Beacon Street Blog

A Preview of the Annual Boston Charter Day Celebrations

On September 7th, 1630, the city of Boston received its present name and was made the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Since 2001, that day has been celebrated in Massachusetts as Boston Charter Day. Wilfred Holton, President of The Partnership of the Historic Bostons, which has been responsible for Charter Day events for nearly ten years, will describe the origin of Boston Charter Day and the many interesting program themes that have been part of the celebrations, such as Women in Early Massachusetts and Built in the Massachusetts Bay Colony: 17th-Century Architecture Adapted to the New World.

[]This year's Boston Charter Day programming (September 26-30) will focus on the fascinating legal traditions, innovations, and conundrums of early Massachusetts. Crime and Punishment in Early Massachusetts will explore this intriguing topic from many perspectives. Local students will bring 17th-century trials to life through dramatic readings at the John Adams Courthouse Conference Center. A panel discussion tentatively titled "Judicial Legacies from Early Massachusetts" will feature Professor Abigail Chandler from UMass Lowell and Professor Jonathan Chu from UMass Boston. Finally, the topic of "Sin and Punishment in Puritan Churches" will also be on the agenda, and the historical record might surprise you!

Join us to learn more about past and present Boston Charter Day celebrations.

Wednesday, September 18th
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Program begins promptly at noon.

Free.
Register through SurveyMonkey.

There's still time to register for tomorrow's free lunchtime lecture. Let us know if you plan to join us so we can save you a seat.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"243","attributes":{"alt":"the \"Boston Stump\"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 100px; height: 189px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"the \"Boston Stump\"","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]This summer, the much anticipated Puritan Path will be unveiled in the "other" Boston, that is, the U.K. town after which Boston, Massachusetts is named. Puritan men and women sailed from Boston in Lincolnshire in 1630 and founded the American city of the same name, formally dubbing it Boston on September 7th of that year. Twelve of the founders and their spiritual leader, John Cotton, are remembered with thirteen stones forming a path at St. Botolph's Church, whose 272-foot tower is affectionately referred to as "The Stump" (pictured).

Wilfred Holton, President of The Partnership of the Historic Bostons (based in Boston, MA) and Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Northeastern University, will tell the story of how the idea for the Puritan Path was conceived and developed over the past five years. The Partnership was instrumental in the progress of the Puritan Path, and Professor Holton will provide an insider's perspective on the project and on the festive opening ceremony taking place in July.

Join us to learn more about the Path, 700-year-old St. Botolph's Church, and their historic connection to Boston, MA!

Wednesday, August 21st
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Program begins promptly at noon.

Free.
Register via SurveyMonkey.

Visitors and researchers from near and far come to the library to use its resources for many different kinds of projects. Recently, a researcher on an unexpected family quest visited for several days. Here from Vancouver, Canada, Dave Galloway made some intriguing discoveries at a family reunion that he came to the library to explore further. Here's the story in his own words.

From Maine's Missionaries to Micronesia: Papers, Letters and Photos in the Lydia Vose Buck Snow Collection
by Dave Galloway

While in Cape Cod, as part of a family reunion, a cousin showed me a copy of a document that is part of the Lydia Vose Buck Snow Collection at the Congregational Library. Handwritten in the 1960's by my late aunt, Patricia Thurston, it covers the period of 1850 to 1870 for the Buck family of Robbinston, Maine. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"249","attributes":{"alt":"portrait of Lydia Snow","class":"media-image","height":"268","style":"width: 150px; height: 201px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"portrait of Lydia Snow","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"200"}}]]My Great Grandmother's aunt, Lydia Buck, married Benjamin Galen Snow, and they traveled to Micronesia as the first Congregationalist missionaries in 1851. Lydia Buck was one of 8 Buck children. She was well educated and met Galen while at school. They were married in Maine when she was 29 and began their life as missionaries.

The document, based on some 40 letters in the collection, describes various events in the Snows' and the Bucks' families lives. It could take a year for news to make the round trip to Robbinston, Maine and back, and the missionaries couldn't sleep sometimes when expecting a new mail package. The letters are personal and reveal aspects of life and personality. Galen Snow seemed to be a very practical man, urging his brother-in-law to be "the best methodist he could" if that was the faith for him.

Isolated from the Civil War, it would be months before they learned of Lydia's brothers' involvement in the war or that Eben Buck spent a lovely evening on the Charles River on the 4th of July before going south that summer. He would die of "the fever" and not a bullet.

On this same trip, my family and I visited Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard and saw a number of beautiful old homes built by whaling ship captains, only to find out later that Edgartown Whalers visited the Snows! The Library's collection includes over 40 original photographs from this period. It has been a wonderful and informative find, one that I'll be able to share with over 100 descendants of Galen and Lydia Snow.

We always enjoy hearing this kind of story from our researchers. Do you have a similar story to share? Leave it in the comments. We'd love to read it.

One of the ongoing debates in the archival world is how to preserve digital information — those old Word documents saved on 3.5" floppy disks, audio and video recordings in soon-to-be-obsolete file formats, and sometimes even the software needed to access those files. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"251","attributes":{"alt":"outdated software","class":"media-image","height":"203","style":"width: 250px; height: 203px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"outdated software","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"250"}}]]At the archives on the Microsoft campus in Washington state and at the Library of Congress Packard campus for audio-visual conservation outside Washington, D.C., industry experts are taking it one step further. They are considering how best to preserve not only the information, but the actual intended experience of using it.

Just as early filmmakers couldn't have predicted the level of ongoing interest in their work more than 100 years later, who can say what future generations will find important to know and preserve about the early history of software? While the notion that someone might go diving into some long outmoded version of Word might seem improbable, knowledge of the human past turns up in all kinds of unexpected places. Historians of the analog world have long known this: Writing, after all, began as a form of accounting — would the Sumerian scribes who incised cuneiform into wet clay have thought their peculiar angular scratchings would have been of interest to a future age?

Luckily, most record keepers don't have to go to such lengths. But it is a good idea to check on your older digital files from time to time and make sure they can still be opened by your current software. If they're not in active use, you can turn text documents into PDF files, which are less likely to become corrupted or inaccessible. And there is always the option to keep printed copies, as well. You don't need a computer to look at a piece of paper.

The archivists here at the Congregational Library occasionally offer workshops on record stewardship for churches, and they are currently revising our printed reference guide on the subject. If that sounds useful to you, keep an eye on this blog and we will let you know when it's available.

The Center for History and New Media (the folks who created the platform we use for our digital exhibits) have launched yet another piece of amazing software.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"252","attributes":{"alt":"Serendip-o-matic logo","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 87px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Serendip-o-matic logo","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]One Week | One Tool Team Launches Serendip-o-matic

After five days and nights of intense collaboration, the One Week | One Tool digital humanities team has unveiled its web application: Serendip-o-matic <http://serendipomatic.org>. Unlike conventional search tools, this "serendipity engine" takes in any text, such as an article, song lyrics, or a bibliography. It then extracts key terms, delivering similar results from the vast online collections of the Digital Public Library of America, Europeana, and Flickr Commons. Because Serendip-o-matic asks sources to speak for themselves, users can step back and discover connections they never knew existed. The team worked to re-create that moment when a friend recommends an amazing book, or a librarian suggests a new source. It's not search, it's serendipity.

Serendip-o-matic works for many different users. Students looking for inspiration can use one source as a springboard to a variety of others. Scholars can pump in their bibliographies to help enliven their current research or to get ideas for a new project. Bloggers can find open access images to illustrate their posts. Librarians and museum professionals can discover a wide range of items from other institutions and build bridges that make their collections more accessible. In addition, millions of users of RRCHNM's Zotero can easily run their personal libraries through Serendip-o-matic.

With traditional search engines providing more and more personalized results, you may not know what you're missing. Why not try a bit of serendipity?

--Robin

From time to time, our archivists will re-process a record collection. This happens for a number of reasons — we receive additional material that needs to be integrated, a portion of the collection is used frequently enough to warrant more detailed description, or we simply want to bring older collections up to current industry standards. While that last reason is an ongoing process here, the first two have come up recently.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"249","attributes":{"alt":"portrait of Lydia Vose Buck Snow","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 201px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"portrait of Lydia Vose Buck Snow","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]We received new records from the Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers and, since it was donated to us in 1974, Jessica took the opportunity to update the finding guide using our current DACS (Describing Archives: a Content Standard) template. She has also revised the descriptions of both the organization and the collection itself.

A researcher visiting us earlier this summer prompted us to expand our finding guide to the Lydia Vose Buck Snow collection of family papers. This collection chronicles the missionary work of Snow's family in Hawaii and contains a number of photographs, which have now been individually described for ease of use and searchability. The guide was also updated using DACS.

Here at the Congregational Library, we don't just want to provide the information you seek. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to find it, and maybe even help you find something you didn't know to look for. What would you like to find?

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"259","attributes":{"alt":"Daniel C. Greene","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 204px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Daniel C. Greene","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) sent Daniel Crosby Greene as the first American missionary to Japan in 1869 at the dawn of Japan rescinding their national Isolationism, which had lasted centuries. Notable missionaries include: Daniel Crosby Greene, Orramel and Anna Gulick, Jerome Davis, Sophia Davis, Francis Davis, Lucille Downs, and Otis Cary.

The ABCFM continued to serve in Japan for the next several decades. The greatest disruption came during World War II at which time the Japanese government instituted State Shinto. Additionally, Protestant religions were mandated to consolidate under one umbrella, the United Church of Christ in Japan. It bears a resemblance in name only to the current United Church of Christ. After World War II, mission work continued.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"260","attributes":{"alt":"first building of the Doshisha","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 155px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px","title":"first building of the Doshisha","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]One of the longest lasting connections between the original American Board missionaries and modern life is through the thriving Doshisha University, which was founded by the Rev. Jerome Davis. Doshisha school children visit the Congregational Library & Archives on a yearly basis as part of their school program.

What does that have to do with the title of this post? Well, we recently uncovered a second-generation photocopy that had been safely tucked away on our shelves. Cristina unearthed it during the course of her work and we realized pretty quickly that we had rediscovered a treasure. The note that came with the manuscript indicates that the original's location remains unverified. My own research uncovered that Harvard's Houghton library also has a second-hand copy.

This manuscript book was handed down from missionary to missionary from within Japan's mission station in order to keep track of those who served the American Board. The book is filled with handwritten notes, typescript, and copies of newspaper articles chronicling the generations. There is a great deal of potential for new perspectives gained from this small corner of a big missionary world. We hope that this teaser will get some of you to come in and conduct your own treasure hunt.

Take a look at the finding guide for more details.

To learn more about the American Board in Japan, check out the page about it on our exhibit site.

-Jessica

We have been featuring a good bit of content relating to the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation this year. That document, along with the Gettysburg Address, is often seen as the pinnacle of President Lincoln's political output. If you're interested a broader look at his political and legal career, though, there is an online resource you should check out.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"262","attributes":{"alt":"Papers of Abraham Lincoln logo","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 96px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Papers of Abraham Lincoln logo","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]The Papers of Abraham Lincoln is a cooperative repository curated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. They have collected documents from hundreds of participating institutions across the country into a single portal. In addition to the expected speeches, correspondence, and printed materials, they have also sought out Lincoln's voting records, financial documents, autographs, and handwritten inscriptions in books.

They have used this wealth of information to create The Lincoln Log, a searchable timeline of Lincoln's life. You can see what Lincoln was up to on a given date, search by keywords, or browse an entire year.

The item that caught my eye was a recently discovered letter of introduction for Emilie Jane Merriman, a correspondent for the New York Times, that is held by the Bibliothèque de Genève in Switzerland. Such a document would be unremarkable if not for the fact that it is signed by her minister, Henry Ward Beecher, and has a postscript note from Abraham Lincoln. Merriman's story is quite interesting. If you have a few minutes, go read it.

--Robin

The religious history blogosphere is abuzz about an article in the New York Times this past week, reporting on a new string of books about liberal Protestantism — the proverbial "dead white guys", or as I call them, the men with three last names (figure it out).

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"263","attributes":{"alt":"cover of \"Rise of Liberal Religion\" by Matthew S. Hedstrom","class":"media-image","height":"300","style":"width: 120px; height: 183px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"cover of \"Rise of Liberal Religion\" by Matthew S. Hedstrom","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"197"}}]]It looks like we have come full circle. Five decades ago a course in American religion was basically the story of the major northern white Protestant denominations, beginning with the Puritans and winding up with the National Council of Churches. In the 1960s, however, the focus began to shift, and by the 1980s the syllabus had been completely rearranged to include Native Americans, Mormons, Catholics, women, African Americans, fundamentalists, New Age, and on goes the list. The emphasis was on diversity and conflict, bringing to light people whose stories had been suppressed by the old power structure. The dead white men had had their chance, was the underlying message; it was now their turn to take the back seat.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"264","attributes":{"alt":"cover of \"American Religious Liberalism\" by Schmidt and Promey","class":"media-image","height":"345","style":"width: 120px; height: 180px; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"cover of \"American Religious Liberalism\" by Schmidt and Promey","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"230"}}]]But we're not entirely back where we started. The new interest in mainline religion, which I share, begins with a different set of assumptions than before. Lots has happened in the "old line" churches since the 1950s, of course, and most of it not all that good; many people and a good deal of money have moved on, apparently never to return. But there is a larger and more important story that we often overlook: in the long run, mainline Protestantism "won" American culture. The values they have long espoused — tolerance, fairness, international cooperation, "democratic" families — originated in twentieth-century Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches and took deep root in American culture.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"265","attributes":{"alt":"cover of \"After Cloven Tongues of Fire\" by David A. Hollinger","class":"media-image","height":"241","style":"width: 120px; height: 181px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"cover of \"After Cloven Tongues of Fire\" by David A. Hollinger","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"160"}}]]My particular vantage point here in the stacks of the Congregational Library makes me feel intrigued, gratified, and frustrated by the Times article. All around me are books, correspondence, reports, periodicals, and pamphlets written by those nineteenth and twentieth century mainline or liberal Protestants, just sitting here waiting. I sometimes mourn as I walk through our archives, past boxes upon boxes of denominational records and personal papers, all virtually untapped by some enterprising scholar. From my own forays into these records I know they are full of unknown and important stories, and would welcome the opportunity to introduce the new generation of religious history scholars to what lies within the walls of 14 Beacon Street.

-Peggy Bendroth

Even on these extremely hot days, we see large groups of tourists, with or without guides, traveling up and down the streets of Boston in search of historical sites and stories. We've written about our own booklet, "Exploring Boston's Religious History", that provides a self-guided tour of religious sites in downtown Boston and Garth Rosell's book, Exploring New England's Spiritual Heritage: Seven Daytrips for Contemporary Pilgrims, previously. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"266","attributes":{"alt":"\"Exploring New England's Spiritual Heritage\" cover image","class":"media-image","style":"width: 120px; height: 144px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"\"Exploring New England's Spiritual Heritage\" cover image","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Another guide to consider if looking for more regional religious sites is The Spiritual Traveler: Boston and New England: A Guide to Sacred Sites and Peaceful Places by Jana Riess. This guide includes hundreds of churches, synagogues, mosques, meetinghouses, Buddhist meditation centers, Hindu and Sikh temples, as well as retreat centers of all religious traditions.

Did you know that the first New England Sikh temple is located in Milford, MA? It is the New England Sikh Study Circle (NESSC) was established in 1968 to serve as a Sikh center for spiritual growth, political understanding, community activism and social gathering.

When you travel to Nantucket this summer, you can visit the Old North Vestry built in 1725 located behind the First Congregational Church built in 1834, The African Meeting House, one of the most historic African American buildings and believed to be the second oldest structure built by and for African Americans in 1825, and the Friends Meeting House, the last remaining Quaker meetinghouse on Nantucket.

If you are off to Maine, a stop in Brunswick may be in order. One highlight of this area is the Harriet Beecher Stowe House where Uncle Tom's Cabin (now owned by Bowdoin College) was written, plus three houses of worship designed by the architect Richard Upton. These churches are memorable examples of Gothic Revival architecture — St. Paul's Episcopal Church (1846), First Parish Church (1846) housing one of Maine's largest United Church of Christ congregations, and the Bowdoin College Chapel (1857).

Throughout New England there are sites where you may learn something new or find a peaceful place. Since this book was published in 2002, you may want to check on the details regarding tours before heading out.

Happy vacation and if you are on the Freedom Trail, stop by to see us, we're just a few steps from the State House.

-Claudette

If you've done any genealogy research with us in recent years, you have probably used our database of obituary listings for ministers and missionaries. But what if you're looking for someone who doesn't fall into either of those categories?

Our colleagues at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester and the Morgan Library of Ohio have created a similar database using college catalogs:

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"268","attributes":{"alt":"Student Name Index banner","class":"media-image","style":"width: 500px; height: 42px;","title":"Student Name Index banner","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

The Student Name Index is an ongoing project directed by Richard P. Morgan of Mentor, Ohio, and hosted by the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Massachusetts. The Index is a database that currently contains over 400,000 names of trustees, administrators, board members, examiners, faculty, and students through 1877. The information in the database was compiled from 1,417 eighteenth and nineteenth-century printed catalogues from 128 colleges and schools from 12 states. For a listing of schools indexed, click here.

In addition to listing the names, the Index also uses "context keywords"-- subject words that denote such things as a person's sex, associated activity (e.g., trustee, professor, matron, principal, board of visitors, tutor, librarian, student), subjects taught (ranging from algebra to zoology), students' studies (e.g., law, medical), and class year. In addition, city, state, and country of residence are indexed, as well as degrees (e.g., LL.D, D.D., Esq., A.B., etc.) and honorifics (e.g., Rev., Hon., Gen.).

To access the Index's search page, please click here. Many different types of search results can be found using this database. For instance, a researcher can find a specific person in a class, and also find all his classmates. Another search could reveal a person's progress through the educational system from student to tutor to professor to trustee. Students from Canada, Japan, Africa, India, and other countries can be identified and followed. The diversity of a school's students and administrators can be explored geographically, or by sex, class, studies, and other "context keywords." Names of students and administrators who died during a school year are noted by the term "deceased." Also noted are students who pursued specialized courses or who did not finish a course of study. Each result is linked to its citation so that the information can be verified in the printed sources.

The bulk of their entries so far come from schools in Massachusetts, Ohio, and New York, but they are adding more all the time. You can view the full list of source institutions or go directly to the search page. Who will you find?

--Robin

As you travel through your community this summer, you may notice signs in front of various churches announcing "Now is the time to register for Vacation Bible School." These signs are usually colorful and present a theme attractive to children — "Kids Adventure Week" or "Kingdom Rock". Many denominations now offer these opportunities for children to spend a week experiencing daily Bible content in interactive ways. This may all bring back memories for you of your summer days at a vacation bible school.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"271","attributes":{"alt":"cover image for \"How to Plan and Conduct a Vacation Church School\"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 304px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"cover image for \"How to Plan and Conduct a Vacation Church School\"","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Coincidentally, a pamphlet, "How to Plan and Conduct a Vacation Church School" published by the International Council of Religious Education in 1937 came across my desk. Now, I am curious as to the connection between today's vacation Bible schools and this pamphlet. I located an article in Christianity Today (June 2003) titled "From Beer to Bibles to VBS: How America Got Its Favorite Summer Tradition". The article stated vacation Bible school began "unofficially" in the 1870s and later in 1898 continued in New York City with the rental of a saloon for her school by Mrs. Walker Aylette Hawes. Dr. Robert Boville is credited in this article and in Wikipedia as establishing the VBS movement with the Daily Vacation Bible School Association and the founding of the World Association of Vacation Bible Schools.

The pamphlet from the International Council of Religious Education affirmed that the Vacation Bible School movement was started in 1901 by Dr. Boville. The pamphlet is a complete "how to" booklet on vacation Christian education in the 1930s. It provides detailed instructions on promotion, activities, resource material and organization. The pamphlet further indicates the mission of the schools as "Cooperating Protestant Churches with a vision of the possibilities of the new vacation schools will initiate a community coordinated program for children, youth, and adults for the entire summer. They will demonstrate their leadership in the community through their interest in Christian character building and make religious education an integral part of daily life through a happy summer experience." From the banners and Church website descriptions, it does sound like that religious education and happy summer experience continue.

Please share with us your experiences in Vacation Bible School.

-Claudette

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"272","attributes":{"alt":"Edmund Sears Morgan","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 133px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;","title":"Edmund Sears Morgan","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]The history world lost a great mind last week.

Edmund S. Morgan, Historian Who Shed Light on Puritans, Dies at 97
by William Grimes

Edmund S. Morgan, an award-winning historian who illuminated the intellectual world of the Puritans, explored the paradox of freedom and slavery in colonial Virginia and, in his 80s, wrote a best-selling biography of Benjamin Franklin, died on Monday in New Haven. He was 97.

...

Professor Morgan's book "The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop" (1958) was for decades one of the most widely assigned texts in survey courses on American history. His "Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea" (1963) showed his unmatched talent for mining primary sources to illuminate an important concept, in this case the change in understanding among New Englanders of what it meant to be the member of a church.

You can read Morgan's full obituary on the New York Times website.

We have several of Morgan's books in our collection, including The Puritan Dilemma and Visible Saints.

photograph of Edmund S. Morgan by Bob Child, Associated Press

Back in 2007 we made an amazing discovery. Jeff Cooper, professor of history at Oklahoma State University and the "man on the ground" of our church records project, contacted us with great news about a remarkable document with a mysterious backstory, the so-called Phillips diary of the First Church of Rowley, MA. Long thought to be lost, the diary had just resurfaced when a local bank was going out of business — it was in a safe-deposit box in a bag marked "dimes". The "great white whale" was finally on the hook, and is now safe in the climate-controlled archives of the Congregational Library.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"274","attributes":{"alt":"page from the Phillips diary","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 241px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"page from the Phillips diary","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Among all the hundreds of records from colonial Massachusetts, the Phillips diary is flat-out exceptional. Written mostly by the pastor Samuel Phillips, who served from 1651-1696, it contains the usual run of meeting minutes, church covenants, and baptisms, marriages, and death lists — but that is just the beginning. From there the 500 pages of tightly written text go into all kinds of detail about seventeenth-century life, including hundreds of pages of correspondence between churches about misbehaving members and theological conundrums, as well as accounts of the ecclesiastical councils church leaders convened to make decisions. There is no doubt that the Phillips diary will provide historians with a wealth of new material on life in Massachusetts Bay. Most of the diary dates to the 1660s and 1670s, after the first generation of settlers had died off and a second generation arose to take their place — a critical period with relatively little in the way of documentation.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"275","attributes":{"alt":"Community Preservation Coalition logo","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 42px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Community Preservation Coalition logo","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Since its discovery, with the help of the Rowley Congregational church and a Community Preservation Grant from the state of Massachusetts, the diary has been preserved and digitized. Now all that dense text needs to be transcribed into electronic typewritten text, a task that will not only take many, many hours but will require the help of highly trained experts in seventeenth-century script.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"276","attributes":{"alt":"Colonial Society of Massachusetts logo","class":"media-image","style":"width: 97px; height: 99px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Colonial Society of Massachusetts logo","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Thanks to a generous grant from the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, that work can now begin. Our own Jeff Cooper and Ken Minkema, friend of the Congregational Library and director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, wrote the grant proposal, and designed the project, which they will direct. The project itself is a joint effort by the Jonathan Edwards Center, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and the Congregational Library.

The first step will be to engage an expert professional transcriber for the hardest and most densely-written pages and set him or her to work. There are many other pages in the diary, however, that are almost legible and don't necessarily require special training to read. And so these will be part of a community-sourcing project, done by volunteers working with another expert transcriber.

The end result will be a full transcription, to be published by the Colonial Society some time after 2016. So kudos to Jeff and Ken, the Rowley church (especially Dave and Donna Irving), and a heads up to all of you volunteer transcribers out there. We are hoping to start work soon and will be issuing the call before too long.

-Peggy

While on my way to the Park Street T stop many evenings I hear loud expressive speech from an advocate of Christianity and a return to Biblical teachings. It reminds me of the story we tell to visitors about George Whitefield, the Great Awakening, and the long tradition of preaching on the Boston Common. Although I would never compare this individual with one of the stature of George Whitefield, Billy Graham, or Martin Luther King, Jr., it does remind me that the Common has hosted many occasions of religious activities and preaching. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"278","attributes":{"alt":"Park Street gate on Boston Common, late 19th century","class":"media-image","style":"width: 250px; height: 150px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Park Street gate on Boston Common, late 19th century","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]From the City of Boston.gov website: "Boston Common continues to be a stage for free speech and public assembly. Here, during the 20th century, Charles Lindbergh promoted commercial aviation. Anti-Vietnam War and civil right rallies were held, including one led by Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1979, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass." But you do need a permit to preach and hold a gathering.

For an alternate look at "free speech" and religion on the Boston Common in the 19th century, I'll refer you to Peggy Bendroth's book, Fundamentalists in the City and some resources of the library including "Let God be True: A Sermon Preached on Boston Common, in the eight month on the eleventh day of the month, A.D. 1889" and "Why He Was Jailed for Preaching on Boston Common: Gospel Has Paramount Claims, Music Hall Meetings, a Fearless Protest Against Romanism, Sectarianism, Masonry, and Every Ism, Christ's Servants Must Obey Him" both by William F. Davis. Another pamphlet available at the library is "Demand For the Repeal of the City Ordinance Forbidding the Preaching of the Gospel on Boston Common" by W. Kellaway. In an article, "The Man Who Preached on the Common" from The New York Times, December 25, 1887, Mr. Davis is described as "a crank, however well-meaning may be his intention to spread the Gospel."

As I again walk past the preachers at the Park Street T stop, I will keep in mind that one person's evangelist may be another person's "crank". And to hold a revival on the Common you do need permission.

-Claudette

photograph of the Park Street gate on Boston Common in the late 19th century reproduced from Old Park street and its vicinity by Robert Means Lawrence (1922) via Wikimedia Commons

The Congregational Library will be closed on Thursday, July 4th in observance of Independence 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 on Friday.

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fireworks over the U.S. fleet in Sasebo, Japan

We will be open again on Friday the 5th.

photograph of sailors, family members and Japanese citizens gathered to watch fireworks on U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan (2005) by U.S. Navy Photographer's Mate 1st Class Paul J. Phelps

This file is a work of a sailor or employee of the U.S. Navy, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Earlier this week, we received an exciting email from Drew Bartley, a local professional genealogy researcher, who has been hard at work compiling extensive resources about the chaning landscape of the Boston area on familysearch.org.[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"283","attributes":{"alt":"Boston neighborhood map, courtesy of FamilySearch.org","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 253px; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Boston neighborhood map, courtesy of FamilySearch.org","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

The online guides for Boston and Suffolk County that many of you helped me create are now ready for prime time. [...] Please feel free to use these guides and link to them from your institutions if appropriate. The more links provided ensure the continuation of the project across Massachusetts.

Each of these town/city guides include a brief history, border changes, histories, vital records, city directories, cemeteries, church, town records, newspapers, and local libraries and historical societies. There are many links for each topic to digital books, online databases, and free transcriptions when found. This is especially helpful with the cemeteries and churches. If records were found in local repositories, links were added to their entry.

The guides links are:

Suffolk County

Chelsea (1739)
Revere (1846)
Winthrop (1852)

Towns annexed to Boston:

Brighton (1807-1874)
Charlestown (1630-1874)
Dorchester (1630-1870)
Hyde Park (1868-1912)
Roxbury (1630-1868)
West Roxbury (1851-1874)

The crown jewel of them all is the Boston Massachusetts genealogy guide. It covers Boston proper, East Boston, South Boston, and the Harbor Islands. Additional features for the Boston guide include street guides, ward boundaries with contemporary maps, extremely detailed list of the 108 churches established by 1846, first-ever inventory of town and city records, and a chronological guide of Boston newspapers. Many of these topics contain links where books, databases, or more information can be found online.

This guide would not have been possible without the help of archival and librarian staff at:

City of Boston Archives
New England Historic Genealogical Society
Boston Public Library – Rare Books and Manuscripts, and Microtext
Congregational Library
Archdiocese of Boston Archives
Massachusetts Historical Society
Andover Newton Theological School
Harvard Divinity School through their detailed online guides
Boston University School of Theology through their detailed online guides
Bostonian Society
Boston Athenaeum

Of course, we're interested in promoting these resources because Drew conducted some of his research here at the library, and we hold some of the records he references, but if you're at all curious about these topics, go take a look at his amazing guides.

Many of our researchers will be particularly interested in the section on Boston's numerous churches and the locations of their extant records. So many churches have changed locations, denominations, and names over the centuries that it can be difficult to track down the information you're looking for. The detail contained in the Boston page makes these evolutions much clearer. Do you know what became of the 28th Congregational Church? Did you even know there was one? Now you can find out about that and more.

-Robin

The Chicago Theological Seminary Collection on Merom Institute is now processed and available for research. Originally donated to the Congregational Library from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 2011, this collection has been minimally processed for access using the "MPLP" standard. This collection contains institutional records of Merom Institute as well as records from its founder, A.E. Holt, president of Chicago Theological Seminary and others from CTS. This collection includes board meeting minutes, articles of incorporation, reports, receipts, correspondence, legal papers, historical sketches, and calendars.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"284","attributes":{"alt":"Merom Conference Center today","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 196px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Merom Conference Center today","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]The Merom Institute was founded in 1936 as a Protestant ecumenical religious center offering a camp, seminars, lectures and various community activities. Located in Merom, Indiana it was the site of the previously closed Union Christian College. The Merom Institute was renamed the Merom Conference Center sometime in the late 1970s when it was taken over as a ministry of the Indiana-Kentucky UCC Conference. Arthur E. Holt, President of Chicago Theological Seminary in the 1930s, was an instrumental founder of the Merom Institute. After President Holt's death in 1942, the Chicago Theological Seminary kept close institutional ties with the Merom Institute under its next president, A.C. McGiffert, and beyond.

Please see the finding aid for more details.

photograph of the Merom Conference Center by Dale Dressler, July 2002, courtesy of the Merom Conference Center website

Practice, Polity, Profession

If you have ever wanted to know more about either of these churches and their sometimes surprising historical connections, this talk is for you!

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"267","attributes":{"alt":"Mary Baker Eddy, ca. 1916","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 220px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Mary Baker Eddy, ca. 1916","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]The founder of the Christian Science church, Mary Baker Eddy, was a Congregational church member for almost forty years, from 1838 to 1875. She spent half of her adult life as a Congregationalist. She even stayed a member for a decade after the event she came to call her "discovery" of Christian Science in 1866. She was a member the entire time she wrote the first edition of her book Science and Health, which she claimed explained the principles behind Jesus's healings.

Eddy founded her own church in 1879. Her Church of Christ, Scientist, inherited many legacies from the Congregational church that show up in surprising ways. This talk focuses on those. After sketching Eddy's biography and historiography, including the many cultural trends with which she interacted, Dr. Voorhees will discuss precedents, parallels, and problems that have surfaced in her comparison of Christian Science and Congregational organization, rule-making, rhetoric, and assumptions about faith and life.

Dr. Voorhees holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she specialized in American religious history. She holds the 2013-2014 ACA-Athenaeum Fellowship for joint study in both collections. Her research supports a book she is writing on Eddy and authorship at the intersection of American religious history, print culture, and women's history. Her most recent peer-reviewed articles appear in the journal Church History and in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, from which she received the 2012 Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza New Scholar Award. She has received several fellowships and served as a manuscript referee for the Harvard Theological Review. She is currently on the graduate faculty of the White Mountains Institute at Plymouth State University.

Thursday, July 18th
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Program begins promptly at noon.

Free.
Register through SurveyMonkey.

photograph of Mary Baker Eddy, ca. 1916, courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division via Wikimedia Commons

A couple of years ago, the Congregational Library auctioned off a set of catalog card drawers that had not been in use for many years. This cabinet held what were known as "Harvard College Catalogue Cards" or half-cards. The Harvard cards were 2 x 3 inches rather than what are considered the universal standard of 7.5 x 12.5 cm.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"289","attributes":{"alt":"example of a half-card","class":"media-image","style":"width: 349px; height: 138px;","title":"example of a half-card","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]
example of a half-card
 

This set of drawers was purchased by Connie, a retired librarian, who told us she would use this cabinet set as the base for her kitchen island. She had just purchased a farm house in Montpelier that was being renovated.

Last week Connie returned to visit with the results of the renovation and the use of the card catalog in her kitchen. She is using the small drawers for her spices, kitchen utensils and flatware. She had a cabinet maker create and finish additional large storage to match the card catalog. The top is Vermont marble. We are happy to see this card catalog continue to be used by a librarian who appreciates it.

If you have recycled a card catalog, we would be happy to hear from you.

-Claudette

Every year, usually toward the end of the spring term, the Reading Room in the Congregational Library suddenly fills with middle-school students from Japan. Their visit is as orderly as could be expected from ninety adolescents, (in three groups of thirty) far away from their homes back in Kyoto. They mill around, whisper, and point, and then under the teacher's urging, a small group steps forward, usually with gifts in hand, and a short speech memorized in English: "Thank you for sending Joseph Neesima and Christianity to Japan."

We are all together in that Reading Room because of one special person.

Niijima Jo came to Boston in 1865, a young man from a samurai family (minor aristocrats, in other words) at a time when Japan was slowly and painfully opening its doors to Western culture. Over two centuries of forced seclusion ended in 1853 when Admiral Matthew Perry sailed his ships into Tokugawa Harbor — and with him a flow of western technology, ideas, and trade goods. But in 1864 leaving Japan without government permission was still illegal, and not for the faint of heart.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"296","attributes":{"alt":"Niijima Jo, aka \"Joseph Hardy Neesima\"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 215px; float: left; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px;","title":"Niijima Jo, aka \"Joseph Hardy Neesima\"","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Niijima Jo was ambitious, well-educated, and he was anxious to see the world beyond the shores of Japan. In 1864 he persuaded an American ship captain to take him to Hong Kong, where he found another ship. The owner of the ship Alphaeus Hardy, would change his life forever. Captain Hardy, as it turns out, was a member of the Old South Church in Boston, and with his help Niijima Jo (who named himself Joseph Hardy Neesima in honor of his American friend) got the education he longed for and more. He attended the Phillips Andover Academy, Amherst College, and Andover Seminary — in every case the first Japanese to earn a degree. In 1874 he gathered another first when he was ordained as a Congregational minister.

By then the young man was becoming restless. Japan had changed a great deal in the ten years since he had left, and its new Meiji government was determined to catch up with — and surpass — the west in learning, technology, and military power. The time was right to return to Kyoto, but now with the backing of the Congregational mission board, and to fulfill a long-term dream.

The Doshisha University was established in 1875 as a "one-purpose school," its mission to bring the best of western scholarship and Christianity to Japan. The goal was, in Niijima's words, to raise up "Christian statesmen, Christian lawyers, Christian editors, and Christian merchants, as well as Christian preachers and teachers." Christians, Niijima insisted, should not be "ignoramuses".

Today Doshisha is one of Japan's most prestigious universities, with over 26,000 undergraduate and some 3,000 graduate students. Its guiding philosophy of "conscience education" embraces intellectual, as well as moral and physical strength. It was Niijima's dream to have a fully integrated educational system, offering schooling from kindergarten through graduate school. The Doshisha Elementary School, which opened in 2005, is a realization of that ambition. The students who come to visit us, then, are special, connected to us by a long history and shared ideals. It's always wonderful to welcome them back to a building and a library that Niijima Jo would have known, and treasured as we do today.

-Peggy

[[{"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: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"\"The Lord Is My Shepherd\" (ca. 1863) by Eastman Johnson","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]As part of its celebration for the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University has been sharing some amazing items from its collections on its blog. The latest caught my eye because it has a connection to Boston.

This 1862 letter represents my personal favorite document in the exhibition - humble, yet poignant words from John Oliver, an African American carpenter who sought to assist refugee slaves crossing Confederate lines in any way he could.  Oliver was teaching school and studying for the ministry in Boston when he heard William Roscoe Davis, one of the first "contrabands" to seek refuge at Fort Monroe, Virginia, speak about the education of freemen at Fort Monroe. After a brief stay at Fort Monroe, Oliver started work in Newport News, Virginia, where he established one school with seventy students and another with forty, in addition to an evening school with over one hundred students.

View and read the letter on the Amistad Center blog.

It's a bit surprising how little we have relating specifically to the Emancipation Proclamation, given how vocal many Congregationalists were during the Abolition movement, but we do have quite a bit from the period directly preceding it.

-Robin

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

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"300","attributes":{"alt":"International Archives Day poster","class":"media-image","style":"width: 320px; height: 462px;","title":"International Archives Day","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

In honor of this weekend's archive holiday, I recommend checking out Europeana, a Eurpopean cultural heritage portal that is rich in content and exceptionally user-friendly. They have a big presence in social media and encourage use and sharing.

• Spot the cat in classic paintings.
• Check out their mobile app.
• They have so many Pinterest boards.

The list goes on and on. We hope you'll take some time out of your schedule on Sunday and find out for yourself that archives are vibrant, more than just a sheaf of decaying papers, and they are everywhere.

-Jessica

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"302","attributes":{"alt":"a worker overwhelmed","class":"media-image","style":"width: 150px; height: 200px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"a worker overwhelmed","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]We will be hosting a Massachusetts Library System (MLS) sponsored class on improving your time management on July 17th. Anna Popp will provide some practical tips to help keep on track of your tasks. Any library that's a member of MLS may attend for free!

Be Calm & Manage On

Are you losing track of to-do items? Staring with dismay at an ever-growing pile of 'stuff' you need to get to? Are you secretly taking work home with you? You don't need to live like that. Do yourself a favor and add one more thing to your to-do list: sign up for this class. Our goal in this workshop is to give you the tools to realistically assess your workload, parse it out in a meaningful and sensible way, and think about different ways to move forward managing your responsibilities. From it all you will build a personal system for keeping track of tasks, managing projects and remembering commitments... so you can sleep well at night.

Wednesday, July 17th
1:00 - 4:00 pm

There is a limited number of seats available, so visit the MLS site and sign up today.