Joseph Felt
Rev. Joseph Barlow Felt served as the Congregational Library's first librarian, and was also one of its founders. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1813 and held pastorates in Sharon and Hamilton, Massachusetts, until 1832 when he left the ministry and devoted his time to writing and research instead. He was State Archivist from 1836 to 1842, and then Librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society from 1842 to 1853. The year he left the MHS he was formally appointed Librarian of the Congregational Library. Before being appointed to the post, Dr. Felt served as one of the founding members of the American Congregational Association and served as its Secretary. He retained the official post as Librarian until 1858 without salary.
Little is recorded about Dr. Felt's service to the library, however, it is known that, when he began his duties as Secretary, the library consisted of 100 books which had been a gift of the American Congregational Union. Upon Dr. Felt's retirement, the library's holdings had grown to 4,800 bound volumes, 15,000 pamphlets, and 800 manuscripts. While at the library, Dr. Felt wrote and published The ecclesiastical history of New England. He retired to Salem, Massachusetts, where he lived until his death in 1869. The library holds quite a few of Dr. Felt's works — many of which are also available online at Internet Archive.
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