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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261009T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261009T130000
DTSTAMP:20260914T171529Z
CREATED:20260911T213433Z
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UID:15761-1791547200-1791550800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Mysteries on the Shelves\, Absences in the Catalog: The Print Inventory Project
DESCRIPTION:This event is free and open to all\, but registration is required by Tuesday\, October 6\, at noon.   \nTo attend IN-PERSON\, register via Eventbrite. \nTo attend VIRTUALLY\, register via Zoom. \nAfter registering\, you will receive an email with information about attending the event.  \nEmail any questions to programs@14beacon.org.  \n  \nThe Congregational Library & Archives’ print inventory project is finally complete! Begun in 2016 and the focus of intensive work from January 2025 to August 2026\, this project has involved researching nearly 150\,000 printed books\, sermons\, and pamphlets collected over the CLA’s nearly 175-year-old history.  \nIn this hybrid lunch and learn program\, Collection Accessibility Project Specialist Téa Belog and Librarian Meaghan Wright will talk about the background\, progress\, and next steps for the library following the inventory. They will share insights and lessons learned from this major undertaking.  \nJoin us in person or on Zoom to learn more about how this massive undertaking to review the entire the print collection will align the catalog with what is on the shelves to increase findability.  Learn how it will also inform the creation of a cataloguing plan to address the backlog of uncatalogued material. For those who have been watching the progress of this project for the past decade\, this program is for you!   \n  \nSpeakers \nMeaghan Wright joined the CLA as the Librarian in Fall 2023. She is interested in expanding access to the collection through improved description\, data tracking\, and outreach. Her favorite types of collections are rare books\, cookbooks\, and anything with pretty illustrations. Before coming to the CLA\, Meaghan worked as a reference librarian at the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum for over six years.  \n  \nTéa Belog is an MLIS student at Simmons University. Her love of history\, books\, and organization coalesces into her current project at the Congregational Library & Archives as she tackles years of uncatalogued books. 
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/the-print-inventory-project
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:Lunch & Learn
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261013T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261013T140000
DTSTAMP:20260914T195229Z
CREATED:20260911T215124Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260914T195229Z
UID:15763-1791896400-1791900000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Spirits in the Stacks: A Ghostly Tour at the Congregational Library & Archives - Virtual
DESCRIPTION:The CLA’s popular Halloween tour returns\, this time with even more spooky tales! Join us for chilling tales of the macabre. NEHH Project Director Dr. Tricia Peone will guide you through the haunted history of the Congregational Library & Archives.   \nHear ghost stories drawn from the 400-year history of Congregationalism\, and learn why the CLA has collected occult literature. View rare books and manuscripts from the CLA’s collections\, including seventeenth-century books on ghosts and witchcraft\, nineteenth-century pamphlets on vampires and seances\, and twentieth-century haunted house sermons.   \nThis interactive tour will begin with a discussion of puritan belief in ghosts and the invisible world\, including works by Boston ministers Increase and Cotton Mather that continue to shape the way people understand these topics. Dr. Peone will explore the legacy of New England’s supernatural landscape and how this history continues to affect us today.   \n  \nTickets are $15 for members and $20 for non-members\, and registration is limited to a small group.  \nTo attend\, register by Sunday\, October 11. Click here to register. \nAfter registering\, you will receive an email with information about attending the webinar.  \nEmail any questions to programs@14beacon.org.  \n  \nSpeaker   \nDr. Tricia Peone joined the CLA in 2022 as the Project Director for New England’s Hidden Histories. Prior to joining the CLA\, she was a research scholar at Historic New England for the Recovering New England’s Voices project. She has also previously worked as the public programs director at New Hampshire Humanities\, a university lecturer teaching classes on the Salem witch trials\, early New England\, and public history\, and as a researcher for cultural heritage organizations. Her scholarship focuses on early New England\, particularly the history of magic and witchcraft\, and her work on these subjects has appeared in journals\, books\, blogs\, and on radio and television. She holds a PhD in history from the University of New Hampshire with a specialization in the early modern Atlantic world and history of science. 
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/spirits-in-the-stacks-2026-virtual
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:Tour
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/6.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261015T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261015T190000
DTSTAMP:20260917T000519Z
CREATED:20260911T215337Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260917T000519Z
UID:15767-1792085400-1792090800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Spirits in the Stacks: A Ghostly Tour at the Congregational Library & Archives – In-Person
DESCRIPTION:The CLA’s popular Halloween tour returns\, this time with even more spooky tales! Join us for chilling tales of the macabre. NEHH Project Director Dr. Tricia Peone will guide you through the haunted history of the Congregational Library & Archives.   \nHear ghost stories drawn from the 400-year history of Congregationalism\, and learn why the CLA has collected occult literature. View rare books and manuscripts from the CLA’s collections\, including seventeenth-century books on ghosts and witchcraft\, nineteenth-century pamphlets on vampires and seances\, and twentieth-century haunted house sermons.   \nThis interactive tour will begin with a discussion of puritan belief in ghosts and the invisible world\, including works by Boston ministers Increase and Cotton Mather that continue to shape the way people understand these topics. Dr. Peone will explore the legacy of New England’s supernatural landscape and how this history continues to affect us today.   \n  \nTickets are $15 for members and $20 for non-members\, and registration is limited to a small group.  \nTo attend\, register by Tuesday\, October 13th. Click here to register. \nAfter registering\, you will receive an email with information about attending the webinar closer to the event date.  \nEmail any questions to programs@14beacon.org.  \n  \nSpeaker   \nDr. Tricia Peone joined the CLA in 2022 as the Project Director for New England’s Hidden Histories. Prior to joining the CLA\, she was a research scholar at Historic New England for the Recovering New England’s Voices project. She has also previously worked as the public programs director at New Hampshire Humanities\, a university lecturer teaching classes on the Salem witch trials\, early New England\, and public history\, and as a researcher for cultural heritage organizations. Her scholarship focuses on early New England\, particularly the history of magic and witchcraft\, and her work on these subjects has appeared in journals\, books\, blogs\, and on radio and television. She holds a PhD in history from the University of New Hampshire with a specialization in the early modern Atlantic world and history of science. 
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/spirits-in-the-stacks-2026-in-person
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/7.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261021T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261021T140000
DTSTAMP:20260914T171956Z
CREATED:20260914T153450Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260914T171956Z
UID:15776-1792587600-1792591200@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY: Digitizing Records: A CSI Exploration on the How’s and Whys of Digitization
DESCRIPTION:If you have ever looked at a disorderly pile of papers and thought\, “this would be easier to deal with if these were all digital” you are not alone. Digitization has been a buzz word for at least two decades. While easy to name\, digitization itself is a complex topic that meets at the intersection of technology\, preservation\, access\, and the humanities. Understanding these intersections is necessary to plan and enact a successful digitization project.   \nJoin archivists Zachary Bodnar and Billy McCarthy on this exploration of Digitization with an eye towards the technology and planning required to move forward with digitization projects as well as an exploration on why institutions might take on the challenges of digitization as well as the long-term pros and cons of holding digitized records within a church archive.   \n  \nThis event is free and open to all\, but registration is required.  Click here to register. \nAfter registering\, you will receive an email with information about attending the webinar.  \nEmail any questions to programs@14beacon.org.  \n  \nSpeakers:   \nZachary Bodnar graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science from Simmons University\, with a concentration in archives management\, in 2018. Prior to his work at the CLA\, Zachary worked at the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden archive\, the Vassar College Special Collections\, the Harvard Law School Library\, and the Harvard Botany Libraries. Zachary joined the CLA as an Archives Assistant in 2017\, helping to prepare materials for digitization through the New England’s Hidden Histories program. In 2018\, he took on the title of Archivist. His professional interests include metadata collection and management\, digital archiving\, audio/visual preservation\, and archives management.   \nBilly McCarthy graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) at Simmons University with a concentration in Archival Management. He started working at the CLA through a graduate internship and was hired full-time as an Archivist in 2018. Billy is the Head of Reader Services\, helping the CLA’s visitors with reference requests and facilitating in-person research. Billy also serves as the collection manager for the archives\, working with CLA’s offsite vendor to protect and maintain the organization’s archival records. Some of his professional interests include increasing access\, collection management\, processing of complex materials\, and facilitating research.  
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/digitizing-records
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:Archives,CSI
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/WEBSITE-Events-1.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261023T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261023T130000
DTSTAMP:20260923T130455Z
CREATED:20260330T090930Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T130455Z
UID:14591-1792756800-1792760400@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Early New England Witchcraft Collections Tour
DESCRIPTION:Join Dr. Tricia Peone\, New England’s Hidden Histories Project Director\, at 14 Beacon for a tour exploring puritan beliefs about witchcraft. \nGet into the spooky season mood by viewing rare books and manuscripts from the Congregational Library & Archives’ collections\, including seventeenth-century works on ghosts and witchcraft\, books connected to the Salem witch trials\, sermons about witchcraft\, and Cotton Mather’s diary. The tour will also consider why this subject continues to fascinate us today. \nHeld in the CLA’s historic reading room at 14 Beacon Street\, these monthly collection tours connect residents of Beacon Hill and the greater Boston region with original\, rarely seen materials in the CLA’s collections. \nThis event will run from 12 to 1 pm and will begin with a short talk by Tricia Peone\, followed by plenty of time for browsing items from our collections and asking questions. \nThanks to the generosity of the Beacon Hill Civic Association\, these programs are offered completely free of charge to the public. Reservations via Eventbrite are appreciated but not required.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/early-new-england-witchcraft-collections-tour
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
CATEGORIES:Congregational Story,Tour
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Witchcraft-in-Early-New-England-copy.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261107T083000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261107T170000
DTSTAMP:20260925T173838Z
CREATED:20260925T170937Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T173838Z
UID:15850-1794040200-1794070800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Puritans in the 21st Century: Politics\, Myths\, and the Future: A Symposium in Honor of Francis J. Bremer
DESCRIPTION:This is a hybrid symposium hosted by American Ancestors at 97 Newbury Street\, Boston\, MA. Register here. \nPresented in partnership with: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts\, Congregational Library and Archives\, First Church of Boston\, Massachusetts Historical Society\, and Partnership of Historic Bostons. \nPuritans in the 21st Century\, a day-long symposium on Saturday\, November 7\, 2026\, hosted by six of New England’s leading historical institutions\, makes the case for 17th century Puritans. Do they still matter today? A stellar collection of Puritan and other scholars argues they do—that now\, in the 21st century\, understanding the Puritans and their legacy is more important than ever. \nHeld in honor of the historian Francis J. Bremer and open to public\, this symposium asks what 17th-century Puritan history in England and New England tells us about today’s politics and our understanding of religion and society. From Christian nationalism and the politics of slavery\, from the 17th-century toleration debate to pushing Puritan boundaries\, Puritans in the 21st Century brings together insights and new research of award-winning academics and public historians. This is the first major gathering of Puritan scholars in more than two decades at a time when early American studies are changing dramatically. Together they ask: What is the future of Puritan studies? Why and how are Puritans important today? \nSee the full symposium schedule here. \n  \nSpeakers \nFrancis J. Bremer is professor emeritus at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He has held visiting positions at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England and Trinity College in Dublin\, Ireland. He is an elected member of the Massachusetts Historical Society\, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts\, and the American Antiquarian Society and served on the board of the Congregational Library & Archives. He is the author or editor of over 20 books and numerous articles dealing with the Puritans in the 17th century Atlantic world\, including John Winthrop: America’s Forgotten Founding Father; Puritanism: A Short Introduction; Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport\, a Puritan in Three Worlds; Lay Empowerment and the Development of Puritanism; and One Small Candle: The Story of the Plymouth Puritans and the Beginning of English New England. \nLori Rogers-Stokes is an independent scholar\, public historian\, and contributing editor for New England’s Hidden Histories\, a digital history project on colonial-era Congregational church records. She is the author of two books on the Puritans: Records of Trial from Thomas Shepard’s Church in Cambridge\, 1638-49: Heroic Souls (2020)\, and Gathered into a Church: Indigenous-English Congregationalism in Woodland New England (2025). Lori studies the history of Woodland New England\, when Indigenous and English people took actions that continue to shape our lives today. \nDaniel K. Richter is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a contributor to the Oxford Handbook of Puritanism (2005) and the author of Native Americans and Pennsylvania (revised and expanded edition\, 2026); Trade\, Land\, Power: The Struggle for Eastern North America (2013); Before the Revolution: America’s Ancient Pasts (2011); Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America (2001); and The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (1992). \nAdrian Chastain Weimer is Professor of History at Providence College. She recently published a co-edited volume with David Hall\, The Writings of Daniel Gookin and Allied Documents (2026). Her latest monograph\, A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire\, was awarded the Winthrop Prize. A 2025 Longterm Fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library allowed her to launch a new project on Anglo-Indigenous diplomacy between the Mohawk and Kennebec Rivers\, 1650-1690. \nJohn Coffey taught for 25 years at the University of Leicester in the UK. As of August 2026\, he takes up a post at the University of Texas at Austin. He works on religion\, politics\, and ideas in the Protestant Atlantic world between 1600 and 1850. Coffey is the author of four monographs: intellectual biographies of the Scottish Covenanter Samuel Rutherford and the English Puritan John Goodwin; Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England\, 1558-1689; and Exodus and Liberation: Deliverance Politics from John Calvin to Martin Luther King Jr. He has edited or co-edited other works\, including The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism\, The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions: The Post-Reformation\, and Seeing Things Their Way: Intellectual History and the Return of Religion. He was part of the editorial team that produced the prize-winning five-volume edition of Richard Baxter’s Reliquiae Baxterianae\, and is currently leading a team working on another Oxford University Press edition\, the million-word Diaries and Journals of William Wilberforce (in preparation). \nAbram Van Engen is Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities and Director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of Sympathetic Puritans (2015) and City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism (2020)\, which won the Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Award and the Pelikan Award. He has also co-edited A History of American Puritan Literature (2020). His most recent book is Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church (2024)\, which was named the best book of 2024 in culture\, poetry\, and the arts from Christianity Today. His research and writing have appeared in multiple magazines and journals\, and his work teaching poetry has expanded into an award-winning podcast called Poetry For All. \nAfter earning his PhD in American Studies at Yale\, David D. Hall taught there until 1970\, when he moved to Boston University to serve as the initial chair of a new doctoral program\, American and New England Studies. In 1989\, he moved to Harvard Divinity School. The religious history of early modern Britain and New England have been central to his work\, although he also became engaged in the emerging field of book history that led to the founding of a center for book history at the American Antiquarian Society and a five-volume history of the book in America\, of which he was general editor. David Hall is author of the groundbreaking books Worlds of Wonder\, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Beliefs in Early New England (1989); A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England (2012); and the magisterial The Puritans: A Transatlantic History (2019). \nHolly Brewer is Burke Professor of American History and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland. She is a specialist in the early British empire in the Americas as well as early modern debates about justice. Her first book traced the origin and impact of “democratical” ideas across the empire by examining debates about consent in theory and legal practice. By Birth or Consent: Children\, Law\, and the Anglo-American Revolution in Authority (2005) won three prizes. Her upcoming book\, The Kings’ Slaves: The British Empire and the Origins of American Slavery (2027) is based on 20 years of research about the connections between religious and ideological debates over power and their impact on legal practice in the 17th and 18th centuries. A winner of multiple awards\, Holly Brewer is also a writer of amicus briefs for the Supreme Court and the project director and lead editor of the website slaverylawpower.org. \nNeal Dugre is Associate Professor of Early American History and Chair of the Department of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Houston–Clear Lake. His current book project\, titled Confederate New England: The Political Anatomy of an Early American Region\, explores the relationship between confederal politics and Puritan colonialism in the 17th century northeast. Fellowships from the American Historical Association\, Massachusetts Historical Society\, New Netherland Institute\, and other organizations have facilitated this research. Neal’s 2018 New England Quarterly article\, “Repairing the Breach: Puritan Expansion\, Commonwealth Formation\, and the Origins of the United Colonies of New England\, 1630–1643\,” received the Walter Muir Whitehill Prize in Early American History. \nMeredith Neuman teaches and researches in the fields of early American literature and book history. Her research centers around archival print and manuscript sources—ranging from notebooks kept by Puritans when they were listening to sermons\, to amateur manuscript poetry\, to readers’ marks in print books\, to the history and context of the Mather family’s vast personal library. She is associate professor in the English department at Clark University\, where she holds hands-on workshops with materials at the American Antiquarian Society; campus special collections are a common feature of her seminars. Her first book\, Jeremiah’s Scribes: Creating Sermon Literature in Puritan New England (2013)\, explores the world of sermon notetaking\, shifting attention from pulpit to pew\, demonstrating how sermon auditors helped shape this dominant genre of Puritan literature. In her current book project\, she endeavors to get to the bottom of that persistent question\, “What’s the Matter with Early American Poetry?”
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/puritans-in-the-21st-century
LOCATION:Hybrid
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261112T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261112T140000
DTSTAMP:20260923T203517Z
CREATED:20260923T203236Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T203517Z
UID:15843-1794488400-1794492000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Two Ships: Jamestown 1619\, Plymouth 1620\, and the Struggle for the Soul of America – A Virtual Book Talk
DESCRIPTION:Join David Reynolds as he discusses his new book Two Ships: Jamestown 1619\, Plymouth 1620\, and the Struggle for the Soul of America (Penguin Press\, 2026)\, a revelatory history of American division through the prism of two ships once widely used as symbols in the war of ideas between North and South—a struggle whose echoes remain with us today.  \nIn the polarized decades leading up to the Civil War\, many argued that America’s strife could be traced to the arrival of two ships: The White Lion\, which brought the first enslaved Africans to Jamestown in 1619\, and the Mayflower\, which brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth in 1620. As David S. Reynolds shows\, these ships stood for two distinct realities: Virginia’s royalist Cavaliers\, steeped in divine right and rigid patriarchal hierarchies\, and Plymouth’s dissenting Puritans\, who carried the seeds of a more egalitarian political vision.  \nThe two ships became powerful symbols in the fight over slavery and whether social hierarchy was the natural order of things. But as America descended into the long night of Jim Crow\, the metaphor went to sleep as well\, and the Mayflower and Thanksgiving became mainstream\, apolitical ideas. By dredging up these dueling images\, Reynolds challenges us\, as Frederick Douglass once did\, to confront America’s long struggle for true equality and find hope that we are up to the task.  \n  \nThis event is free and open to all\, but registration is required. Click here to register. \nAfter registering\, you will receive an email with information about attending the webinar.    \nEmail any questions to programs@14beacon.org.  \n  \nSpeaker \nSpeaker information forthcoming.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/two-ships-book-talk
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:Book Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/WEBSITE-Events-5.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261120T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261120T130000
DTSTAMP:20260410T111435Z
CREATED:20260410T111435Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260410T111435Z
UID:14688-1795176000-1795179600@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Children's Literature Collections Tour at the CLA
DESCRIPTION:Join Dr. Kyle Roberts at 14 Beacon for a tour exploring 250 years of Congregational literature written and published for children. \nThe literature Congregational publishing companies and churches have produced specifically for children has changed dramatically over the centuries\, reflecting changing ideas about childhood and what constitutes appropriate topics for their learning and reading pleasure. This tour will explore the surprisingly rich children’s literature collection at the Congregational Library & Archives\, many originally published at 14 Beacon. \nHeld in the CLA’s historic reading room at 14 Beacon Street\, these monthly collection tours connect residents of Beacon Hill and the greater Boston region with original\, rarely seen materials in the CLA’s collections. \nThis event will run from 12 to 1 pm and will begin with a short talk by Kyle Roberts\, followed by plenty of time for browsing items from our collections and asking questions. \nThanks to the generosity of the Beacon Hill Civic Association\, these programs are offered completely free of charge to the public. Reservations via Eventbrite are appreciated but not required.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/childrens-literature-collections-tour
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
CATEGORIES:CLA History,Congregational Story,Tour
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Nov26Carousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261202T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261202T140000
DTSTAMP:20260925T133159Z
CREATED:20260923T152458Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T133159Z
UID:15839-1796216400-1796220000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:New Englanders in a New Land: Newark in the Proprietary Period\, 1666-1702 – A Virtual Book Talk
DESCRIPTION:Join Timothy J. Crist as he discusses his new book\, New Englanders in a New Land: Newark in the Proprietary Period\, 1666–1702 (Rutgers\, 2026)\, which explores the founding and evolution of Newark as a self-contained Puritan community.\n\nNew England Puritans from the former New Haven Colony settled Newark in 1666. Guided by John Davenport’s “Discourse about Civil Government in a New Plantation Whose Design is Religion” (1663)\, they aimed to implement “the Kingdom of Christ in the Congregational Way.” Their fierce determination to establish scripture-based government in a close-knit township and only admit settlers who promised to maintain “the purity of Religion professed in the Congregational Churches” often put them in direct conflict with New Jersey’s proprietary government. In addition\, their egalitarian approach to allocating land diverged sharply from the proprietors’ headright system\, adapted from the West Indies and Carolina\, that rewarded the use of indentured servants and enslaved labor with larger distributions of land.\n\nThis study provides a fresh interpretation of the founding and settlement of Newark as a self-contained New England community\, including negotiations with Native Americans\, formation of godly self-government\, gradual allocation of township land\, and introduction of slavery. To establish their New England way\, Newarkers resisted the proprietary government to the point of rebellion\, bringing into stark relief the inherent conflict between two sources of authority\, one scriptural and community-based and the other royal and proprietary.\n  \nThis event is free and open to all\, but registration is required. Click here to register. \nAfter registering\, you will receive an email with information about attending the webinar.    \nEmail any questions to programs@14beacon.org.  \n  \nSpeaker \nTimothy J. Crist is a co-founder and president of the Newark History Society. After earning his BA from Yale University and his PhD in history from University of Cambridge\, he headed a bibliographical research project at Yale and then held executive positions at Prudential Financial. Tim has also served as chair of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and president of the Newark Public Library. In addition\, he has been a volunteer transcriber for CLA’s New England Hidden Histories project for the last decade.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/new-englanders-in-a-new-land-newark-in-the-proprietary-period-1666-1702-a-virtual-book-talk
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:Book Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/New-Englanders.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261218T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261218T130000
DTSTAMP:20260330T091457Z
CREATED:20260330T091457Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260330T091457Z
UID:14594-1797595200-1797598800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Illustrated Bibles Collections Tour
DESCRIPTION:Join CLA Librarian Meaghan Wright at 14 Beacon for a tour of illustrated Bibles in the Congregational Library & Archives’ collection. \nThe Christian Bible is the best-selling book of all time (it even holds a Guiness World Record!)\, so it is no surprise that Bibles have been illustrated in many different ways over the centuries. This tour will feature a selection of illustrated Bibles to explore changing perceptions of visual art and religion\, artistic style\, and illustrative processes. \nHeld in the CLA’s historic reading room at 14 Beacon Street\, these monthly collection tours connect residents of Beacon Hill and the greater Boston region with original\, rarely seen materials in the CLA’s collections. \nThis event will run from 12 to 1 pm and will begin with a short talk by Meaghan Wright\, followed by plenty of time for browsing items from our collections and asking questions. \nThanks to the generosity of the Beacon Hill Civic Association\, these programs are offered completely free of charge to the public. Reservations via Eventbrite are appreciated but not required.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/illustrated-bibles-collections-tour
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
CATEGORIES:Congregationalists and the Arts,Tour
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