Congregational Library

Calling all prospective tour guides

Do you enjoy Boston's rich religious history? Would you like to share your knowledge with visitors to our fair city? You may be in luck.

We're looking for library docents (trained volunteers) to lead walking tours of the area this summer.

No prior experience is necessary, just enthusiasm and comfortable shoes. We will be offering two training sessions on Tuesday May 10th and Friday May 13th, 1-3 pm. Participants are welcome to attend either or both.

Take a look at our Program & Workshop schedule for more information.

Two more chances to learn about Congregational history

What is Congregationalism and why is it important?

Experience our popular Growing Deeper Roots seminar series in condensed form. Dr. Peggy Bendroth will cover more than three centuries of Congregational history in a one-day workshop. From the early Protestants of western Europe to the formation of the current American denominations, there is plenty to discuss.

All are welcome, from scholars to the simply curious.

May 19th or July 28th
10:00 am – 3:00 pm

$15. Advance registration is required.

** Better Together -- register for either session of "Growing Deeper Roots" and our upcoming "Finding Ancestors" genealogy seminar on June 11th for $25/per person!

Highland Congregational Church Choir

The following photograph, taken around 1912 or 1913, is of the Choir of Highland Congregational Church, Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts. The photo was likely taken by William Gerrish (1837-1922) at his summer home in Ashland, Massachusetts. Twelve members of the choir are seen in the photograph.

For more resources on Highland Congregational Church, Roxbury, Massachusetts, please search the Congregational Library catalog for "Highland Congregational Church (Roxbury, Boston, Mass.)".

--Abraham

The Forgotten : The Contraband of America and the Road to Freedom

There is a compelling article in the latest issue of Preservation magazine: "The Forgotten: the Contraband of America and the Road to Freedom" by Eric Wills.

This article was recommended to us by Faith Johnson, former ACA Board member, as relevant to our library collections on slavery and the American Missionary Association.

Mary S. Peake was the first black teacher hired by the American Missionary Association, she was associated with its later founding of Hampton Universityin 1868. Louis C. Lockwood, a member of the American Missionary Association, was the first missionary to the freedmen at Fort Monroe and greatly admired Ms. Peake. He was the sponsor of her school and wrote her biography.

 

-Claudette

Jon Sweeney on PBS this weekend

If you're enjoying our coverage of the KJV anniversary, keep an eye out for the next episode of PBS's Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.

The 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible: since it was first published in 1611, more copies have been sold than any other Bible in history and it's still on the best-seller list. Video was filmed at Jon's lecture at the Park Street Church on April 11.

Check your local PBS listings for broadcast times starting this Sunday.

-Claudette

The Past Can Meet the Future with Organized Records

On April 2, 2011, I attended a session at the New England Archivists' Spring 2011 Meeting on working with community archives. One of the Yale archivists described his projects where he provided information to community organizations on how to manage the records that the community organizations created and stored. When I heard this, I thought to myself, "The Congregational Library does this!" The Congregational Library has several resources on our website, including a booklet on how to start a records management program and useful templates.

Why records management? What is the benefit of undertaking more work for your church? There are practical benefits to this sort of program. Finding everyday records quickly allows for more time to be devoted to planning church events, raising funds, or even filing taxes, because time will not be wasted hunting for that one all important piece of paper.

There is another reason why such a program could be beneficial: preserving the memory of your organization. Organized records will help preserve the parts of the past for future use, whether it is by members of your Church or by local historians. One special part about preserving your church's past is that you have the power to act. With resources linked in the first paragraph, and other resources, like those at the Northeast Document Conservation Center, you can begin planning how to preserve your institutions past. Please follow the Congregational Library events page for an up-to-date listing of relevant events.

--Abraham

Archive Collection: Catharine Brown, Cherokee

We recently had a reference request for one of the folders in our "Small Collections" -- those are the individual records that are no more than a folder or two, so are grouped together for efficiency's sake (aka, an artificial collection).

There are hundreds of folders split between the 7 boxes of Small Collections, so it's often that I am not familiar with an item requested. This week I had a researcher inquiring about the Catharine (not Catherine) Brown file. Miss Brown was a Cherokee who was educated through the ABCFM in the early 19th century. She ended up teaching once she completed her training at Creek Path. Sadly, she died young. The ABCFM used Catharine as an example on several occasions as a success story. Some could say she was a symbol. Rufus Anderson wrote up her memoir, which can be found on the University of Virginia's Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture site.

Our collection contains letters by Catherine as well as from some of her family members and the missionaries. A number of items are written about Catharine after her death. Not all the items are original, but are very early hand-written copies; all the papers have annotations written after the fact and it's safe to say they were gathered in order to write the memoir. I will be combing through all the papers and creating a much more detailed guide than the hand written one that was done within the past 20 years. Points of description will be the obvious bibliographic information, the physical description and disposition of the paper itself, transcriptions of the annotations and the first line /sentence of text. It's been a fascinating project and it's giving me an opportunity to get into nitty-gritty item-level detail that I normally do not have the opportunity to indulge.

-Jessica

Video of Jon Sweeney's Lecture on April 11

Verily, Verily, I Say Unto You: Remember the Virtues of the King James Bible Lo These Last 400 Years!!

Click this link to see the video of Jon Sweeney's lecture. This program was co-sponsored by Mass. Bible Society and the Congregational Library. If you were unable to join us on April 11, here is your chance to see Jon.

-Claudette

Chinese Recorder added to collection

We are fortunate to have acquired The Chinese Recorder in the materials donated to us by the Chicago Theological Seminary. Our new holdings include: 1869-1876, 1898, 1907-1908, 1913-1917, 1923-1930, 1932-1940.

The Chinese Recorder (and Missionary Journal) was produced by the Protestant missionary community in China. This journal was published for seventy-two years, longer than any other English language publication in that country. The Chinese Recorder is regarded today as one of the most valuable sources for studying the missionary movement in China and its influence on Western relations with and perceptions of the Far East. It was published monthly by the Methodist Press, Foochow, 1867-1872, and Presbyterian Press, Shanghai, 1874-1941.

Author, Pearl S. Buck's first published story appeared in the August 1924 issue of the Chinese Recorder. Pearl, her father, Absalom Sydenstricker, and her husband, John Lossing Buck, all had articles published in this journal.

-Claudette

Conference on Massachusetts history

Off the Record: Telling Lives of People Hidden in Plain Sight
A Conference for Massachusetts History Organizations

Presented by Mass Humanities, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Program in Public History, the Joseph P. Healey Library and the Public History Track at the University of Massachusetts Boston

 

Monday, June 6, 2011
9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Hogan Campus Center, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester

 

The 2011 Massachusetts history conference takes as its theme historical programming (exhibits, tours, talks, websites, etc.) featuring people who are not usually present in the collections of local history organizations: slaves, free Blacks, Native Americans, women (and men) who did not toe the line in some way, itinerants, recent immigrants, the poor, disabled, and ill.

This year's conference features a keynote address by Dr. Elise Lemire of SUNY Purchase on "Rack Rocus: Bringing Northern Slavery into View".

For further details and registration information, see the conference page on the Mass Humanities website.