Beacon Street Blog

Our reading room will be closed tomorrow in observance of Good Friday. All of our online resources will be available as usual.

We hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend.

I recently visited a congregation in central Massachusetts that I got to know from afar by reading its anniversary histories and town history in the Congregational Library. I became acquainted with its unique German Congregational history from perusing the local holdings in the stacks and came to feel strangely connected with this church. When I got there and met the people who are this congregation today, I felt that I was already connected to them, too. In a town with a disproportionately large number of churches, I now know a lot of reasons why this particular one should be treasured. I suppose the same is true about many, even most congregations, but as fate would have it, this is a church that I will think of and pray for often.

I believe that learning the history of a place is one of many ways to make the personal connections that sustain fellowship for the long haul. I have seen the awkward and lovely committee photos (we all have them), and read the heartfelt words of painstakingly constructed histories composed by people now departed, but whose spirit clearly is alive in the present. Keeping histories is a labor of love. Sometimes difficult and time-consuming or even conflict-raising, the finished product becomes a glimpse at a distant yet familiar place. I was touched that the church's pastor identified me as a true history lover. I am a lover of church culture and all the facets that make it a rich way of life, and I believe there is much in local histories for us all, even if they are not directly our own histories, or if they are strange or even maddeningly vague!

These records contain the kind of individually told, personally meaningful tales that make churches connected places. Some, it is true, are more readily accessible to those not already familiar with the church, more distinctive and specific or more thoroughly researched. But however a history is written, it makes the reader a witness to the time it was written and an insider to the past it tells. And the holdings of the Congregational Library are vast. You might find a history near and dear to you waiting in the stacks. And if you are thinking about your own church's history and whether it might be due for an update, check out Peggy Bendroth's beautiful guide Writing a History of Your Local Church [PDF].

-Jaime

One of my ongoing activities as archivist is to visit with churches who are interested in establishing a Records Management program within their church (aka: Let's not keep all these canceled checks; then we'll have room to keep The Good Stuff ™). All churches are different in many respects. For example, I had never seen a take on stained glass such as the ones that Greendale Community Church has. They chose a variety of subjects, ones that the congregation considered worthy role models.

Some obvious ones were Abraham Lincoln and St. Francis:

I was interested to see inclusion of very different peace activists, Japanese pacifist Toyhiko Kagawa and Nobel laureate/missionary/doctor Albert Schweitzer:

The final historical figure of the series, multi-fasceted force for good, Jane Addams:

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These inspiring images oversee the worship in the church's chapel.

When not admiring their homage to social change, the history-centric team and I discussed what they could do to best preserve the church's story. If you belong to a church within a one-hour drive (or so) from the greater Boston area and would like to have a similar house call, please contact me.

-Jessica

Two of our most popular classes are back again.

"Growing Deeper Roots"

What is Congregationalism and why is it important? This full-day seminar will provide a quick orientation, a timeline, and plenty of opportunity for discussion about one of the nation's most influential religious traditions.

Join historian Peggy Bendroth for this class covering three and a half centuries, from Congregationalism's English Puritan roots to the denominational mergers and divisions which created the national organizations as they exist today.

Thursday, April 12th
10:00 am - 3:00 pm

$20.00, includes lunch and study materials
Register through SurveyMonkey.

Records Management for Local Churches

Are you interested in learning how to care for church records? Have questions about how long to keep files? Where do you even start? Associate Archivist Cristina Prochilo covers basic archival arrangement, writing and maintaining records management policies, preservation, and digital issues; followed by a question and answer session.

Thursday, April 12th
10:00 am - 3:00 pm

$20.00, includes lunch and resource materials
Register through SurveyMonkey.

The American Board in the World: Bicentennial Reflections on the Organization's Missionary Work, 1810-2010

[]Join historians Professor Paul Burlin and Professor Clifford Putney for a discussion of their brand new book, The Role of the American Board in the World: Bicentennial Reflections on the Organization's Missionary Work, 1810-2010.

In 2010 the Congregational Library hosted a lively conference to mark the American Board bicentennial, a unique gathering of scholars and missionaries from all over the world.

This work includes many of the essays presented, covering a wide range of ABCFM history, from the first voyages to Hawaii to the establishment of schools in China, South Africa, and the Middle East. This is a great chance to catch up on the conference if you missed it and meet some of the participants!

Bring your lunch and a thirst for history.

Wednesday, April 4th
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Join us for lunch at noon.
Program begins promptly at 12:15.

Free.
Registration required.

Last Saturday the Congregational Library hosted a series of workshops called Celebrating your Church Anniversary with Wisdom and Style. This event was held at the spacious and historic Hancock Church in Lexington Mass. This year participants were able to have more one-on-one time with the workshop leaders, which made the entire day feel more personalized.

Jeff Cooper's keynote address started us off and then we listened to an informative panel discussion by anniversary experts.

Some highlights from the day included Rev. Charles Hambrick-Stowe's presentation of How to Write and Produce a History of Your Church which was praised by many participants. Rev. Hambrick-Stowe's workshop included a best practices guide called Publishing Your Church's History: How to Create an Exciting Book, as well as a useful timeline for planning a celebration. These two handouts will be available on our church anniversaries page shortly.

Mary Luti's Worship that Honors the Past without Dwelling on It was filled with practical advice. Additionally enthusiastic participants in Jessica Steytler's Records Management for Local Churches workshop took away fresh ideas they can apply to their own church records. Jean Vankin from the First Congregational Church of Williamstown, who attended Karen Anne Zee's Learning from Stories: Organizing an Oral History Project said, "Wonderful conference and workshops... So happy I was able to attend. Inspirational!"

Finally, our day ended with an excellent tour of the Clarke Hancock House led by Hancock Church's docent, Susan Rockwell. We'd like to thank Rev. Paul Shupe, Ted Larson, and Sue Rockwell from Hancock United Church of Christ, as well as all of the participants and presenters for making the day such a success! The library's staff is already beginning plans to make next year's church anniversary workshops even better, so please keep an eye out for more information and updates.

-Megan

[]More often than not, we here at the Congregational Library will find that a project takes an unexpected turn. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of a project being more complicated than originally thought, or taking longer to complete, or finding the items in worse condition than previously anticipated. And sometimes we just end up finding more than we expected. This is one of those times.

A few weeks ago I was handed a framed portrait of staff members from The Congregational House taken in 1903 which was to be added to our image collection. This particular photo was framed, necessitating its removal for scanning and preservation purposes. The right tool, the right leverage, some carefully applied brute strength (and appropriate safety measures), and a few minutes later, the frame was easily dispatched and the wood backing removed.

And that's where things got a little more interesting. Underneath the backing were several sheets of newspaper that had been used as padding when the photo had been framed. While the newspaper isn't the kind of thing that as an archivist I would be inclined to keep, the clippings do provide a unique look into the every-day context in which this photo was taken, and the lives its subjects might have lead. Here, then, is a snapshot from early 1903 when this photo was taken:

On Monday, January 19, 1903, black taffeta could be bought from Jordan Marsh Co. on Avon Street for 55¢; a woman's silk-lined Kersey, Cheviot or Melton coat could be had for $3.69; Mr. Richard Mansfield could be seen starring in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Colonial Theatre; Yale's basketball team was hoping to win the college championship; and The American Bicycle Company was undergoing reorganization. Frank Norris had just published The Pit (now a part of Penguin's series of Twentieth Century Classics), and the Senate was considering the Cuban reciprocity treaty, a bill on immigration, and the Omnibus Statehood Bill which sought to admit Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico to the Union. The University of Maine had submitted its annual report to the Governor, reporting an enrollment of 480 and the need for new dormitories and new buildings to house both a laboratory and heating plants. Finally, you could have your very own copy of The Boston Herald delivered to you for an annual subscription rate of $6.00.

-Sari

[]Our video series featuring the presenters from our Brown Bag Lunch lectures continues. Head over to our YouTube channel for a 5-part interview with Karl Giberson, co-author of The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age.

Keep an eye on this news feed for future video announcements, and take a look at our Program & Workshop Schedule for even more events that you can attend in person.

In honor of Women's History Month, I thought I'd talk about Lucy Stone.

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Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

A pioneer for women's rights, she is credited as being the first woman to keep her maiden name after marrying (helping pave the way for me to do the same lo these 13+ years ago), and argued vociferously on the topics of suffrage and abolition.

But, did you know that Ms. Stone grew up here in Massachusetts as a Congregationalist in the West Brookfield Church?** She was baptized in 1819, just shy of her first birthday:

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Lucy Stone's 1818 baptismal record

She joined the church in 1839, listed along with Francis and Sarah:

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the Stone family's 1839 membership records

If you follow the Wikipedia article*** about Ms. Stone, you will note that there was some strong disagreement in the West Brookfield community regarding the issue of slavery, women's participation in the public discussion, and the role of religious leaders in the debate. When Stone's unwavering and vocal opposition to slavery joined the public debate, her church responded by determining that Stone "engaged in a course of life evidently inconsistent with her covenant." In the same meeting, the church "voted that she no longer considered a member a member with us."

Original text:

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Lucy Stone's 1851 dismission record

In the face of opposition, Lucy Stone fought harder. In her lifetime, she saw a sea change in society where slavery was abolished and free speech finally started to include women. Sadly, she died a few decades short of women's suffrage. We salute you, Lucy Stone, who did not give up in the face of adversity.

** The West Brookfield collection spans from 1757 through to 1929 and is open to the public for research.

***Just to prove the point you can't believe everything you read on Wikipedia, they claim that Stone's dismissal from the West Brookfield Church was 1838, which was actually the year before she joined the church. The break came in 1851.

-Jessica

[]If you've been in our reading room in the past year or so, you've probably seen our copy of photographer Steve Rosenthal's White on white: churches of rural New England. It contains beautiful black and white images of historic church buildings from across the northeast. Some of those photographs are now on display in the Adams Gallery at Suffolk University.

February 13 – May 9, 2012
9 a.m. - 7 p.m. daily

White on White: Churches of Rural New England presents 40 photographs of iconic New England churches by renowned architectural photographer Steve Rosenthal.

The early churches of New England hold a special place in the American consciousness, revered for their physical beauty, simplicity and elegance and for their role in the nation's history.

Rosenthal began photographing these churches in the 1960s, and the project gradually became a personal quest. His luminous black and white photographs capture the intrinsic beauty of the architecture while creating a world of rich order and rational light.

"These are the buildings which give New England towns and villages a unique sense of place and define, in many minds, the New England character," said Rosenthal. "Collectively, they are as important to the cultural and architectural history of these villages as are the great cathedrals to the cities of Europe."

An accompanying book White on White: Churches of Rural New England, photographs by Steve Rosenthal, with an essay by Verlyn Klinkenborg and an afterword by Robert Campbell, is available through Historic New England.

[]Don Sevetson, author of Atkinson: Pioneer Oregon Educator will discuss his book and sign copies in the Laura Coombs Hills Gallery at:

Newburyport Art Association
65 Water Street
Newburyport, MA 01950

Monday, March 12, 2012
10:00 am

Inspired by the Second Great Awakening to become a missionary, George Henry Atkinson (1819-89), a native of Newburyport, arrived in Oregon City in 1848, the summer that Congress established the Oregon Territory. Called by early historians "The Father of Public Education in Oregon", Atkinson played multiple leadership roles in that field for four decades.

An indefatigable traveler, Atkinson made eight return visits to New England during his Oregon residency. A respected community leader, his wide range of interests encompassed railroading, meteorology, botany, agriculture, Indian affairs and mining. Within his own Congregational denomination he stood as the prime symbol of its efforts to extend its presence into the Pacific Northwest.

This work draws on both George Atkinson's extensive personal correspondence and his writing in local newspapers. Placing his life and work within its geographic setting and its historical context, it seeks to give the reader an accurate, candid picture of the man, his setting, and his legacy.

Published by Createspace, the book sells for $15.

[]The Reverend John F. C. Green, one of the most prominent of German Congregational ministers up to his passing in 1967, emigrated from northern Germany as a boy at the turn of the 20th century. Reverend Green had a strong sense of the historical significance of the German Congregational experience and preserved many unusually personal documents. One of these is an autobiographical piece he wrote in his first years in seminary, around 1916. Reverend Green became a master of the written word, an admired preacher, and a prolific writer of articles for his own church's monthly publication and also for some of the national publications of his denomination. He even translated extensively, making articles which had been published in German available to English-speakers, largely with the goal of increasing awareness of the German-American culture he much admired. His early autobiography, however, is a student piece, and it shows Reverend Green in his formative years as a writer, still reaching for command of English, fumbling for ways to tell a story close to the heart.

The paper is remarkable for what it contains: through the amateur stylings is a little-known tale of frontier life and of the particular challenges of obtaining an education as an immigrant, told with clarity and detail. The more remarkable thing, however, seems to me to be the rarity of hearing a story like this one. It is remarkable simply that this paper exists. Reverend Green preserved this story despite that he himself would have surely judged it inferior to his later work. But the tale it preserves, and the effusive and committed future minister whose personality shines off the page, simply could not have been captured by the later Green. We have a privileged glimpse into his formative start in ministry, finding his way through the difficult transition to a professional career, those hard first years of seminary, with the challenges both personal and academic, his struggle to find a place among his fellow seminarians and his own voice.

How many have been willing to preserve such writings, unedited and unjudged, and to allow the vulnerable parts of their journeys to be known? How many of us who write are at peace with those things that we wrote in the past, which preserve the hard work and the challenges we had to overcome to become what we are now? How many of us are at peace with our former selves? Reverend Green's writing gives us not just a rare glimpse into a departed way of life, but also a reminder that the steps along the way have their own value. This is one of the discoveries of reading in the archives, the moments of beauty that are not about great achievements, but about lives lived as a process, the integrity of growth preserved.

-Jaime

Here at the Congregational Library, we have quite a lot of materials about Native Americans in a religious context, from editions of John Eliot's translation of the Bible into a local Native American language of Massachusetts to a sizable collection of missionary and historical materials.

[]If you're looking for something a bit broader in scope, though, the National Archives and Records Administration can be a great place to start. They have historical records from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, articles, image collections, links to other repositories, and more. There are also lists of Native American genealogical resources and tribal resources for researchers interested in those subjects.

Whether you're looking for ancestors, doing research for your next book, or just a fan of American history, there are some wonderful materials waiting for you. Go take a look around. You might be surprised at what you can find. 

image of Lone Wolfe (Guipago), a Kiowa chief from the National Archives' collection of Native American pictures (American Indian Select List number 105)

"Celebrating Your Church Anniversary with Wisdom and Style"

Does your church have an important anniversary coming up in the next few years? Could you use a hand figuring out what to do or how to get started? We're here to help. This full-day workshop will give you the tools you need to plan a great celebration, big or small.

Guest speakers and breakout session leaders will cover a variety of topics, including:

• why church records are so important
• writing and publishing your church's history
• creating an oral history project with your members
• organizing your anniversary committee
• commemorative worship services
• managing your institutional records

[]Take a look at the session details on our Program & Workshop Schedule.

Saturday, March 17th
9:30 am - 3:00 pm

Hancock Congregational Church, Lexington, MA

$50, lunch included
Register today.

In honor of Presidents Day, we wanted to share recent items found while processing archival materials from the Chicago Theological Seminary. The sermon titled, "Lincoln's Death" is part of the Reverend D. M. Fisk Collection. It's dated April 16, 1865, just two days after President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C. with Mary Todd Lincoln. Another undated, but apparently contemporaneous, address in the same collection is titled "Abraham Lincoln – His Life and Place in American History" and goes on to contextualize Lincoln's presidency, his legacy, and the state of the nation. These items, among others from the Rev. D. M. Fisk Collection are in the midst of being processed and made available for research by the Congregational Library's archivists. Stay tuned for more information!

-Cristina

Lincoln portrait courtesy of Fotopedia through a Creative Commons license.

We wanna hold your hand.

We've helped enough researchers over the years to know that our collections can be a bit daunting. If you have a topic you're excited to delve into but don't know where to start, this is a great time to jump in.

Our staff will provide an orientation to the collection and the best ways to find the material you want. They'll also be available to provide one-on-one assistance during the day.

Monday, February 27th
9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Free.
Register now to reserve your spot.

(And if you can't make it this month, keep an eye out for the next Research 101 session coming up in April.)

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Hello, I'm Rebecca Franz. I am currently in my last semester at Simmons College where I am pursuing an MS in Library and Information Science with a concentration in Archives Management.

Prior to enrolling at Simmons, I received a BFA in painting and drawing from Wichita State University and my MFA in painting from The San Francisco Art Institute.

I am thrilled to be at the Congregational Library where I will be picking up where Katherine Williamson left off on the Small Collections Digital Exhibition.

The internships I have completed prior to coming to the Congregational Library reflect my background in the fine arts. From processing scientific illustrations to scanning and cataloging 35mm slides, most of the materials I have handled have been visually based. I am therefore particularly excited about the wealth of textual documents that the Small Collections has to offer.

This project promises to be an exciting, challenging experience... everything I had hoped for and more!

-Rebecca

[]Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston by Hannah Crocker; Eileen Hunt Botting and Sarah L. Houser (eds.)

Published for the first time, Hannah Mather Crocker's early 19th-century Reminiscences presents a unique history of Boston and its environs from the 1620s to the 1820s. A leading female writer and women's rights advocate, and the granddaughter of Cotton Mather, Crocker provides a significant resource for women's historians, scholars of feminist political thought, and early American historians alike. This book contains a masterfully transcribed and annotated version of the text and appendix from the original manuscript, which has been housed at the NEHGS archives for over 130 years. Crocker's history chronicles everything from Puritan law, colonial and provincial history, interactions with the British, French, and Native Americans, the establishment of Boston churches, and Boston's economic growth, paying special attention to women's work and culture. This book also presents Crocker's treasury of poetry including a poem by Phillis Wheatley dedicated to Hannah, and a comical recipe for chowder.

[]From Deference to Defiance: Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1629–1692 by Roger Thompson

Roger Thompson's newest book recreates the lost world of 17th-century Charlestown and the lives and work of the first three generations of its townspeople. By using a variety of surviving records, Thompson presents a colorful history of the town's settlement and governance, its relationship with the land and sea, the church, local crime and vio­lence, the role of women, and ultimately its involvement in the Glorious Revolution.

There is a brief interview with the author on the New England Historic Genealogical Society's blog.

[]2010Boston: The Changing Contours of World Mission and Christianity by Todd M. Johnson, Rodney L. Peterson, Gina Bellofatto, and Travis L. Myers (eds.)

In November 2010, three hundred faculty, students, and others interested in Christian mission gathered in Boston to consider how the world, the global church, and Christian missions have changed since the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910 and to reflect on the three previous centennial conferences. Participants at 2010Boston were not delegates from churches and mission agencies, but were students and scholars of various aspects of world Christianity representing a number of traditions. This conference volume consists of keynote messages, student presentations, reports from other conferences, and additional materials from or about 2010Boston.

The Congregational Library contains a surprisingly large number of German-language periodicals. One standout is the Illustrierte Kirchenbote-Kalender, or "The Illustrated Christian Messenger Almanac". The library has a large number of issues, 23 to be precise, of this annual publication, ranging from 1905 to 1963. Each issue contains a wide variety of visual and written contributions, arranged to be read over the course of the upcoming year. This sister publication to the Kirchenbote is notable for its variety, including devotional fiction, poetry, adventure stories, historical sketches, lives of noteworthy figures, information about weather and daily life, and other writings.

It is also important for publishing a yearly attempt at a reckoning of the scope of German Congregationalism. Each issue of the Kirchenbote Kalender contains a detailed record of the congregations of the German conference of the Congregational church. Thus each issue contains a snapshot of the state of German Congregationalism in the early-to-mid-20th century, including cultural and demographical information, encompassing a wide range of relevant information in each volume. It is also a particularly delightful read within the scope of German publications, beautifully printed and published to have staying value for twelve months, and remains a great window into a little-known group of Congregationalists' particular sensibility for us today.

-Jaime Bonney

We've received a lot of archival material in the past couple of years, so we've been a little more selective about the books we buy, but these were just too good to pass up. Check out some of the new additions to our circulating collection.

[]Race and Redemption in Puritan New England by Richard H. Bailey

Bailey contends that, as New Englanders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries offered spiritual redemption to their neighbors, they found it necessary to define how they differed from one another, especially from the Native Americans and Africans living in the northern British mainland colonies. Race and Redemption in Puritan New England explores how these proponents of the New England variant of puritanism made race out of their offers of spiritual freedom, setting the stage for similar processes when physical and social freedom became more accessible for New Englanders of color in the generations following the American Revolution.

[]Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul by John M. Barry

These days, everyone in the US is familiar with "separation of church and state", but in the early days of Puritan colonists, it was a topic of fierce debate. Roger Williams was so vocally opposed to the colonial government influencing the actions of the churches, and vice versa, that he was brought before the Massachusetts court multiple times before being convicted or sedition and heresy. Acclaimed historian John M. Barry explores the development of Williams's fundamental ideas -- the proper relation between church and state and between a free individual and the state -- through the story of the man who was the first to link religious freedom to individual liberty, and who created in America the first government and society on earth informed by those beliefs. The story is essential to the continuing debate over how we define the role of religion and political power in modern American life.

[]Bless God and Take Courage: the Judson History and Legacy by Rosalie Hall Hunt

Based on six years of research among the Judson family's personal papers, this book tells the story of Adoniram Judson and his clan as they served as missionaries in Burma (now Myanmar) during the earliest days of the ABCFM. Unlike most missionary histories, Hunt's tale is less concerned with the larger task of conversion to Christianity than it is with the intimate family moments experienced as the Judsons traveled through unfamiliar places. It's gotten rave reviews on Amazon.com, so take a look and share the ups and downs of 19th-century mission life for yourself.

[]Martyrs' Mirror: Persecution and Holiness in Early New England by Adrian C. Weimer

Martyrs' Mirror examines the folklore of martyrdom among seventeenth-century New England Protestants, exploring how they imagined themselves within biblical and historical narratives of persecution. Memories of martyrdom, especially stories of the Protestants killed during the reign of Queen Mary in the mid-sixteenth century, were central to a model of holiness and political legitimacy. The colonists of early New England drew on this historical imagination in order to strengthen their authority in matters of religion during times of distress. By examining how the notions of persecution and martyrdom move in and out of the writing of the period, Adrian Chastain Weimer finds that the idea of the true church as a persecuted church infused colonial identity.

[]Exploring New England’s Spiritual Heritage by Garth Rosell

This is a long-awaited publication from a good friend of the library. It takes contemporary pilgrims on a spiritual heritage tour through historic New England. Enjoy a journey through the sights and sounds of New England and trace the spiritual heritage of Boston, Ipswich, Newburyport, Salem, Plimoth, Northfield and Northampton.  Contemporary pilgrims and families alike will find this tour book to be an excellent resource on the rich history of this region.

It includes:

• Seven self-guided tours
• Full color maps at the beginning of each chapter with each stop marked on the map
• Basic directions provided for each stop
• "Did You Know" facts scattered throughout each chapter
• "For Further Reading" bibliography provided at the end of each chapter
• "A Closer Look" at the end of each chapter takes readers deeper into an aspect of the life and times of the region
• Appendix with suggested daytrips and instructions for how best to use the book
• 160+ pages full of colorful pictures and descriptions for each stop

Isaac Pendleton Langworthy

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"When Dr. Langworthy was elected Librarian at the May Meeting of 1862, he had already been a farmer, teacher, physician, pastor, and denominational secretary." So writes Frederick T. Persons in a retrospective on former Congregational Library librarians. Indeed, Rev. Dr. Isaac Pendleton Langworthy, the Congregational Library's third librarian, can claim many interesting distinctions. He was a graduate of Harvard Medical School, Yale College, and Yale Seminary; a founder of First Congregational Church in Chelsea, Massachusetts and then its pastor for 17 years; and founder and editor of Congregational Quarterly. He became Librarian in 1862 when the Library and Association were located on Chauncy Street, remained in office when the library moved to 40 Winter Street, was still in office when the property on Somerset Street was purchased, and (not content to only be the librarian) was the designer of the first Congregational House's oval reading room.

During his tenure as librarian, Dr. Langworthy undertook the process of weeding out duplicate material, organized books into a rough classification scheme, and began cataloging the collection in earnest (a task which was put into the hands of Assistant Librarian Miss Mary E. Stone). Dr. Langworthy spent much of his time collecting publications and manuscripts for the library, and upon his retirement in 1887, claimed an average annual increase library's holdings of 1,194 volumes during his tenure. He died at the age of 82 in 1888, leaving the Library $10,000 in his will to be spent on "town histories, genealogies and commentaries". The library holds seven items penned by Dr. Langworthy, including two articles which are also available online.

-Sari

[]At first glance, the old issues of the Congregationalist don't look that promising. For one thing, many of the volumes, especially those from the late 1800s, are very tattered and fragile. They are also huge and unwieldy, hardly inviting casual browsing. Inside are long articles in tiny print about the topics of the day: missionaries, ordinations, church meetings, and of course all of the unseemly things being done by Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians.

[]I have to confess that I love reading through those old pages. Sometimes the advertisements are so wonderful that you have to stop and enjoy them. Take for example, the virtues of "Puritana" vitamin syrup or "Greene's Nervura Blood and Nerve Remedy, the Grandest of Medicines and the Surest of Cures," as testified by Rev. Dr. Byron Sunderland from a church somewhere in "Talmadge".

Some of us in fact might take comfort in the fact that a hundred years ago the waif-like supermodel was deemed unsightly: the headline in an advertisement from 1906 was "Are You Too Thin?" For a paltry fee, Miss Susanna Cocroft would send you an elixir guaranteed to make you "round, plump, wholesome, rested and attractive." Testimonials included one woman ecstatic over gaining 25 pounds. []Others testified to other apparent side-benefits, including more regular bowels and healthful digestion.

Who was Miss Cocroft? Apparently she was not a doctor or a dietitian: the advertisement simply tells us that "as president of Physical Culture Extension work in America, Miss Cocroft needs no further introduction." Hmmm.

[]Of course Miss Cocroft also advertised a potion that would "Reduce Flesh" by "natural means and in a dignified manner." All this required was a series of simple exercises practiced in the privacy of one's own room, alongside a "rational diet". In the end it's always so simple. Her descendants Jenny Craig and Dr. Atkins would hardly improve on that tried and true formula.

-Peggy

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We are pleased to announce our newest staff member, Cristina Prochilo who joined us last week as the part-time Associate Archivist. Her previous experience includes positions at the Property Information Resource Center at Harvard University where she specialized in architectural and construction management archives, as well as the Boston Preservation Alliance, The Northeast Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Park Service. Her undergraduate degree is from Smith College in History with a minor in Italian Language and Literature.  Cristina received a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University in 2000 and a dual Master of Science in Library and Information Science (concentration in Archives Management) in 2007 and Master of Arts in History in 2008.

Cristina will use her skills and knowledge in all phases of archival work including processing, preserving records, creating finding aids, and providing reference assistance to those using the collections. She has experience with both large and small collections, reference, and preservation. Cristina lives in Beverly with her husband, David, and their three year old daughter, Lidia.

[]As many of you know, we offer frequent workshops in records management for churches, and have several resources available on our website. This is an important topic in our increasingly digital world, but it is by no means a new one.

While reorganizing some of our older materials, Rachel came across a pamphlet from 1895 devoted to this very subject. It was originally a presentation to the Central Association of Kansas, and proved so popular among the attendees that it was typeset and printed by request.

The advice and guidelines that Mr. Wheeler set out in his pamphlet aren't all that different from the ones we provide today. He, of course, is more concerned with penmanship, while we place more emphasis on backing up digital files, but the overall goals are the same. If a congregation takes good care of its records, it will run more smoothly, have a better sense of its own history, and become a more vibrant community.

These practices are especially important in Congregational churches, because they are not beholden to any denominational hierarchy, but only to their own members, past, present, and future. As Wheeler says:

"One generation may pass away from earthly activity; but if they do their service, others will rise up, and the stream of church life will flow on; adding new life, fertility, and joy. Its record too, like the stream's channel and the rippled banks, will abide, and will be merely transfered to the great Book of Remembrance..."

Here at the Congregational Library, we do our best to preserve that "Book of Remembrance" by helping active churches organize their records, and providing a safe place for collections from churches that have closed. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our archival staff. And keep an eye on this blog or our events schedule for the next workshop announcement; it will be coming soon.

--Robin