Beacon Street Diary

Updated resource -- William Eleazar Barton collection

As one of my first projects when I started here at the library in June, Jessica asked me to continue to re-house the lantern slide collection of William Eleazar Barton that she had started. It was a simple and satisfying project that required no learning curve or institutional memory and also was perfect for those times when your brains started hurting from the deep thinking you are doing for more challenging projects.

Once I was finished I went to add the slides to the rest of the Barton collection, and that was when I realized that the finding guide could probably use a bit of revamping. So began my first finding guide overhaul here at the Congregational Library. It was fun, the collection was super interesting, and I learned a lot about how to create a Congregational-Library-approved finding guide.

For your informational pleasure, a bright, shiny new finding guide is now available on our website: William Eleazar Barton papers, 1888-1953.

This collection contains the papers of William Eleazar Barton and family from 1888-1953 (with the bulk covering 1888-1930). Papers include correspondence; writings such as sermons, lectures, articles and outlines for books; photographs, scrapbooks, and printed materials; Barton's lantern slide collection; and materials created and related to Barton's son and author of "History of Business", Bruce Barton.

-April

Welcome to our MTS Intern Trevor Winn

This semester we have another type of intern joining our ranks. Trevor Winn is a student at Boston University in the Master of Theological Studies (MTS) program. Last spring Trevor asked Peggy Bendroth if we would be able to sponsor his internship. He has a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science from Olivet Nazarene University and a Master of Library Science from Indiana University. He is interested in expanding his experience in theological librarianship and the history of Congregationalism. With his degrees and library reference experience, we welcome him to the library to assist with the review of the materials we acquired from the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS). Trevor is a member of the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) and is a Merit Scholar at Boston University.

Join us in welcoming Trevor.

-Claudette

Free public domain journals from JSTOR

If you've done any research in an academic setting within the last decade, chances are good that you've used the JSTOR article database. Until this week, all of their full-text articles could only be viewed through a paid subscription, usually at a university or large public library. In response to recent attempts to steal their content, however, JSTOR has moved up their scheduled plans to make more than 500,000 out-of-copyright articles available for free.

They haven't announced specific journals yet, but with more than 220 titles included in the Early Journal Content program, we are hopeful that some of them will be useful to our patrons. As these resources become available, we will list the ones most likely to be of interest in our online catalog.

To read more about the (minor) controversy behind this decision, take a look at the recent Library Journal article, which includes a demonstration video for JSTOR's upcoming free content.

 

--Robin

Scheduling notice -- Reading Room closed on Monday

If you haven't visited our main website lately, you might not have noticed that we will be closed to the public on Monday, September 12th for our board's quarterly meeting.

The staff will still be on hand to answer all your research questions by phone or email, so feel free to contact us using those methods.

Plymouth Congregational Church, Seattle, WA

Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle, Washington was founded in 1869. The structure depicted here was the fourth used by the church, constructed between July 1911 and May 1912. It was located at Fourth Avenue and University Street, downtown Seattle. The building was demolished in 1966 to be replaced by the church's current home.

The photograph used to create the original postcard was taken by the short-lived firm of Nowell & Rognon.  The partnership between noted Canadian and American photographers Orville J. Rognon and Frank Nowell only lasted about two years (1911-1913) after the two met through their participation in the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909.

For more information about Washington churches, search for "Congregational churches - Washington (State)" in our online catalog.

 

--Robin

Brown Bag Lunch -- Wednesday, September 21st

The next installment in our Brown Bag Lunch series is just a few weeks away.

"Women of Smoke and Fire"

During and after the Civil War, many women volunteered as teachers to former slaves through the American Missionary Association. Join longtime Christian educator Faith Johnson as she highlights a few of their stories, the dangers and prejudices they faced, and why so many more women than men answered the AMA's call.

Bring your lunch and a curious mind.

12:00 - 1:00 pm

Free.
No registration is required, but we appreciate an RSVP so we know how many people to expect.