. There's a lot to learn.

--Robin

 


Valentine image courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society via Mass Moments

Content:
February 12, 2013

Each year the Congregational Library joins with the Boston Athenæum in offering a fellowship for research into American religious history utilizing the collections of both institutions.

The 2013 award includes a stipend of $1,500 for a residency of twenty days (four weeks) and includes a year's memberships to the Boston Athenæum and to the Congregational Library.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens or foreign nationals holding the appropriate U.S. government documents.

Applications are due by April 15, 2013.

For further information, see our scholarships page.

Content:
February 11, 2013

We recently came across a valuable resource for church librarians. The Libraries in Churches website started as LINC-List, an email discussion list and website in 2002, and moved to a shiny new blogspot site in 2010. It contains an entertaining blog and a wealth of links to resources for supplies, advice, video tutorials, and church library associations for many regions and denominations you can connect to. It's maintained by Shawn Brouwer of Trinity Western University in British Columbia, serving "individuals or organizations involved with congregational libraries in Canada, the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom as well as library list-serves and selected media outlets."

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"373","attributes":{"alt":"Libraries In Churches blog page","class":"media-image","style":"width: 300px; height: 234px;","title":"Libraries In Churches blog page","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]
Libraries In Churches blog page

With its global and multidenominational scope, Libraries in Churches includes some resources we weren't previously aware of. If you're too far away to attend one of our church library workshops, or just want to check out more resources, go take a look.

Content:
February 8, 2013

[]Cotton Mather will forever be a fascinating man in the history of American culture, politics, literature, science, and religion. He even coined the term "American" as a distinctive type of cultural perspective. Michael Hall titled his biography of Cotton's father The Last American Puritan, and in this talk Rick Kennedy will look at ways in which Cotton Mather was the first American Evangelical. Richard Lovelace of Gordon-Conwell Seminary wrote from a European perspective about theology and piety in his book, The American Pietism of Cotton Mather: Origins of American Evangelicalism (1979). Professor Kennedy, on the other hand, will talk about the origins of American Evangelicalism in the ways Cotton Mather responded to the local culture and politics of Boston, Cambridge, and Charlestown between 1686 and 1707.

Rick Kennedy has published extensively on contemporaries of Cotton Mather — Thomas and William Brattle, Increase Mather, Charles Morton, Benjamin Colman — for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, the New England Quarterly, and the American Antiquarian Society. Presently he is writing a short biography of Mather and working with a group of editors in an international project to publish Cotton Mather's massive Biblia Americana. He is professor of history at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California.

Wednesday, March 6th
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Program begins promptly at noon.

Free.
Register through SurveyMonkey.

 


mezzotint portrait of Cotton Mather (ca. 1700) by Peter Pelham courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Content:
February 8, 2013

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"173","attributes":{"alt":"snowflake ornament","class":"media-image","height":"128","style":"width: 120px; height: 102px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"snowflake ornament","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"150"}}]]Since the city of Boston has declared a snow emergency beginning at noon today, and the MBTA is ending service at 3:30pm, the Congregational Library will be closing at 1:00pm to allow staff members to get home.

All of our online resources will be available as usual. If you have questions for the staff, please send an email, leave a voicemail, or use our website's contact form, and we will get back to you when we return to the office on Monday.

We hope all our neighbors in the northeast remain safe, warm, and dry.

 


snowflake ornament image courtesy of Petr Kratochvil via Wikimedia Commons

Content:
February 7, 2013

[]Last week, OCLC announced that it would be teaming up with FamilySearch International to improve genealogical research for both organizations.

OCLC and FamilySearch International, the largest genealogy organization in the world, have signed an agreement that will enrich WorldCat and FamilySearch services with data from both organizations to provide users with more resources for improved genealogy research.

Under this new partnership, OCLC will incorporate data from FamilySearch's catalog of genealogical materials into WorldCat, and FamilySearch will use OCLC cataloging services to continue to catalog its collections in WorldCat. FamilySearch will also use the WorldCat Search API to incorporate WorldCat results into search results returned by FamilySearch genealogy services.

"We're excited to see information about FamilySearch holdings more broadly circulated, and to inform our own patrons about genealogical holdings available outside our network," said Jake Gehring, FamilySearch's Director of Data Operations.

"This combination of genealogical and bibliographic resources will be of enormous benefit to librarians and library users as well as genealogists," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "OCLC and FamilySearch are organizations with similar goals — to connect people to knowledge and information through cooperation. We look forward to working with FamilySearch."

Both WorldCat and FamilySearch have a long history of connecting people to information, so this partnership will undoubtedly strengthen the services they both provide. If you're interested in genealogy, go check them out.

Content:
February 5, 2013

We've highlighted some of the projects and programs commemorating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible over the past few years. The latest that's come to our attention is a virtual exhibit from the Ohio State University library called[] "Translation... openeth the window to let in the light": The Pre-History and Abiding Impact of the King James Bible. It illustrates the evolution of the KJV from the impetus behind its creation to modern versions and the literature it has inspired.

The exhibit also has several supplemental "sidebars", including the 30-page illustrated genealogy of Jesus Christ contained in the KJV, and a sliding tile puzzle to test your text matching skills.

If you're interested in the history of the King James Bible, go view the exhibit now. It will only be available through May 5th.

--Robin

Content:
February 4, 2013

There is still plenty of time to register for tomorrow's Brown Bag Lunch lecture. Please let us know if you plan to attend so that we can provide enough seats and beverages.


Early African Americans in Congregational, Reformed, and Presbyterian Churches

[]This discussion will address African American affiliation with northern Congregational, Dutch Reformed, and Presbyterians churches during the eighteenth century. Although these three denominations were each part of the "Reformed" tradition, levels of black affiliation in these churches varied significantly. Many blacks were active and willing participants in Congregational churches, but few blacks affiliated with Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian churches in the same period. What accounts for these differences and what does this information suggest about the histories of enslaved and free blacks in the North?

Richard J. Boles is an advanced Ph.D. candidate at The George Washington University. His dissertation, "Dividing the Faith: The Rise of Racially Segregated Northern Churches, 1730-1850", examines the transition from racially diverse churches during the early eighteenth century to separate Indian and black congregations by the early nineteenth century. Mr. Boles previously completed a BA and a MA in history at Boston College. He has received fellowships from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Massachusetts Historical Society, as well as being last year's ACA / Boston Athenaeum fellowship scholar.

Tuesday, February 5th
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Program begins promptly at noon.

Free.
Register through SurveyMonkey.

 


painting The Lord Is My Shepherd (ca. 1863) by Eastman Johnson courtesy of Google Art Project and the Smithsonian American Art Museum via Wikimedia Commons

Content:
February 1, 2013

We're pleased to announce that three more collections in our New England's Hidden Histories program are now available:

[]The collections contain records of memberships, baptisms, marriages, deaths, disciplinary cases, covenants, minutes of church council meetings, and financial accounts during the 18th and 19th centuries. Since church records during that period were often the primary town records, they are a valuable resource to researchers in many fields, from religious historians to genealogists.

There are more collections in the works. We will let you know when they are available for use.

All three of these churches are still active, so we are grateful to them for adding their early records to our program, and pleased to be able to offer our researchers access to these unique documents. If your church is interested in participating in New England's Hidden Histories, there is more information on our website. If you'd like to help us transcribe some of these manuscripts and make them even more useful to more people, there is information about that as well.

Content:
January 31, 2013
      []This portrait of Samuel
Hopkins
is on display in
our Reading Room,
above
the door to the stacks.

"Are not the African slaves among us the poor, the strangers, the fatherless, who are oppressed and vexed, and sold for silver? And will not God visit and punish such oppression? Are you willing to be instruments of bringing judgments and ruin on this land, and on yourselves and families, rather than let the oppressed go out free?"

— Samuel Hopkins, A dialogue concerning
the slavery of the Africans
, p.65

January 1st marked the 150th anniversary of the President Lincoln's delivery of the Emancipation Proclamation. Nationwide, commemoration of the anniversary has included a website dedicated to the history of the proclamation put up by the National Archives with images of the original draft, a PBS documentary series exploring of the lives of prominent abolitionists, and a limited edition stamp put out by the United States Postal Service.

As special attention is paid to the Emancipation Proclamation on this anniversary, it affords a welcome opportunity to delve deeper into the history of slavery and the abolitionist movement in America. At the Congregational Library and Archive, we are fortunate to hold many documents that illustrate the debate over slavery as it happened, from the colonial era, up through the Civil War. One document of particular interest is a pamphlet, written by Samuel Hopkins, entitled A dialogue concerning the slavery of the Africans: shewing it to be the duty and interest of the American states to emancipate all their African slaves: with an address to the owners of such slaves. (The pamphlet was originally published in 1776; the library holds a later edition, printed in 1785.)

Hopkins, a Congregationalist minister, studied under Jonathan Edwards and later rose to prominence as a theologian and an early advocate for ending slavery. He spent much of his career preaching at the First Congregational Church of Newport, Rhode Island and from that pulpit, he began to denounce slavery. Notably, under Hopkins direction, the congregation voted to exclude slave holders in 1784. His pamphlet against slavery stands out as one of the first anti-slavery writings by a Congregationalist minister giving it an important place in the history of Congregationalism as well as the history of the abolitionist movement. While Hopkins died in 1803, sixty years before the Emancipation Proclamation, as a pioneer of the abolitionist cause, his contributions should not be forgotten.

-Steve

Content:
January 29, 2013

A long-time friend of the library, Rev. Dr. Doug Showalter, has started a new Facebook group devoted to Congregational history. Explore Congregational Church History is an open group, so anyone logged into Facebook can read it. As of this morning, it has 87 members, most of whom are ministers or scholars, and anyone can request to join.

[]

[]Each day Rev. Showalter posts a brief article for the group members "to explore, share, and discuss information on the history of American Congregationalism." Topics so far have included the design of Congregational church buildings, the evolution of local and national organizations, book recommendations, and etiquette during worship. Some of the discussion threads have gotten quite lively, providing further information and links to related resources. (We're not just saying that because some of those resources are ours, although we do appreciate it.)

But don't take our word for it. Go have a look for yourself.

Content:
January 28, 2013

[]The debate on gun control that is now taking place in America makes me wonder about the laws the Puritan founders of Massachusetts enacted regarding guns and gun safety. Were restrictions on weapons really looser in the earliest days?

The Puritans were fully aware of the challenging environment in which they lived, so they embraced not only the right but also the necessity of bearing arms. The legislature voted on May 29, 1644, that "all inhabitants" (even including sailors) "are to have armes in their houses alwayes ready fixt for service."

But it turns out they were so serious about public safety they passed serious gun control legislation. These measures included:

No shooting guns for the fun of it after the night watch was in place:

Further, it is ordered, that if any pson shall shoote of any peece after the watch is sett, hee shall forfeiet 40s, or if the Court shall iudge him vnable, then to be whipped; the second fault to be punished by the Court as an offence of an higher nature. (April 12, 1631) [Massachusetts Records, I, 85]

No loaded weapons allowed openly in populated areas:

It is ordered, that the capt & officers shall take especiall care to search all peeces that are brought into the ffeild for being charged, & that noe person whatsoeuer shall att any time charge any peece of service with bulletts or shott, other then for defence of their howses, or att comaund from the capt, vpon such penallty as the Court shall thinke meete to inflict. (July 3, 1632) [I, 98]

Weapon size and capacity to be regulated:

no pecces shalbe alowed for serviceable, in our trained bands, but such as are ether full musket boare, or basterd musket at the least, & that none should be under three foote 9 inches, nor any above foure foote 3 inches in length... (October 1, 1645) [II, 134-135]

When publicly procured guns were resold to citizens, an account to be submitted to the Auditor General:

Itt is ordered by this Courte, that ye surveyor gennerall shall hereby have power to sell all the countryes armes vnto any persons inhabiting within this collony, & to give an accompt of all such armes sould by him vnto the auditor gennerall. (October 18, 1645) [III, 52]

Heavier arms unavailable to citizens for any reason whatsoever:

[No] selling or alienating any of the ordinance, or the great artilliry, or any the appurtenances thereof, vpon any pretence whatsoeuer, without speciall order of the Generall Court. (May 22, 1650) [IV-1, 5]

No sale of gunpowder to anyone outside Massachusetts:

It is ordred, that whosoever shall transport any powdr out of ye iurisdiction without leave & licence first obtained from some two of our honored magistrates, shall forfeit for every such ofience wich shalbe so transporting;.. [II, 136]

And the Bay Colony Puritan government confiscated arms when circumstances seemed to require, as in the Wheelwright - Hutchinson scare in 1637. (November 21, 1637 - I, 212).

Yes, you could own a gun in Puritan Massachusetts, for hunting and defense. But restrictions applied, and penalties were heavy. Makes sense to me.

-David M. Powers

 


photograph of "The Puritan" statue, part of the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial in Philadelphia, PA, courtesy of user Smallbones via Wikimedia Commons, released under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license

Content:
January 25, 2013

Many groups are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, so we thought we'd bring some of them together in one handy post for you.


[]PBS's American Experience is currently running a miniseries called "The Abolitionists" which chronicles the struggles of anti-slavery activists and allies like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown, and Angelina Grimké. Watch streaming online or check your local listings.

They have also created an interactive Abolitionist Map of America that allows you to view images, documents, and videos relating to the history of American slavery. Participants can also add content and tag significant locations. Some of the participating organizations include our neighbors at the Boston Public Library and the Boston Athenaeum, and our friends at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans.

* * *

Amistad and the Library of Congress were featured on Slate.com at the beginning of the month for their copies of another map, A Lynching Map of the United States, 1900-1931, compiled by the Tuskegee Institute. It's a sobering look at the numbers.

* * *

[]Locally, the State Library of Massachusetts has just opened their new exhibit, It Was Everyone's War: Celebrating the Contributions of Massachusetts to Abolition and the Civil War. The exhibition highlights examples of various groups' contributions to the Union cause during the Civil War and to the eventual abolition of slavery in the United States. It runs through May 31, 2013 and can be viewed outside of the library, Room 341 of the State House during business hours.

The State Library will also be hosting a Brown Bag Lunch next week in connection with the PBS series:

Abolition and WGBH's "The Abolitionists"

Tuesday, January 29th
12:00 - 1:30 PM

Bring your lunch and join us to hear WGBH's Sharon Grimberg, Executive Producer of American Experience's "The Abolitionists". She will speak about the making of the film. Her presentation will include the showing of some clips from the production. This talk will coincide with the current exhibit in the State Library.

You can find more details and registration information on the State Library's blog.

* * *

[]The Massachusetts Sesquicentennial Commission of the American Civil War has a wealth of materials about the role of Massachusetts citizens in the war, including a week-by-week account of the military and civilian efforts, a calendar of commemorative events, information for researchers and educators, and a page of links to numerous resources.

The historical accounts include photographs, artwork, and correspondence from the era, as well as modern scholarship based on those sources. There are even travel suggestions for historically minded visitors to our fair commonwealth.

* * *

Here at the Congregational Library, we have a good selection of abolitionism and anti-slavery materials, including historical texts, periodicals, sermons, biographies, and personal papers. Take a look and see what sounds interesting to you.

--Robin

Content:
January 24, 2013

[]There are so many interesting things popping up on the internet thanks to people scanning manuscripts. Our latest find is 17th century naval administrator, Samuel Pepys's diary, which he began in 1660 and continued for the next ten years. The Pepys diary site originally launched in 2003 and they ran an entry a day up through May 2012. This month they have relaunched the revised site to once again run through an entry a day. The entries are annotated to help clarify details that would have been common knowledge, either about Pepys's life or London in the 1660s. Other site features besides the annotations are his letters, articles about Pepys and his works and an encyclopedia covering many aspects of the man and his world.

I love this site for a lot of reasons:

  1. Generally, diaries are a fascinating window to a person (famous or otherwise) moreso than secondary texts that carry inevitable filters and biases.
  2. This project means that an otherwise difficult to use historical resource is universally available.
  3. The site spawned community participation in writing articles, a Yahoo discussion group, and probably the annotations for the individual entries.
  4. The community has generated so much detail, it is stunning. I'm still giddy about the annotations. For example, the January 7 1660 entry has about twenty links that may simply explain who a named person is, a location, include a biographical note and image of prominent people (like his wife), and it just goes on and on. I recommend taking some time and exploring.

Our own work here at the library is just starting off with our New England's Hidden Histories program, which provides access to colonial era manuscripts. I hope that after ten years, we will have emulated the Pepys site and generated a vibrant community that contributes and shares its knowledge. In the meantime, please take some time to visit our budding digital projects. We also have several original/analog diaries in our stacks, searchable through our online catalog.

-Jessica

 


portrait of Samuel Pepys (1666) by John Hayls courtesy of the National Gallery, London via Wikimedia Commons, image in the public domain

Content:
January 22, 2013

Paper is, all things considered, pretty stable. Unlike digital material, it can sit on a shelf for many years and still retain its structure, shape and information (this is typically referred to as "benign neglect" in jargon-y terms). That said, paper does degrade. Ever pinned a newspaper clipping to a corkboard or fridge in the direct sun and realized a month or so later that it had turned yellow and crumbly? This is the work of heat (such as sunlight) and humidity interacting with the lignin in the paper. Lignin is a compound found in trees and that can be quite prevalent in ground-wood pulp paper, such as the paper used to print newspapers.

The paper used to print books and pamphlets and even office paper all contain varying qualities of paper depending on it composition, when it was produced, and the processes and chemicals used in its production. The condition of items depends on the quality of its paper, the manner in which it has been treated and stored, and the use it has seen. Sometimes, despite our best efforts at intercession, items in our collection deteriorate.

We recently had a researcher ask to see a pamphlet. It was readily apparent that this pamphlet was in very fragile condition. It was incredibly brittle and crumbly, and sections of pages were missing. A quick search of WorldCat revealed that only 3 OCLC member institutions held a copy of this pamphlet, and a quick search of our own catalog showed that the author was rather important (we hold 57 other works by him). The pamphlet, then, was both relatively rare and fairly important. It was also highly likely that even with careful handling, this pamphlet would only last through one other researcher — perhaps two, if we were lucky.

It was readily apparent that something had to be done to extend the life and usefulness of the item. Here at the Congregational Library, we evaluate situations like this with emphasis on retaining the informational value of an item and providing access to that information, and so we prefer to migrate (more jargon) that fragile document to a new format that is more likely to last longer. []Once upon a time that would have meant photocopying the original (we even have several examples of this process in our stacks); today it means digitizing it and making the pamphlet available on the web. This has the double benefit of providing what we refer to as a "reader's copy" (a copy of an item that is not the original, but that is made available to a reader in an effort to preserve the original) and making the item accessible to researchers who are unable to visit us in person.

It should be noted that digitization does not mean that we will get rid of our original copy. One of the best principles of preservation is that "lots of copies keeps stuff safe." Digital copies of things actually require more work to preserve than physical copies, most of the time, and so best practice dictates that we keep both the digital copy (for readers to look at) and the physical copy (as a sort of back-up).

--Sari

 


If you are interested in preserving your old paper, we recommend keeping it in a stable environment that does not change overly much in humidity or temperature and that is generally dry.

If you are so inclined to digitize your papers, we encourage you to keep your "hard copy" original, to scan at a fairly high resolution (350-500 dpi), and to maintain a back-up of your digitizations in a physical location that differs from the physical location of your computer or hard drive.

Content:
January 21, 2013

When we were putting together our recent holiday series, we just had too many great quotes to choose from, so we kept this one in mind for today.


[]"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

— Frederick Douglass

While this sentiment can easily be taken metaphorically, Douglass also meant it literally. Taught to read by his master's wife, he continued to educate himself in secret, and eventually passed that knowledge on to dozens of other slaves in the area.

The eloquence of Douglass's writing and speaking was integral to increasing support for both the abolition of slavery and the women's suffrage movement. And Douglass took full advantage of his freedom once he had it; based on the success of his autobiography, he traveled extensively throughout Europe and the northern United States. He was even the first African American nominated for the vice presidency of the U.S. in 1872, though he never formally accepted the nomination or campaigned for the office.

 


daguerreotype of Frederick Douglass, ca. 1855 courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikimedia Commons

Content:
January 18, 2013

[]The Congregational Library will be closed on Monday, January 21st in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

All of our online resources will be available as usual. If you have questions for the staff, please send an email, leave a voicemail, or use our website's contact form, and we will get back to you when we return to the office on Tuesday.

 


photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Dick DeMarsico, World Telegram staff photographer, is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c26559, found via Wikimedia Commons

Content:
January 17, 2013

There are exciting things afoot in Hawaii. The Hawaiian language Bible — first translated by Hiram Bingham, other missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and native Hawaiians — has gotten a makeover for modern readers.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"389","attributes":{"alt":"Hawaiian Bible, then and now -- pages from the first book of Samuel from 1839 and 2013","class":"media-image","height":"248","style":"width: 200px; height: 169px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Hawaiian Bible, then and now -- pages from the first book of Samuel from 1839 and 2013","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"294"}}]]From the publisher's website:

After ten-plus years, significant funding support from many foundations and individuals, and the work of dozens of scholars, teachers, and volunteers, Ka Baibala Hemolele is available in the new orthography, which uses diacritics. It is the first time that the Hawaiian language bible has been formatted and printed with diacritical marking. Baibala Hemolele — the Hawaiian Bible Project, a project of Partners in Development Foundation, initially began to electronically preserve the 1839, 1868, and 1994 printings of the Hawaiian Bible, but grew into a complete editing of the Bible to embrace the new orthography.

The original translation, completed in 1839, played a significant role in the development of the Hawaiian language as a written language, and it continues to be a major linguistic, cultural, and spiritual resource for the Hawaiian community and Hawaiian language students throughout the world.

Download the full press release.

You can learn more about the history of the text and the drive behind this revision on the PIDF website. They have also made searchable digital versions of the earlier editions available in a dedicated digital archive as part of Ulukau, the Hawaiian electronic library.

To learn more about the early American Board and the missionaries who first translated the Bible into Hawaiian, take a spin through our digital exhibit, Of Faith and Courage: The History of the ABCFM, or search our catalog. Aloha.

Content:
January 15, 2013

Scholars at Brown University have finally cracked the encrypted text of Roger Williams's final essay, written around 1680.

The Roger Williams Code: How a team of scholars decrypted a secret language — and discovered the last known work of the American theologian.
by Ben Schreckinger

For more than a century, a small, leather-bound book has sat collecting dust and attracting little attention in a gray stone library on the corner of Brown University's Main Green in Providence, R.I. In a library full of old and obscure texts, the 234-page quarto was older and more obscure than most. Its brown, battered leather cover was blank, its title page missing, and its author unknown. Inside, a series of inscrutable symbols filled every inch of the book's margins: Scrawled in black ink were what looked like a combination of Greek, Hebrew, and some wholly invented characters. Who wrote them? And what do they say?

The only hint came from an unsigned note attached to the book and dated Nov. 11, 1817. It read, in part, "The margin is filled with Short Hand Characters, Dates, Names of places &c. &c. by Roger Williams or it appears to be his hand Writing... brot me from Widow Tweedy by Nicholas Brown Jr."

Despite this intriguing reference to the man who founded Rhode Island and brought the idea of religious liberty to the New World, the book languished — until an offhand remark at a small lecture in 2010 led a team of Brown scholars and undergraduates to crack the code, confirm it was written in Roger Williams' hand, and discover, this summer, his last known work of theology.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"390","attributes":{"alt":"Roger Williams's coded manuscript","class":"media-image","style":"width: 350px; height: 213px;","title":"Roger Williams's coded manuscript","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]
Roger Williams' last known theological work lurking in the
margins of an old book in an encrypted secret code — "An Essay
Towards the Reconciling of Differences Among Christians."
courtesy John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

The team that finally solved the mystery was made up of undergraduates from a number of disciplines, with support from experts in fields ranging from theology to geography to medical history. It's a fascinating story. You can read the full article on Slate.com.

--Robin

Content:
January 14, 2013

We are pleased to announce the availability of four new collections:

These collections are new acquisitions for the library and were part of proof-of-concept testing of a new archival standard. Those of you used to looking at our finding guides will notice some differences with these collections. This is because we are implementing a new industry-wide standard which holds that in certain circumstances it is allowable, and even preferable, to value access to collections over providing detailed description and context. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"158","attributes":{"alt":"processing a collection","class":"media-image","height":"154","style":"width: 185px; height: 154px; float: left; margin: 8px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"processing a collection","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"185"}}]]This precept is supported by various surveys, formal and informal, in which researchers and patrons say they prefer to know that a collection exists and have a rough indication of what the collection contains to waiting a longer time without knowledge of the collection's existence so that they can have a finding guide which contains a detailed biographical or historical note and container list.

This standard, known as "More Product, Less Process" (or more efficiently as MPLP) has been implemented at institutions across the country, and has had the cumulative effect of getting archival collections in front of researchers faster. These four collections represent the Congregational Library's foray into implementing this new standard. We welcome feedback from our researchers as to the guides' effectiveness, as well as any questions you might have about these collections or this new standard.

--Sari

Content:
January 11, 2013
    [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"391","attributes":{"alt":"Part of the Book of Genesis. Photo by Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 211px;","title":"Part of the Book of Genesis. Photo by Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]
Part of the Book of Genesis.
Photo by Shai Halevi, courtesy of
Israel Antiquities Authority

Back in 2011, a partnership between Google and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem launched the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, which made five of the famous manuscripts available online, along with historical information, translations, and commentaries. Hot on the heels of the University of Cambridge releasing its Nash Papyrus and other ancient documents last month, the Israel Antiquities Authority has added to the wealth of primary sources on the web by again partnering with Google to digitize the entire collection of Dead Sea Scrolls and present them online.

From the official Google blog:

The Israel Antiquities Authority is launching the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, an online collection of some 5,000 images of scroll fragments, at a quality never seen before. The texts include one of the earliest known copies of the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes the Ten Commandments; part of Chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis, which describes the creation of the world; and hundreds more 2,000-year-old texts, shedding light on the time when Jesus lived and preached, and on the history of Judaism.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"392","attributes":{"alt":"The Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy). Photo by Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority","class":"media-image","style":"width: 500px; height: 153px;","title":"The Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy). Photo by Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]
The Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy).
Photo by Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority

...

The site displays infrared and color images that are equal in quality to the Scrolls themselves. There's a database containing information for about 900 of the manuscripts, as well as interactive content pages.

This collection contains not only early versions of Biblical texts and apocrypha, but also records of civic events, legal and personal papers, and artifacts found alongside the scrolls, all photographed in stunning detail. There is information about the discovery of the manuscripts, the languages and scripts they contain, the conservation efforts they have undergone. You can browse the archive by discovery location, language, or content, or search for whatever you like.

Even if you're not a scholar using these documents for study, they are well worth a look. The meticulous work that has gone into reconstructing them and making them available to the world is downright impressive.

--Robin

 


Hat tip to Sari, who heard about this amazing project via Twitter.

Content:
January 10, 2013

You may be familiar with author and historian Eve LaPlante from her book about Samuel Sewall, Salem Witch Judge, which was featured at one of the first installments of our Brown Bag Lunch series back in 2008. Now she has two more books coming out, both focused on members of the Alcott family. She'll be speaking about them at the Hingham Public Library this coming Sunday.

Afternoon with the Author: Eve LaPlante

The first "Afternoon with the Author" of the new year takes place on Sunday, January 13, at 3 p.m., when Eve LaPlante visits the library to introduce two simultaneously published books: Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother and My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott.

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Louisa May Alcott was the most successful author of her time, earning considerably more than any of her male contemporaries. Her classic Little Women has never been out of print since its release nearly 150 years ago. Biographers have consistently attributed Louisa's uncommon success to the influence of her father, the outspoken idealist Bronson Alcott. Any influence Abigail May Alcott might have had on her daughter's progressive thinking and independent spirit went largely unremarked.

Eve LaPlante, a descendant of the May family, has just published two books that explode the perception of Abigail as a self-effacing housewife. Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother, is a dual biography that draws from newly uncovered diaries, letters, and personal papers to reveal Abigail in all her complexity. In this telling, Louisa’s real-life "Marmee" forms the intellectual and emotional center of her daughter’s world. Abigail, whose difficult life both inspired and served as warning to her daughters, pushed Louisa to excel at writing and to fulfill her unconventional dreams.

An Afternoon with the Author is part of a free series presented in partnership with Buttonwood Books and designed to connect writers with readers.

Please join us for coffee 15 minutes before the start of the program.

Sunday, January 13
3 p.m.

For more details, take a look at the event page on the Hingham Public Library website.

Content:
January 9, 2013

Early African Americans in Congregational, Reformed, and Presbyterian Churches

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"285","attributes":{"alt":"\"The Lord Is My Shepherd\" (ca. 1863) by Eastman Johnson","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 211px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"\"The Lord Is My Shepherd\" (ca. 1863) by Eastman Johnson","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]This discussion will address African American affiliation with northern Congregational, Dutch Reformed, and Presbyterians churches during the eighteenth century. Although these three denominations were each part of the "Reformed" tradition, levels of black affiliation in these churches varied significantly. Many blacks were active and willing participants in Congregational churches, but few blacks affiliated with Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian churches in the same period. What accounts for these differences and what does this information suggest about the histories of enslaved and free blacks in the North?

Richard J. Boles is an advanced Ph.D. candidate at The George Washington University. His dissertation, "Dividing the Faith: The Rise of Racially Segregated Northern Churches, 1730-1850", examines the transition from racially diverse churches during the early eighteenth century to separate Indian and black congregations by the early nineteenth century. Mr. Boles previously completed a BA and a MA in history at Boston College. He has received fellowships from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Massachusetts Historical Society, as well as being last year's ACA / Boston Athenaeum fellowship scholar.

Tuesday, February 5th
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Program begins promptly at noon.

Free.
Register through SurveyMonkey.

 


painting The Lord Is My Shepherd (ca. 1863) by Eastman Johnson courtesy of Google Art Project and the Smithsonian American Art Museum via Wikimedia Commons

Content:
January 8, 2013

I spent this past weekend in New Orleans, at the meeting of the American Historical Association and the American Society of Church History. When I left my house in Boston, in the wee hours of Thursday morning, the temperature was a balmy 1 degrees. I got to New Orleans later that day and heard nonstop complaints about how cold it was — in the 40s. I passed people on the street dressed for a winter apocalypse, in fur-lined parkas, knit caps, and mittens, while I strolled around with my coat unzipped looking utterly out of place.

Any gathering of historians by the thousands is worth many, many wry observations and as time permits I'll have more to say about what I learned down in New Orleans, but for the immediate purposes of this blog, I want to write about the book I read on the plane going down to New Orleans.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"395","attributes":{"alt":"\"Sarah Osborn's World\" cover image","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 230px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"\"Sarah Osborn's World\" cover image","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Sarah Osborn's World, written by University of Chicago historian Catherine Brekus, is the story of a remarkable eighteenth-century woman. Osborn lived most of her life in relative obscurity in Newport, Rhode Island, battling poverty, illness, and personal loss. She was not a politician or a "man of letters", and we would know nothing of her life except for one thing: she wrote voluminously. Sarah Osborn left behind a personal memoir, a lengthy diary in many volumes (most but not all of which has survived), and many personal letters, all of which Brekus has transcribed and carefully pieced together into a richly-detailed, beautifully written, and in many ways haunting account.

It is not an easy one to understand. To those of us who have grown up in a world emphasizing self-esteem and personal freedom, Sarah Osborn's personal faith is simply baffling. God is at the center of her life in every respect, which means that she accepts the untimely death of her first husband and her son, as well as suffering caused by rheumatoid arthritis and financial catastrophe as God's will for her. This is not, Brekus explains, because Sarah Osborn was weak or unbalanced or needed a good feminist talking-to; it was because in the world that she inhabited, the alternative would have been impossible to bear. Better to accept a God who brings suffering as well as favor than to live in a world without order or meaning. Better to allow for a few moral loose ends than to lose God's powerful and compassionate companionship. You or I may not see the alternatives this starkly — our world today provides us with a lot more cushioning from disaster than Sarah's did — but if we simply dismiss her as a religious fanatic we are the poorer for it.

The story goes far beyond one individual life, however. Sarah Osborn's World is one of the best books about the American evangelical tradition that I have read. It brings home the spiritual passion in this movement's formative stages, and its transformative appeal to all kinds of different people, most of whom left almost no historical records—the women who met for prayer under Sarah Osborn's leadership and the African Americans (slave and free) who crowded into her parlor for Bible study and prayer.

Many readers will find Sarah Osborn's world absolutely foreign, maybe even off-putting. Her piety was stark and demanding and she was blind to many of the social evils of her day, including for a time slavery. Few of us would want her for a best friend, let alone a prayer partner. But in other ways, Sarah Osborn's relationship with God is utterly familiar. It resonates in churches today, afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted, and sometimes calling us to take the hard road with gratitude and grace. This is what history does, of course, introducing us to other lives and other worlds, and helping us to see our own with a deeper and more compassionate understanding.

-Peggy

Content:
January 7, 2013

One of the frustrations many modern historians face when piecing together our past is rooting out the experiences of common people, particularly those who were not part of the official governance or power structure of their community. The sources that provide a clear view of this very large portion of society when they are eventually found are naturally hugely valuable.

In our case, a source that fits this description within 18th- and 19th-century church records are "relations", which were individuals' conversion experiences, often written in their own words and in their own hand. All that exposition is to say that we have recently added to our Haverhill First Congregational Church collection, which Cristina processed earlier this year. There are a few hundred individual documents that we will be processing for researchers and for scanning.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"396","attributes":{"alt":"sample relation from the Haverhill First Church collection","class":"media-image","style":"width: 320px; height: 283px;","title":"sample relation from the Haverhill First Church collection","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]
Joseph Ames's relation from October 31, 1736
click on image for more detail

So, stay tuned. You will be seeing more on this slice of history in the months to come.

-Jessica

Content:
January 3, 2013

We've been back in the office since yesterday, but we just couldn't resist the urge to bring you one more dose of inspiration for the week.


[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"397","attributes":{"alt":"Amelia Earhart","class":"media-image","height":"392","style":"width: 150px; height: 235px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Amelia Earhart","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"250"}}]]"The most effective way to do it, is to do it."

— Amelia Earhart

There is something to be said for determination and courage. At a time when women were still largely constrained to a few roles in American society, Amelia Earhart ignored or gleefully smashed barriers to pursue her dreams. From her teenage decision to choose a high school based on its superior science program to her aviation career spent setting world records, Earhart defied the limits others tried to put on her.

Congregationalists have a history of changing conventions, as well. They have been at the forefront of social movements like abolition, temperance, and suffrage. They did their best to lead by example, by doing.

It's a new year, a good time for a new start. What will you do?

 


portrait of Amelia Earhart courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division (digital ID cph.3c12514) via Wikimedia Commons

Content:
January 2, 2013

Tomorrow's Brown Bag Lunch lecture on the life story of Rebecca Kellogg has been postponed indefinitely due to illness. We are hoping to reschedule it sometime in the coming year.

In the meantime, please go to our Program & Workshop Schedule page for information about other upcoming events.


704 Deerfield Captive to Congregational Missionary Interpreter for the Mohawks

Eight-year-old Rebecca Kellogg was one of the 112 English colonists captured by French/Canadian/Iroquois forces in 1704 in Deerfield, Massachusetts. She was adopted into the Mohawk community of Kahnawake on the St. Lawrence River. Rebecca married a Mohawk man and raised children, but then, quite surprisingly, she came back to British territory. She eventually became an interpreter to the Mohawk for the famous Jonathan Edwards when he preached in Stockbridge to Mohegan and Mohawk Christians. She then translated for a young Gideon Hawley as he attempted to set up his first mission in Mohawk country. In Edwards's letters and Hawley's dairy, we meet a woman who was loyal, funny, strong, kind, and stubborn. How Edwards and Hawley wrote about Rebecca delightfully challenges assumptions we might have about Indian captivity, mission work, and women in the eighteenth-century backwoods.

[]
Rebecca Kellogg Ashley memorial outside Windsor, NY
dedicated by the Daughters of the American Revolution

You can read more about Kellogg's work with Hawley in his early missionary journals, which are now available online through our New England's Hidden Histories program.

Content:
January 1, 2013

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"398","attributes":{"alt":"William Ellery Channing","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 187px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"William Ellery Channing","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]"Every man is a volume if you know how to read him."

— William Ellery Channing

 

It has become clichéd to tell people, "My life is an open book," but some people truly are easy to learn about. It's significantly more difficult to do so with those who are no longer living. Unless, that is, there happen to be records of their lives.

Not only do our collections contain a large number of biographies, memoirs, and memorials, but there are also personal and institutional papers. You can learn a lot about people — how they saw the world and how the world saw them — from their correspondence, obituaries and funeral sermons, records of churches they attended, and even books they owned. It takes more interpretation than just reading a journal, but it's often worth the extra time to read between the lines.

As we enter a new year, consider spending some time with our resources. You never who you'll meet or what you might learn about them.

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December 31, 2012

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"399","attributes":{"alt":"Dwight L. Moody","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 212px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Dwight L. Moody","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]"Character is what you think in the dark."

— Dwight L. Moody

We are often told that difficult experiences "build character". Whether our character is seen as good or bad often depends on how we react to such experiences, but our true nature lies in what we do when no one else is around to witness it.

As a prominent figure in the Third Great Awakening, Moody spent a great deal of time working to better himself and others. During his years as a world renowned evangelist and missionary he was seen as a man of admirable character, but it seems that he was also humble enough to acknowledge his own faults and temptations.

To learn more about Dwight Moody and his character, take a look at the biographical materials in our catalog.

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December 28, 2012

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"400","attributes":{"alt":"Harry E. Fosdick","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 205px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Harry E. Fosdick","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]"Life is like a library owned by the author.
In it are a few books which he wrote himself,
but most of them were written for him."

— Harry Emerson Fosdick

Much in the vein of Isaac Newton's oft-quoted "standing on the shoulders of giants", Fosdick acknowledges the modern world's debt to everything that came before.This is especially true in a scholarly archive like ours. We have books and manuscripts dating back several centuries that modern researchers use to create new books of their own.

Writers who use our collections often wind up on our shelves themselves. Some recent examples include:

If you've written a book using research done at the Congregational Library, let us know in the comments or send us an email. We love to hear where that information ends up.

 


portrait of Harry Emerson Fosdick (1926) by Underwood & Underwood (New York) from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery collection courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Content:
December 27, 2012

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"401","attributes":{"alt":"Benjamin Franklin","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 158px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Benjamin Franklin","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]"Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances."

— Benjamin Franklin

Of course, it's easier for a well-respected, well-educated, white, male diplomat and polymath to say such things. Franklin certainly had his troubles, from his rebellious youth to his falling out with his royalist son William, but overall he met with success in life. Then again, success does not necessarily equate to happiness. Studies have shown that happiness (or perhaps more accurately contentment) is independent of wealth or prestige. It is achieved much more by appreciating what you have and being surrounded by people whose company you enjoy, which is exactly what Franklin observed.

Wherever you are, and whatever you celebrate, we hope you're having a happy holiday.

 


image of Benjamin Franklin portrait (1767) by David Martin from the National Portrait Gallery collection courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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December 26, 2012

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"402","attributes":{"alt":"Horace Bushnell","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 209px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Horace Bushnell","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]"The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration his life will be."

— Horace Bushnell

Although we hope that none of our readers are encountering difficulties during the holidays, it's likely that at least a few of you are. Whether you're stuck in traffic, wrangling stubborn relatives, or feeling a little blue, try to remember that all troubles are temporary. Overcoming obstacles can help you reach even greater heights in the future, and allow you to aid others in doing the same.

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December 25, 2012

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"403","attributes":{"alt":"J. A. Langford","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 169px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"J. A. Langford","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]"The only true equalisers in the world are books; the only treasure-house open to all comers is a library; the only wealth which will not decay is knowledge; the only jewel which you can carry beyond the grave is wisdom."

— John Alfred Langford

Although we are primarily dedicated to preserving the history of American Congregationalism and related historical subjects, our doors have always been open to anyone who wants to use our resources, regardless of their affiliation. The information contained within our collections has been useful to people doing research into innumerable topics including religious doctrines, church histories, family histories, civil rights issues, population migrations, poetry, advertising, and architecture. What surprises will you find?

 


image of J. A. Langford portrait courtesy of the Birmingham and Midland Institute collection via BBC Your Paintings

Content:
December 24, 2012

The Congregational Library will be closed until the new year, but that doesn't mean we'll leave you without new things to read. We hope you'll enjoy this year's series of vacation posts.


[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"404","attributes":{"alt":"Henry Ward Beecher","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 211px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Henry Ward Beecher","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]"A little library, growing larger every year, is an honourable part of a man's history. It is a man's duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life."

— Henry Ward Beecher

Our library started out very little, with just 56 books donated by the founders from their own collections. Over the years we have grown tremendously, taking that small seed and nurturing it into a much larger set of books, newspapers, manuscripts, and records on a number of subjects. The ever-increasing collections required successively larger spaces until the American Congregational Association finally commissioned our current building in 1898. Now our resources are not just filling our physical spaces, they are expanding into the digital realm as well.

We do consider it our duty to preserve and protect the materials under our care. Not only an obligation to the past, but also to the historians and other researchers to come. Over and over we hear from churches that have lost their early records to fire or flood, and with them unique information about their members and communities. It is our honor to help prevent such tragedies so that future generations can continue to learn from the past.

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December 21, 2012

The Congregational Library will be closed until January 2, 2013, so that the staff can spend Christmas week with our families. All of our online resources will be available as usual. If you have questions for us, please send an email, leave a voicemail, or use the contact form on our website, and we'll get back to you when we return to the office in the new year.

Until then...

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"405","attributes":{"alt":"Best wishes for the Holiday Season and a yeark of good books and great conversation.","class":"media-image","style":"width: 500px; height: 636px;","title":"Christmas card","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the staff of the Congregational Library & Archive and the board of the American Congregational Association.

Content:
December 20, 2012

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"406","attributes":{"alt":"idea bubble","class":"media-image","style":"width: 90px; height: 135px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"idea bubble","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]I am what one of my professors fondly refers to as a baby librarian (although, perhaps by the last semester of library school I should be considered more of a toddler?). And given that I am both a baby librarian and what is often referred to as a digital native, it only makes sense that I, well, love the internet. The internet, I believe, is a wonderful tool that allows for the democratization of information and scholarship, the freedom of speech, and the ease of sharing ideas. Through a simple search engine query it is possible to discover gems such as:

And these are all really cool things — but they are not the main reason I love the internet. I love the internet because of this:

On December 10th at roughly 1pm Eastern someone in a Facebook forum posted this:

"You know what would be cool? A blog dedicated to Congregationalism, where various Congregationalists from different churches/traditions/countries were invited to submit blog entries."

At the time, no such blog was to be found. Two hours and 50+ comments later, that blog was born. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"407","attributes":{"alt":"Congregationalism blog header","class":"media-image","style":"width: 250px; height: 53px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Congregationalism blog header","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]A group of Congregationalists from disparate portions of the country have come together to start a conversation, learn from each other, and share their experiences with others — and that is why I love the internet. A person can have an idea which sparks something in another person, and those people can come together to produce something new and share it with whomever is interested.

At the time of the writing this post the blog only boasts two entries, so I only have a limited idea of what this blog will become — but I'm excited to watch, and to learn.

--Sari

 


idea bubble image from "5 Social Media Tips From A Digital Native"

Content:
December 18, 2012

A dilligent researcher has created something amazing, and we're a small part of it. Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann compiled a catalogue of Greek Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the libraries of the United States. It is featured in the current issue of the journal Manuscripta (vol. 56 no. 1, 2012) published by the Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library at Saint Louis University.

The section on Boston includes two items from our collection, as well as a number of materials from the Boston Public Library, BU School of Theology, Harvard Medical School's Countway Library, and the Mass. Historical Society. The descriptions of the Congregational Library Greek fragments are on pp. 69-76.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"408","attributes":{"alt":"Greek lectionary in the S. Brainerd Pratt collection","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 144px;","title":"Greek lectionary in the S. Brainerd Pratt collection","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]            [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"409","attributes":{"alt":"Greek Gospel lectionary once owned by Elias Riggs","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 149px;","title":"Greek Gospel lectionary once owned by Elias Riggs","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]
Greek Gospel lectionary in
the S. Brainerd Pratt collection
  Greek Gospel lectionary
once owned by Elias Riggs

Both manuscripts date to around the 11th century, and were brought to the United States during the 19th century by missionaries who were stationed in the Middle East. They were passed on to other scholars and eventually found their way to our care in the 20th century. We are pleased that Nadezhda has helped us learn more about these documents and is increasing knowledge of them in the scholarly community.

You can subscribe to Manuscripta or order individual issues through Brepols Publishers. Print back issues for 1957-98 are available from the Vatican Film Library at $10 per issue.

 


photographs of manuscripts taken by Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann

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