Beacon Street Blog

I'm headed over to the Simmons GSLIS intern fair, which is held every fall. The program has an archive track -- one that I went through myself. The two primary classes, 438 and 440 require an internship as part of the class. Looking back at my time at Simmons, the internships were the best practical things about my education.

They started having the fair in 2001, so almost the entire time I've been working at the library. I really enjoy the break in my routine to see colleagues and meet the latest group of students. I find that most who attend are new to the program and not sure what they want to do with their long term goals. That's a good reason to go to the fair, for sure. So, if you're in the archive track at Simmons and were wondering if you should go, perhaps you didn't even hear about it, I strongly recommend walking around. I even have chocolate this time. It's from 12:30-2:30.

-Jessica

I mentioned earlier, that I'm working on my records management class in an online format. Well, as it happened, I was doing some meta/organizing around the office. As we prepare to do half a dozen small things with our church records microfilm/digitizing project, I labeled these files over the past two years, I didn't take into consideration the long-term view. But now we're at a point when I refer to all these files somewhat regularly making sure that we're all set as we microfilm and scan more. It's a good thing I usually use pencil and almost never use labels when creating these files as this photo montage will demonstrate:

Please note -- you may click on any picture to see a larger version --

Here we have the initial set of files and all the material I needed to add into it with an artfully arranged pencil and eraser:

a close up of the file names

Next step: clean up the work space. I like to use this open ended Princeton File for small stacks of files like this:

And here's how I chose to relabel.

This naming protocol will blend with my existing collection files (each collection ought have a file, so I have close to 1000). They won't be added to that part of my records. They'll stay separated while they're all so active. This is why I added a bit of extra information that gives me a quick reference to each collection's status on microfilming, digitizing/scanning, and so on. 

That last bit really is a bit much for my usual labeling. I went over the top since I was in a hyper-organized mode when I re-did it. It should make keeping track of all the stages much easier, though. Sometimes you don't want to sift through email and wiki pages to get an answer. You just want to open the file drawer and know.

If this sort of lesson was particularly useful and you'd like to know more, sign up for a records management for church collections seminar. The next one will be in October. Check out our events page for more details. If you're not local, we will be offering my webinar/ screencast version starting next year for our members. Stay tuned!

-Jessica

A while back I fielded a query from a New Hampshire pastor about the origins of "rally day". It's a tradition of sorts among many local churches even today, and at least in my experience, it often involves a big tent, some lively music, and maybe a picnic. Lots of churches, especially in New England I think, tend to coast over the summer and welcome their people back in the fall.

I'd never thought much about where rally day came from, and the query sent me up into the Library stacks for an answer. I guessed (rightly, it turned out) that it had something to do with Sunday schools, and that it probably originated at the turn of the last century -- there was just something about the whole idea of a rally day that brought to mind ice cream socials and oompah music, pageants and plays.

One book on How to Conduct a Sunday School (1905) noted that "This festival is rapidly growing in favor. It usually comes at the end of the summer break-up, and is used as a means of rallying the forces again for the work of fall and winter. When a general is preparing for a battle he is said to rally his forces. When a sick person begins to recover it is said of him that he his rallying. When a bookbinder brings together in one place the different sections of a book to be bound into one he is said to be rallying the book. All of these phrases may be applied to the Sunday-school work; we are rallying our forces for the great campaign of the fall and winter."

This author suggested holding the rally on the last Sunday of September, with "strong, vigorous" music and perhaps an outside speaker. The main event is a "grand review", a procession of all the Sunday-school students, from the cradle roll to the senior class, marching up to the platform and dropping off their offering envelopes in a barrel, a small plaster of Paris egg, or one time, a real pumpkin. Rally day, he enthused, "is one of the happiest days of the year."

Another book about The Sunday-School of Today, published in 1911, described the popularity of "Rally Day Devices", including pins, badges, post-cards, buttons, flags, ribbon hangs, and the like. "The ethical value of such traps is doubtful," he warned, for "even the practical value as an allurement wears off after a year or so." But when given out with a "personal touch", the Devices were genuinely useful. "Post-cards are not only the rage and craze at present," he admitted, "but they serve as an effective free advertisement scheme, since so many, other than the direct recipient, are apt to read and profit by them."

Sending out post-cards, personal notes, and typed invitations were not enough, however. "No practical business man is content with sending out a catalogue or one letter after a reader has been caught by an attractive advertisement and written for information." A good Rally Day system provided for instant and regular follow up to keep students coming to class.

Eventually, Rally Day became more of a church event than a Sunday school one, and also seems to have lost much of that old competitive edge. People are welcomed back to church without a word, though I doubt that the church leaders of a century ago would have approved of a summer vacation from church-going -- a three-month break from Sunday school was bad enough.

The rallying image is still a useful one, especially because the meaning can vary so much. In some cases, it’s the troops getting ready for the next campaign -- in others a listless patient gathering strength to rise off a sickbed.

- Peggy

The cover of a Grafton First Church ledger

Over the past few months we have had over 80,000 pages of text scanned either through the Internet Archive program, or for our church records microfilm/scan project. When we got started on figuring out what should be scanned, it felt like we'd never get results, but there we are now, rolling along at a very prodigious rate.

Given how far we've come with this work and considering how many new readers we've gotten over the past 6 months, it seemed like a good time to give some exposition about this church records program.

About two years ago in '07, the library launched a program in which we sought out 17th and 18th century Massachusetts church records. Some motivation for doing this stemmed from Connecticut centralizing their records in their state archives thanks to a WPA project seventy years ago. Massachusetts doesn't have that, but ideally it should. When we launched our project, we hoped start down that path but with a modern twist. We would microfilm significant colonial records for preservation and store them together at the library, but we would also have a modern access option by creating a digital copy for the public to use.

Our director, Peggy, teamed up with CL ally, Jeff Cooper, to acquire the documents. Shortly thereafter, we made a connection with Ken Minkema and the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale. The JEC's online collection is stunning, and our project dove-tailed nicely. When the library got a guided tour of the site, we were particularly struck with how the original manuscripts had side by side comparison to the transcription. Working with Ken and his staff has been very promising, although our library staff is dealing with a steep learning curve. We chose the smallest collection for our beta testing. We hope that migrating our copies to the JEC will get easier after we learn first hand what the parameters are.

What collections are in this project, you ask? The earliest churches from these Massachusetts towns: Bradford, Franklin, Grafton, Hanover, Mattapoisett, Middleboro, Oxford, Rowley, and Natick, plus recent addtions yet to have any processing from Falmouth and Wenaham.

Some additional material we've had scanned that meshes with the church records are the Gideon Hawley diaries, and our former librarian, Harold Worthley's book, which documents early Massachusetts church record locations. Hal's inventory has always been an important reference work for the library and researchers. It has been instrumental in establishing the path we've taken with this project. An interesting side note is that Hal is currently transcribing the Hawley diaries. We'll be working on making his work and the originals available after the transcription is ready.

Cover to one of the Gideon Hawley diaries

I think we all know it can be a bit dangerous to clean and file in one's office. I end up getting very random bits and pieces that are found around the library and need a better place for storage. One of the those things this time included a calendar from 1962 from the National Association -- "Congregational Contributions to our Singing Faith" -- a 4 x 5.5" card -- Here's what's on it:

1640 — The Bay Psalm Book, first book printed in British North America.
1707 — Isaac Watts publishes Hymns and Spiritual Songs.
1748 — Isaac Watts father of English hymnody died.
1751 — Philip Doddridge author of many hymns died.
1800 — Timothy Dwight edits a psalm book Dwight's Watts.
1817 — Andrew Reed edits a Hymn Book.
1830 — Ray Palmer wrote "My Faith Looks Up to Thee."
1833 — Leonard Bacon "O God Beneath Thy Guiding Hand."
1836 — Josiah Conder edits The Congregational Hymn Book.
1841 — Lowell Masons edits Carmina Sacra.
1853 — George Rawson compiled The Leeds Hymn Book.
1855 — Henry Ward Beecher edits Plymouth Collection.
1857 — Elias Nason edits The Congregational Hymn Book for the Service of the Sanctuary.
1877 — Josiah Booth organist at Park Chapel, Crouch end.
1879 — Washington Gladden wrote "O Master Let Me Walk with Thee."
1887 — G. S. Barrett edits The Congregationalist Church Hymnal.
1888 — Ernest W. Shurtleff wrote "Lead On O King Eternal."
1889 — John Hunger edits Hymns of Faith and Life.
1897 — The Hymnal for use in Congregational Churches.
1908 — John Oxenham wrote "In Christ there is no East or West"
1912 — The Pilgrim Hymnal, first of the modern hymnals.
1913 — Edward Dwight Eaton edits The Hymnal of Praise.
1916 — The Congregational Hymnary
1916 — John Wright Buckham "O God Above the Drifting Years."
1920 — Allen Eastman Cross wrote "More Light Shall Break from Out Thy Word."
1935 — The Pilgrim Hymnal published.
1939 — Henry Hallam Tweety edits Christian Worship and Praise.
1940 — Lee Clair Libby wrote "The Pilgrim Spirit."
1951 — Congregational Praise published in England.
1954 — Companion to Congregational Praise published.
1958 — The Pilgrim Hymnal published.

Hello, your friendly neighborhood archivist is here (a day late), fully caffeinated and experiencing dangerous levels of optimism today.

First, some background that's not tech: Some of you may know that I teach a records management and preservation class through the library — it's specifically targeted at church folk responsible for caring for the congregation's historical documents. Congregationalists being the independent creatures they are have the burden of being by default responsible for documents that date back to the church's founding (around here that means as old as mid-1600s — no joke). There's no specific rules from on high/ denominational HQ to say they must do XYZ, so I created this class to help these visible saints out. The problem is, I'm only one person. The class is great, but unless the historian/archivist/clerk can attend my class they're somewhat out of luck. My booklet does help, but there's nothing quite like getting the full show. This leads me to the tech part.

Tech — starting out: We do live in a gloriously tech-intensive world, so eventually the mandate to create my records management class in an online format could not be ignored. This project is no small feat. First you have to pick out your format for the class, and there are many options. I chose to do what I refer to as a 21st century filmstrip — aka, a screencast. This means I take my powerpoint slide I use for my live class, record my commentary over the slides, and some live web explanations (well, live at the time of the recording). That's great, but how the heck does one record this?

Software options: It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that there's specific screencast software out there. I had thought I'd have to get video editing or… anyway, it was frustrating having to comb through the deluge of options, but I have settled on Camtasia. Currently I'm trying out via the 30 day trial, but it's just about a guarantee I'll be getting a copy, probably before the end of the month.

Scripts: I foolishly believed I could just set up the slide show and talk over it with no script. Oh, no. Mistake. In order to not repeat myself and not say UM constantly, I ended up talking in a very stilted manner. There's always the fear of running on, forgetting a part, or repeating parts accidentally.

Presentation slides: I had also thought I'd just run through the original slides without much in the way of visual elaboration, which also turned out to be untrue after I finished writing down everything for the scripts. After all, I want to try to keep my audience engaged since a recording isn't as engaging as a live talk. With so many new slides, I ended up adding "stage directions" in my scripts so I knew exactly what goes where and when. I hope that with all that extra meta, recreating the videos from just scripts and slides will be easier

I've only done the audio for the introduction so far. I'm still sort of freaked out by the magnitude of technical bits that go into this. My preferences seem to be a bit backwards from how Camtasia designers seem to think one will work a presentation (video created then audio on top — I prefer to do the audio then video). But, I'm on the path. I can't back out now. Peggy has asked a few times if we can show off a piece at the board meeting in less than 2 weeks. I keep saying "maybe". If it's good enough! The big goal is to have all of them done by the new year. We'll be launching them in our Members Only section, which is still under construction.

Wish me luck. If you have any particular commentary to me on this, drop me an email. Facebook and blog comments can get to me eventually, but it's slow.

-Jessica

One of my favorite nineteenth-century Congregationalists is Alonzo Quint. I loved his name almost immediately, and when I saw his picture I was genuinely enamored. He had wonderful thick muttonchops and small iron-rimmed spectacles, the exact image of a bookish Victorian churchman, which of course he was. (He was also a long-time resident of Dover, New Hampshire, and represented the town in the state legislature -- an intriguing connection for me as my husband begins a stint as interim pastor in the First Church there.) Alonzo Quint was also a Civil War chaplain and sometime pastor of churches, author of the 1865 Burial Hill Declaration; he's probably best known, however, as the statistician of Congregationalism. Alonzo Quint was the denomination’s "statistical secretary" from 1856-1881, the driving force behind the compilation and publication of church membership data that’s so invaluable to historians today. And not surprisingly, Quint was an early and fervent supporter of the Congregational Library.

After he died in 1896, the Congregationalist published some of Quint's best-loved articles, under the title Common-Sense Christianity. They are a joy to read, especially as a window into the culture of late-Victorian Congregational churches. Heres a snippet from a piece entitled "Little Changes Which May Be Noted", dated March 27, 1890:

Some changes are visible in the parts and order of our public worship. People used to stand during the "long prayer," but now they remain sitting or bow their heads. In the last hymn in the afternoon all the people used to rise, turn their backs upon the pulpit, and steadfastly gaze upon the performing choir. This irreverence has now ceased, perhaps somewhat because the organ is now often found at the other end of the church, and frequently absurdly placed directly behind the minister. The pew doors rattle less during the benediction, because there are fewer pew doors; nor do men dive for their hats as they once did; nor do the men now go out in a body into the vestibule and wait for the women, as was once the inflexible law.

Quint went on to muse that the practice of waiting for the women in the vestibule was likely a holdover from frontier days, when the men-folk left the pews first to make sure the coast was clear for the women to leave the church. "Many a custom lasts after its reasons have ceased to be," he sighed. All of this, of course, must have happened before the invention of coffee hour, which now requires a select group of women to muscle their way to the door and set to work frantically laying out cookies and donut holes before the men and children descend en masse, blissfully unconscious of dangers they must no longer face.

-Peggy

The New England Archivists' president, Peter Carini, sent out a call for help this week regarding House bill HR 2256. This stimulus bill would provide critical funding -- $2,621,563 -- to New England's archives and millions to other states/regions.

All this money will maintain projects in dire need of support and save a number of my colleagues' jobs -- and believe me, several are already out and looking for work. The PAHR site explains what needs to be done; I wrote up my own version of their template letter after getting Peter's note. Our deadline on this is September 8, so please do write today. Let's safeguard our history and the archive community.

-Your very own archivist- Jessica.

We are very pleased to announce that the Central Congregational Church of Newton Legacy Trust , which was established to carry on the deceased church's memory, has awarded the Congregational Library with grant of $5,000.

When we applied for funds earlier this year, we hoped to get support our most important projects within our digital program: the church records project. This task involves identifying significant churches in Massachusetts with 16th and 17th century documents. Since these records are almost always kept at the individual churches, we collect the ledgers in order to be microfilmed and digitized. The microfilm fulfills our preservation mandate while digitizing answers the access needs. Thanks to our partnership with the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale, those digital copies are presented through their site.

Those who follow the Library's activities may already know that have also partnered with the Internet Archive and its local representatives at the Boston Public Library. With their help we have over 100 titles in their database. This funding can also keep us afloat with this as well.

Both the microfilming and particularly scanning are very costly ventures and we depend upon the CCC Legacy Trust and other similar organization's generosity to make this all happen. Thank you again, to their board. Any person or organization who is interested in supporting this or other library projects should contact our director, Peggy Bendroth.

For those interested in knowing more about the Central church, the archive holds their records, which are open to the public for research.

I spent some time this past week doing some reading about memory. It’s a natural topic for a historian, as we are pretty much forced to rely on other people's recollections of the past for our material -- but as psychologists are quick to remind us, human memory is always partial, subjective, and fleeting. Studies show over and over how easy it is for us to become absolutely convinced of an event or an image in our own past -- a red dress you wore the first day of school, a field trip to an ice cream factory -- if we are told enough times that it is true.

But as psychologists tell us, memory is necessary; it is what makes us truly human. And in a very obvious sense this is true: you cannot know who you are unless you know where you have come from. As the mother of two adopted children, one of whom has recently reunited with her birthmom, I think about this truth every day.

But psychological studies show that memory works the other way too. People (and I would say institutions) with a strong sense of their own identity connect most powerfully with their past; those with a weaker sense of self are more trapped in the eternal present. Many of us can probably testify that without an overarching narrative to give our recollections some order and meaning, they are a chaotic jumble, a random series of unrelated events. I would argue that it takes a certain amount of courage and confidence for a person -- or a religious denomination or an educational organization -- to deal with memories in a clear and constructive way. It's not surprising, in a sense, that most modern people prefer to live in a world where everything is "new and improved", rather than old and time-tested.

Modern people tend to view memories as fleeting and untrustworthy, and they often eye them suspiciously. A person who remembers too much is urged to "let it go", to live in the present, move beyond morbid concerns with times gone by, stop wallowing. The advice is often well-taken, but it's also true that a thoughtful and sustained encounter with the past, both for individual people and for human institutions, deepens, enriches, and complicates our sense of the present, and restores our capacity to deal with the future.

-Peggy

The wonderful "loaders" at Internet Archive just completed digitizing the Congregational and Christian Yearbooks from 1928-1960. We will be linking these on our website soon. You can find them now by searchng Internet Archive.

Please also check our online catalog for full text links to other books by using the term Internet Archive. We've added more Christian Church and Congregational materials.

The next workshop for records management class for churches has been confirmed for October 21. We will also be offering a new technologies in church settings workshop earlier that month on the third. Please review our workshop schedule for full details, including registration.

Technically speaking, I should say "containing books" in the title. Last week I spent most of my time making phase boxes for damaged books.

Like many other librarians and archivists, I learned how to make phase boxes in school -- book repair class at Simmons and taught by the fine folks at the Northeast Document Conservation Center. It was always a favorite class. There's something very gratifying about turning a red-rotted book into a pristine surface -- at least on the most superficial levels.

There's something rather zen about taking the measurements, cutting, scoring -- all the while trying to get the most out of a 32" x 40" sheet of card stock. The skill has a "ride a bike" quality to it. I was a bit wobbly at first, but after the third one I wasn't making big mistakes and by the tenth I started remembering similar measurements and had remembered the nit-picky efficiency tactics.

We can't put every damaged book into a phase box, but we do what we can.

-Jessica

We are beginning to schedule events both at the library and off site for the fall. We plan to hold several Brown Bag Lunches including one in November spotlighting our Pilgrim Treasures. Our workshops on Tech 2.0 for church members and on Records Management will be offered. Peggy will lead her seminar on the History of Congregationalism. Additionally, we will host workshops for church librarians and church members writing histories for their church's anniversary.

Library tours and Congregational walking tours of Boston are available on request.

If you have program or event suggestions, please contact us.

Thanks to Craig Showalter for the following links to materials on the history of the Christian Church.

Some materials can be found on the Restoration Movement web pages of the Memorial University in Newfoundland.

MU's materials include electronic copies of 7 booklets by J. F. Burnett and his biography of Barton Stone.

More publications by the Christian Publishing Association can be found by searching Google Books or Internet Archive.

The Metro-West Daily News has published an article about historical reenactor (and regular CL guest speaker) Linda Palmer entitled Hudson Woman Wearing History on Her Sleeve.

Last Friday we launched a new page on the web site: a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for churches in the process of closing. It is very unfortunate that this resource needs to exist, but we get questions fairly regularly on what a Congregation should do in this transition. This list is not necessarily complete or a perfect answer for each church's situation, so be prepared to contact us for further clarification.

Some of you may have heard about the goof that Amazon has had with their Kindle books. If you haven't, do follow the link or you can take this biased Information Professional's summary: Some of the books they offered -- specifically George Orwell's -- were disputed by publishers to not have copyright permission, and so those who bought Orwell's titles found the books no longer on their Kindle readers. The one saving grace was that the customers' money was returned.

I will admit that I have been toying with the idea of getting a Kindle or a Kindle-clone. I do travel and my daily commute is a minimum of an hour and a half. It would be nice to never be caught out without something to read and never have to carry a big hard-back. I also argued with myself that I still buy CDs, but use iTunes as my default mode of listening. It is a safe bet I'd not give up on paper books.

However, after this latest incident, I think I'll wait for them to sort out a few more of their customer service and technical bugs. DRM is obnoxious. iTunes managed to shed itself from it. I suspect e-books will, too. Eventually.

In the meantime, my addage: "digital is about access, but not about preservation," holds true. ... well, unless they take away your access, too.

-Jessica

Arrived today:

Predestination: The American Career of a Contentious Doctrine by Peter J. Thuesen

Sacred Power, Sacred Space: An Introduction to Christian Architecture and Worship by Jeanne Halgren Kilde.

Dissertation by Gnimbin Albert Ouattara, Africans, Cherokees, and the ABCFM missionaries in the nineteenth century : an unusual story of redemption.

We recently received manuscript sermons of Rev. Silas P. Cook. Rev. Cook was born in 1845 in Richmond, NH. He was a graduate of Harvard University in 1867 and from Princeton Divinity School in 1869. He served during the Civil War and was ordained in Marlboro, NH in 1869. He was pastor of the Congregational churches in Windsor (1870-1873) and Ludlow, VT (1873-1877). In Boston, he worked for the Y.M.C.A. and was pastor of the Third Congregational Church in Chelsea from 1880-1889.

In 1889, Rev. Cook became pastor of the Congregational church in Northfield (1889-1895). It was while in Northfield that he became interested in the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society and was given charge of the Berkshire field. He continued his missionary work in Berkshire County for 35 years. He died in Pittsfield, MA in May, 1926.

The sermons we have date from 1870-1880 covering his service in Windsor, Ludlow, and ending in Chelsea.

Meta/Observation:
Today's the first day back at the library since June 26. Some of you may have noticed that in that intervening time our website was down for a while, for which I apologize. Thanks to the rest of the staff for figuring it out and fixing. The site going down does illustrate exactly how much it is used, though: it's no longer a nice little option as it may have been viewed as 10 years ago.

Jessica's trip to Wisconsin:
I attended the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches annual meeting where I taught two classes: New Technologies for Church Settings and Records Management.

The new tech class, which was co-presented with Rob Brink from First Church Wauwatosa, was quite a surprise. Almost 50 people -- a new record for me on class size for any topic. I have to say thanks again to Rob for collaborating. His pastor's point of view combined with emphatic interest in new tech makes him an ideal partner for this class. We had a lot of great questions. We probably could have taken an extra hour talking and answering questions.

The Records Management class followed later that same afternoon. Thanks to the 20 people who attended. I've been teaching this one for a few years now and it's my bread and butter. This group was a bit more reserved, but I hope that if any of them have questions as they proceed with their projects, they will not hesitate to contact me.

Both groups should have gotten links to the presentation in their email this morning. If anyone reading was there and hasn't received it, please contact me: jsteytler -at- 14beacon -dot- org. (obviously you'll have to reconstruct that address. I'm hoping I've foiled the spambots on this occasion). Additionally, if you're curious to see the presentations and you were not there, drop me a line and I will send you the link.

We are aware that http://www.congregationallibary.org is not accessing our website. We are working on this. Our alternate address is available http://www.14beacon.org but not entirely up-to-date. Thank you for your patience.

If you are looking for a book to take with you this summer, you can't go wrong by picking up this one. It is not beach reading but it will engage you on that plane, train, bus, or car trip (as long as you aren’t driving). Suzanne Strempek Shea may be familiar to you as the author of Selling the Lite of Heaven or Shelf Life. In this book, Ms. Shea travels around America searching for a new religious home. Her journey is both physical and spiritual. She has determined that the faith she was raised in, Roman Catholic, no longer provides her with the worship community she needs.

Beginning on Easter or "Resurrection" Sunday, Ms. Shea begins at New Mount Zion Baptist Church the year long journey to visit Christian churches, large and small, new and old, lead by the famous and unknowns from Maine to Hawaii. She goes to each church as a seeker with the hope that she will find the one place where she belongs. Along the way, she finds churches she would be happy to return to and churches that disappoint her. Her descriptions of the churches, congregants, and preachers will carry you into each worship place with her. Some places she visits are: Arch Street Friends Meeting House, Philadelphia; First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston; Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, CA; Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago; Mashpee Baptist Church, Mashpee, MA; Harvest Church of the Nazarene, Las Vegas; and Interfaith Chapel, Denver International Airport.

In the end, one year later, Ms. Shea writes that her travels have distilled what she needs in a new church: a warm community that disregards politics and lifestyle; supports and is active in social justice; allows congregants decision making roles (no hierarchy); has a spiritual message "inspired by love rather than fear"; and has art and music. She has not found her perfect church but would willingly return to several that offered "lots of what matters to me".

For more reviews check out Amazon.com.

The following is a post by one of our most recent Simmons interns, Meg Rampton.

I started at the Congregational Library very excited and anxious to process my very first collection after started my masters degree at Simmons College last fall. I had spent hundreds of hours in archives researching but had never been on the other side: preparing and organizing the documents. The library and archive are housed together in a wonderful environment overlooking the Granary Burial ground. I knew at the beginning I would enjoy this internship. 60 hours were required for my class but I knew I could spend much more time there.

My project was to process the Blake-Goodsell Collection. Everett Blake married Lynda Goodsell in 1926 in Berkley, California. They followed Fred and Lou Goodsell, Lynda’s parents, path and shortly after moved to Turkey and spent most of their lives as missionaries in the Middle East. The collection covered 5 generations of the Everett Blake and Fred Goodsell Families. As I started there were boxes of all sizes with many different documents inside. A majority was letters back and forth between family members. After hours of sorting and organizing the letters, I came to feel as if I knew the family. When I went through the correspondence about Lynda's death I felt the emotions as if I knew her.

The endless boxes of correspondence

Although I have never met any family member I felt grateful for the service they preformed for others as missionaries. As a returned missionary myself for my church, I knew the difficulties and sacrifice they went through. They were good people. And they sure did write a lot! When my project was completed there were over nine and a half boxes of correspondence.

One of my favorite finds in the collection was in one of Fred Goodsell's journal. He had three original revolutionary war dollars. They were very tattered paper about 3 inches square and in the amount of 1/6th of a dollar, 20 dollars, and 30 dollars printed in 1776.

Thank you to the Congregation Church for allowing me to work with you!

Meg doing the final sort in the reading room