Beacon Street Diary

Lucy Whittier Carter Woodford

Rev. Lucy Whittier Carter Woodford (1873-1946) was an American Congregational minister who held pulpits during the first decades of the twentieth century. Woodford graduated from the Boston University School of Theology in 1900 and was ordained in 1907. For a list of all of her pastorates, please see her necrology on page 55 of the 1946 Yearbook of the Congregational Christian Churches. The following images are a portrait of Woodford and a photograph with her son, Whittier (b. 1905).

Lucy Whittier Carter Woodford was not the first woman ordained as a Congregational minister, nor was she the first to graduate from the Boston University School of Theology. Nevertheless, she was part of a small group of women who were ordained as Congregational. In 1900 there were forty ordained women and sixty-seven in 1919.

For more information on the history of women in the church, please search the Congregational Library catalog for "women" and "clergy".

--Abraham

Continuing Education with NEDCC

The Northeast Document Conservation Center is offering several classes this spring, including one I don't recall seeing very often: "Arrangement, Description and Holdings Maintenance for Archives". If you are in the Eastern Massachusetts area and are hoping to find out more about this as well as a number of other excellent classes, please visit their calendar page.

Almanac Exhibit in Reading Room

The Congregational Library has a new display up in the Reading Room featuring their collection of early American Almanacs dating as far back to the founding of our country in 1776. The display spotlights a Boston Pocket Almanac belonging to George Washington, an interesting compilation of Poor Richard's Almanacks (written by Benjamin Franklin), and a collection by the first American almanac author, Nathaniel Ames. A collection of wonderfully crafted Lady Pocket Almanacs and the adorable Mudge's Miniatures are out for viewing. Also exhibited are subject specific almanacs on the Masons, the temperance movement and Christianity. There is even a Hebrew almanac and a Dog Lover's almanac!

This collection is a great resource to our patrons researching ancestors, the history of advertising, studying the temperance movement, or just passing the time. So the next time you are near Boston Common or wondering the neighborhood of Beacon Hill, take a quick detour over to our library to check out this incredibly diverse and interesting collection.

-Angela Kelly

Congregational Library records in the Digital Commonwealth

Over the past six months, staff at the Congregational Library, along with colleagues at Digital Commonwealth, have been working to import a test batch of catalog records into the Digital Commonwealth system. The Congregational Library now has fifty-five records in the Digital Commonwealth system. The Digital Commonwealth system is designed so that you can search for cultural resources from across Massachusetts from one location. As an example of this, you can search the subject "Bible" and find resources from the Congregational Library, Boston College, and UMass Amherst. Please note that the system is still growing and changing.

--Abraham

Old Photographs

We spend a great deal of time here sharing photographs and the history behind them. Ransom Riggs has a passion for old photographs, which he describes in this video:

 

It's always interesting to see how other people give life to the past.

-Jessica

Pictures from Church Historian Workshop

A belated thank you to everyone who came to the Church Historian Workshop on March 2nd. We had a fantastic turn-out and we have had some generous feedback on the various segments of the day.

We started off as a group for a quick worship service:

We broke out into groups shortly thereafter. Some went to talk about organizing their church library with Claudette:

Others joined me for Records Management:

After lunch, Diana Butler Bass talked to the group:

The organizers were rewarded for their hard work with great enthusiasm from the participants. Thanks everyone. Be sure to mark your calendars for our upcoming events: a brown bag lunch with Linda Palmer; I am traveling to Connecticut for a reprise of my records management class, and much more beyond those two activities. Expect more detailed posts closer to the event dates.

-Jessica

Member’s Ticket to Henry Ward Beecher’s Funeral

Reverend Henry Ward Beecher's funeral was at 10:30 a.m. on March 11, 1887, at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York. Beecher was well known after acting as pastor at Plymouth Church for nearly forty years. Beecher was also a prolific author, known for writing on social reform and anti-slavery topics. A portrait of Rev. Beecher can be seen here. The following image is a member's ticket to the funeral.

What is remarkable is the information we can glean from the text of an ephemeral object. As has been noted before, these data need to be interpreted carefully. For example, the ticket states that it "admits one only, must be shown at the outer cordon of police and presented at the Orange street entrance by 10 A.M." What initially seemed odd was the cordon of police at the funeral. One could conjecture that the police presence was requested because of the popularity of the minister and that the funeral would draw a large crowd. This is further supported by the note that most pew holders will have their normal seats, but some have been reserved.

Another theory about the police presence is that it was requested because of past controversy, such as the Beecher-Tilton scandal of the 1870s. This is certainly plausible, from looking at the ticket. It is important, though, to understand the full context of the situation to make complete judgments by conducting further research on the funeral, such as through newspaper reports.

--Abraham

Sneak Peak at Presenter Jon Sweeney's work

The library will be co-hosting an event on April 7th with Park Street Church featuring King James Bible scholar, Jon Sweeney:

Jon has his own blog at King James Bible Geek. Here is a sample of one of his posts:

I want to convince you to try the King James Bible for the very reason that you may have avoided it in the past: those obscure, ancient words and phrases that get in the way of understanding. Behold … forasmuch … thence. I believe that, if you read slowly, those very words and phrases, as you pause over them and consider their meanings more deliberately than you do when reading other things, like a novel, will give you a whole new perspective on what it means to read "scripture."

In contrast to the KJV, contemporary English translations – as they try so hard to make the Word of God accessible, can also make it seem ordinary. In their attempt to be faithful to the Hebrew and Greek originals, the translators of the KJV sometimes even chose language that was a bit old by the standards of their day. They didn’t always aim for what we might call "contemporary English." Accessibility wasn’t their only intention. To reach people who feel that what the Bible has to say is already alien to their experience, most Bible publishers today often use language that’s made to read like a popular novel. There doesn’t seem to be much evidence that these strategies have worked to find more readers, however. (One notable exception was the first publication of the complete Living Bible, paraphrased by Kenneth N. Taylor, who was at that time the director of Moody Press in Chicago. It was first published in 1971 and amazingly became the bestselling book – not just Bible or religious book – in the United States in both 1972 and 1973.) Does the average adult know the Bible better today, for instance, with our dozens of contemporary English translations, than a similar adult may have, say, 150 years ago? No way.

Join us next month at Park Street to hear more about Jon's work.

-Jessica

West Texas Resources

Our colleague, Carisse Mickey Berryhill, of Abilene Christian University has just announced that the West Texas Digital Archive is now available. This collection, comprised of about 4-5 libraries includes records from Baptist, Methodist, and Stone-Campbell history sources. They include photographs, oral histories, lectures, and texts; particularly, the complete texts of yearbooks, college catalogs, and student newspapers are fully searchable. These items feature local history as well as material outside their region.

At the moment the material is on the ACU's Center for Restoration Studies website, a rich collection of Stone-Campbell primary resources, plus more. The WTDA page for the Center for Restoration Studies will eventually become its permanent digital home.

-Jessica

Old South Interns Check In

We are the two new interns working on the collection at OSC this spring. I'm Theresa. This is my last semester in Simmons GSLIS program. And I'm Annie, this is my first semester at Simmons.

So far we have surveyed the contents of the collection here to get a better understanding of it and what work has been done so far. The organization scheme is beginning to become more intuitive. We've processed several boxes now, including membership directories, newsletters and bulletins, and some really interesting and mysterious old photographs. One interesting thing we have found is a copy of a magazine mid-1940s focusing on how the Congregational churches might provide aid to post-war Europe. We both thought this was interesting because it is a snapshot of the repercussions of WWII in Europe. It is a different perspective of US and European relations.

We also found many newspaper clippings capturing the festival of arts in 1965 and 1966. It was particularly memorable to see photographs of 1960s youth doing the watuszi in the church aisles during service.

Today while we were organizing old church publications, we noticed an article in one entitled "Finding Treasures in the Basement". We stopped to read and couldn't help but laugh because it was talking about the very same documents we are now organizing:

Now, our request. If any church members have anything at home like committee reports, records, correspondence, photographs, or such relating to Old South's past activities, don't throw it out or dismiss it as inevitable household clutter. Put it in an envelope or a suitable container, and leave it in the church office labeled "Historian." We'll take it from there.

- October 15-31, 1982
The Copley Square Pilgrim

--Theresa and Annie