Congregational Library

Brown Bag Lunch -- The Anointed

Karl Giberson, co-author with Randall Stephens of this important new work, will provide a thoughtful and engaging view of American evangelicalism in the twenty-first century.

The Anointed describes the power of experts over popular evangelical opinion, from the rise of scientific creationists to family experts like Focus on the Family's James Dobson. Giberson and Stephens also deal with the popularity of David Barton, whose books describing God's role in American history have shaped the political agenda of the religious right.

Come enjoy informal conversation around the table about a timely and important topic.

Wednesday, Feb. 22
12:00 - 1:00 pm

Join us for lunch at noon.
Program begins promptly at 12:15.

Free.
Preregistration required.

People of the Stacks #7 -- Isaac P. Langworthy

Isaac Pendleton Langworthy

"When Dr. Langworthy was elected Librarian at the May Meeting of 1862, he had already been a farmer, teacher, physician, pastor, and denominational secretary." So writes Frederick T. Persons in a retrospective on former Congregational Library librarians. Indeed, Rev. Dr. Isaac Pendleton Langworthy, the Congregational Library's third librarian, can claim many interesting distinctions. He was a graduate of Harvard Medical School, Yale College, and Yale Seminary; a founder of First Congregational Church in Chelsea, Massachusetts and then its pastor for 17 years; and founder and editor of Congregational Quarterly. He became Librarian in 1862 when the Library and Association were located on Chauncy Street, remained in office when the library moved to 40 Winter Street, was still in office when the property on Somerset Street was purchased, and (not content to only be the librarian) was the designer of the first Congregational House's oval reading room.

During his tenure as librarian, Dr. Langworthy undertook the process of weeding out duplicate material, organized books into a rough classification scheme, and began cataloging the collection in earnest (a task which was put into the hands of Assistant Librarian Miss Mary E. Stone). Dr. Langworthy spent much of his time collecting publications and manuscripts for the library, and upon his retirement in 1887, claimed an average annual increase library's holdings of 1,194 volumes during his tenure. He died at the age of 82 in 1888, leaving the Library $10,000 in his will to be spent on "town histories, genealogies and commentaries". The library holds seven items penned by Dr. Langworthy, including two articles which are also available online.

-Sari

Videos available from David Hall's talk

If you missed our packed brown bag lunch session last Wednesday featuring David Hall discussing his latest book, you may now watch the first half of that event and Peggy's follow-up interview on our YouTube channel.

We are doing a lot of collaboration with our development director, Cary Hewitt, so expect more audio-visual projects in the weeks and months to come.

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UPDATE: The YouTube playlist now includes a 4-part interview of David Hall by Peggy Bendroth.

"Are You Too Thin?"

At first glance, the old issues of the Congregationalist don't look that promising. For one thing, many of the volumes, especially those from the late 1800s, are very tattered and fragile. They are also huge and unwieldy, hardly inviting casual browsing. Inside are long articles in tiny print about the topics of the day: missionaries, ordinations, church meetings, and of course all of the unseemly things being done by Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians.

I have to confess that I love reading through those old pages. Sometimes the advertisements are so wonderful that you have to stop and enjoy them. Take for example, the virtues of "Puritana" vitamin syrup or "Greene's Nervura Blood and Nerve Remedy, the Grandest of Medicines and the Surest of Cures," as testified by Rev. Dr. Byron Sunderland from a church somewhere in "Talmadge".

Some of us in fact might take comfort in the fact that a hundred years ago the waif-like supermodel was deemed unsightly: the headline in an advertisement from 1906 was "Are You Too Thin?" For a paltry fee, Miss Susanna Cocroft would send you an elixir guaranteed to make you "round, plump, wholesome, rested and attractive." Testimonials included one woman ecstatic over gaining 25 pounds. Others testified to other apparent side-benefits, including more regular bowels and healthful digestion.

Who was Miss Cocroft? Apparently she was not a doctor or a dietitian: the advertisement simply tells us that "as president of Physical Culture Extension work in America, Miss Cocroft needs no further introduction." Hmmm.

Of course Miss Cocroft also advertised a potion that would "Reduce Flesh" by "natural means and in a dignified manner." All this required was a series of simple exercises practiced in the privacy of one's own room, alongside a "rational diet". In the end it's always so simple. Her descendants Jenny Craig and Dr. Atkins would hardly improve on that tried and true formula.

 

-Peggy

Welcome, Cristina!

We are pleased to announce our newest staff member, Cristina Prochilo who joined us last week as the part-time Associate Archivist. Her previous experience includes positions at the Property Information Resource Center at Harvard University where she specialized in architectural and construction management archives, as well as the Boston Preservation Alliance, The Northeast Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Park Service. Her undergraduate degree is from Smith College in History with a minor in Italian Language and Literature.  Cristina received a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University in 2000 and a dual Master of Science in Library and Information Science (concentration in Archives Management) in 2007 and Master of Arts in History in 2008.

Cristina will use her skills and knowledge in all phases of archival work including processing, preserving records, creating finding aids, and providing reference assistance to those using the collections. She has experience with both large and small collections, reference, and preservation. Cristina lives in Beverly with her husband, David, and their three year old daughter, Lidia.

ABCFM bicentennial conference

Some of you probably remember that the Congregational Library co-hosted a conference in the fall of 2010 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. So what's the Boston Theological Institute doing celebrating again just two years later?

 

American Culture and the Missionary Enterprise

Rodney Petersen, the director of the Boston Theological Institute, has, in collaboration with many others, put together what promises to be an excellent conference on the ABCFM, with a special emphasis on the missionary Judson family. The conference will mark another bicentennial of the American Board, which was founded in 1810 but not officially incorporated until 1812.

The conference will take place over a two week period, starting on Feb. 5 and concluding on Feb. 20. Locations for the conference include Boston, Salem, and Malden. For more information about the event, please go to: www.bostontheological.org/judson200.html.

Many of the papers delivered at the last conference on the ABCFM, the one that was held at the Congregational Library in Boston in Sept. 2010, are going to be published in a book that Paul T. Burlin and I have edited. The title of the book (hopefully due out next month from WIPF & Stock) is: The Role of the American Board in the World: Bicentennial Reflections on the Organization's Missionary Work, 1810-2010.

 

Clifford Putney
Bentley University

 

There you have it. Our own Peggy Bendroth will be participating in several of the events in her role as a religious historian.

If you missed it the first time around, our ABCFM exhibit will be on display in the Trask Library at Andover Newton Theological Seminary during the conference. (And you can always visit the digital exhibit, as well.)

Church Records Management Through the Years

As many of you know, we offer frequent workshops in records management for churches, and have several resources available on our website. This is an important topic in our increasingly digital world, but it is by no means a new one.

While reorganizing some of our older materials, Rachel came across a pamphlet from 1895 devoted to this very subject. It was originally a presentation to the Central Association of Kansas, and proved so popular among the attendees that it was typeset and printed by request.

The advice and guidelines that Mr. Wheeler set out in his pamphlet aren't all that different from the ones we provide today. He, of course, is more concerned with penmanship, while we place more emphasis on backing up digital files, but the overall goals are the same. If a congregation takes good care of its records, it will run more smoothly, have a better sense of its own history, and become a more vibrant community.

These practices are especially important in Congregational churches, because they are not beholden to any denominational hierarchy, but only to their own members, past, present, and future. As Wheeler says:

"One generation may pass away from earthly activity; but if they do their service, others will rise up, and the stream of church life will flow on; adding new life, fertility, and joy. Its record too, like the stream's channel and the rippled banks, will abide, and will be merely transfered to the great Book of Remembrance..."

Here at the Congregational Library, we do our best to preserve that "Book of Remembrance" by helping active churches organize their records, and providing a safe place for collections from churches that have closed. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our archival staff. And keep an eye on this blog or our events schedule for the next workshop announcement; it will be coming soon.

 

--Robin

New archival collection -- Indiana-Kentucky Christian Conference

Indiana-Kentucky Conference, Records, 1857-1947

We are pleased to announce a new addition to our collection! The records of the Indiana-Kentucky Conference (Christian Church [Denomination]) have been processed and are now available to researchers. These records document four regional conferences of the Christian Church in Indiana.

The Christian Church traces its roots back to three separate and distinct branches which spontaneously arose in various portions of the country and from various denominational heritages. Each of these three branches eschewed denominational hierarchy. They claimed the Bible as their only creed and rejected any descriptive title other than "Christian". To avoid the appearance of denominationalism, they most often referred to themselves as the "Christian Connection" rather than "Christian denomination". In the 1930s the Christians merged with the Congregationalist Churches, making the Christians an important (though often overlooked or under-represented) part of Congregational heritage (for a visual representation of this heritage, check out this denominational "family tree" by The ARDA).

 

-Sari

Event reminder -- Brown bag lunch tomorrow

Join us in conversation with author David Hall about the New England roots of the Congregational Way. Hall's groundbreaking book, A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England upends the stereotypes of the Puritans as authoritarian killjoys and shows the truly revolutionary vision they brought to New England.

12:00 - 1:00 pm

Free.
Please RSVP.

Take a look at our Program & Workshop Schedule for more details.

Civil Rights, Old School

One of the best things for me about our library is that the collection includes so much material that fed into modern social activism. This depository has been actively collecting pamphlets and books on the topics of education, suffrage, and slavery for almost 160 years. When we consider our collection policy, a big priority is to consider what the historical view on a topic has been over the decades.

Among the many topics within that of civil rights, those interested in learning more about its roots should consider our collections on the American Missionary Association. The AMA was formed as an abolitionist group in the mid-19th century and continued into reconstruction with the goal of educating African Americans, particularly in the South. We have an extensive microfilm collection of their reports, as well as periodicals (The American Missionary particularly), pamphlets, sermons -- so much more.

Rachel and our band of catalogers have been very conscientious over the years about adding subject headings, so researchers are more likely to find related items on topics like Civil Rights, Abolition, Antislavery Movements, Race Relations, and so on. When searching various subjects, check out the "Suggested Search" button at the top of results pages, or click on links within the catalog records. You may find the elusive niche you were looking for all along.

As ever, if you have any questions on finding what we have, do not hesitate to contact our friendly and resourceful staff.

-Jessica

 

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Image courtesy of the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University and the Louisiana Digital Library exhibit The American Missionary Association and the Promise of a Multicultural America: 1839-1954.