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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241112T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241112T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T183911Z
CREATED:20260209T112725Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T183911Z
UID:9009-1731416400-1731420000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Squanto: A Native Odyssey
DESCRIPTION:This virtual book talk celebrated the upcoming release of Squanto: A Native Odyssey with author Dr. Andrew Lipman. \nAmerican schoolchildren have long learned about Squanto\, the welcoming Native who made the First Thanksgiving possible\, but his story goes deeper than the holiday legend. Born in the Wampanoag-speaking town of Patuxet in the late 1500s\, Squanto was kidnapped in 1614 by an English captain\, who took him to Spain. From there\, Englishmen brought him to London and Newfoundland before sending him home in 1619\, when Squanto discovered that most of Patuxet had died in an epidemic. A year later\, the Mayflower colonists arrived at his home and renamed it Plymouth. \nPrize-winning historian Andrew Lipman explored the mysteries that still surround Squanto: How did he escape bondage and return home? Why did he help the English after an Englishman enslaved him? Why did he threaten Plymouth’s fragile peace with its neighbors with a daring plot that shocked colonists and Natives alike? Was it true that he converted to Christianity on his deathbed? Drawing from a wide range of evidence\, Lipman reconstructed Squanto’s upbringing\, his transatlantic odyssey\, his career as an interpreter\, his surprising downfall\, and his enigmatic death. The result was a fresh look at an epic life that ended right when many Americans think their story begins. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Andrew Lipman is associate professor of history at Barnard College\, Columbia University. His first book\, The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast (Yale University Press\, 2015) was a winner of the Bancroft Prize in American History. His second book\, Squanto: A Native Odyssey\, was published by Yale University Press in 2024.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/squanto-native-odyssey
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SquantoCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241102T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241102T190000
DTSTAMP:20260211T183301Z
CREATED:20260209T112501Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T183301Z
UID:9007-1730566800-1730574000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Congregational Library & Archives Open House 2024
DESCRIPTION:At our 2024 Open House\, we celebrated the launch of our new online exhibition\, Religion of Revolution: Congregational Voices on Liberty\, with an in-person display of materials from Revolutionary America and a special performance by Norumbega Harmony. \nCongregationalists interpreted liberty through their own religious framework\, which included principles of autonomy\, fellowship\, and consensus. The exhibition highlights what Congregationalists had to say about liberty as documented in important printed works of the period as well as manuscript church records\, letters\, and sermon literature from the CLA’s collections and the New England’s Hidden Histories project. \nNorumbega Harmony is one of the largest and most active groups of Sacred Harp and shape-note singers in New England. Its repertoire consists of music from the colonial and Revolutionary era of New England as well as music from the Sacred Harp and other American folk-hymn traditions.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/congregational-library-archives-open-house-2024
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/OHCarousel24-400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241025T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241025T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T171407Z
CREATED:20260209T112052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T171407Z
UID:9000-1729861200-1729864800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Office Hours with the Archivists
DESCRIPTION:We celebrated Archives Month 2024 by hosting this special open office hour with the Congregational Library & Archives archivists’ Zachary Bodnar and Billy McCarthy. \nDo you want to ask about best practices for storing your materials? Learn more about which records you need to keep and for how long? Find out what a finding aid is and whether or not you should create one for your church’s records? Our archivists discussed these topics and more in this special program. \nZachary and Billy answered your archival questions and followed up on a few audience questions they did not have time to answer in previous Church Stewardship Initiative programs. \nSPEAKER BIOS \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/office-hours-archivists
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ArchivistsOHCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241016T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241016T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T171329Z
CREATED:20260209T111633Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T171329Z
UID:8995-1729083600-1729087200@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:The Stones Cry Out: Early New England Epitaphs in Context
DESCRIPTION:This virtual program discussed the ways that epitaphs give voice to eighteenth-century Congregationalists’ changing attitudes towards dying and death. \n\nUsing illustrations of gravestones and transcriptions of the epitaphs\, John Hanson explored the ways these monuments provide evidence of the gradual shift in early Congregationalists’ attitudes towards salvation from pious doubt\, to reasonable hope and comfortable assurance. \nEpitaphs provided a means for bereaved survivors to summarize their lived experience of dying and death. They focused on themes that characterized the Congregational worldview\, including death’s constant presence in their lives; the imperative to sanctify the event for one’s spiritual benefit; the ritual of deathbed confession\, repentance\, and reconciliation; the importance of resigning oneself to God’s sovereign will; and the consoling belief that death was a welcome release from the troubles and infirmities of this world. \nSPEAKER BIO \nJohn Hanson has been collecting and analyzing early New England epitaphs for years\, examining where the verses originated\, how their source texts were accessed\, and the cultural and religious context in which they were chosen and carved on gravestones. He is the author of Reading the Gravestones of Old New England (McFarland\, 2021) and has published and spoken extensively on his research. He received his AB cum laude in English and American Literature from Harvard and is a member of the American Antiquarian Society. John is from Massachusetts and currently lives in Boston and the Berkshires.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/stones-cry-out
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/StonesCryOutCarousel400.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240925T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240925T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T171228Z
CREATED:20260209T111246Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T171228Z
UID:8990-1727269200-1727272800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Christianity and Comics:  Stories We Tell about Heaven and Hell
DESCRIPTION:The Bible has inspired Western art and literature for centuries\, so it is no surprise that Christian iconography\, characters\, and stories have also appeared in many comic books. Yet the sheer stylistic range of these comics is stunning. They include books from Christian publishers\, as well as underground comix with religious themes and a vast array of DC\, Marvel\, and Dark Horse titles\, from Hellboy to Preacher. \nChristianity and Comics presents an 80-year history of the various ways that the comics industry has drawn from biblical source material. It explores how some publishers specifically targeted Christian audiences with titles like Catholic Comics\, books featuring heroic versions of Oral Roberts and Billy Graham\, and special religious-themed editions of Archie. But it also considers how popular mainstream comics like Daredevil\, The Sandman\, Ghost Rider\, and Batman are infused with Christian themes and imagery. Comics scholar Dr. Blair Davis pays special attention to how the medium’s unique use of panels\, word balloons\, captions\, and serialized storytelling have provided vehicles for telling familiar biblical tales in new ways. Spanning the Golden Age of comics to the present day\, this book charts how comics have both reflected and influenced Americans’ changing attitudes towards religion. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Blair Davis is a Professor in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago. His books include Comic Book Women\, The Battle for the Bs\, Movie Comics: Page to Screen/Screen to Page\, and Comic Book Movies\, all from Rutgers University Press.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/christianity-and-comics
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ChristComicsCarousel400.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240918T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240918T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T183746Z
CREATED:20260209T111045Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T183746Z
UID:8985-1726664400-1726668000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Celebrating Your Church’s Anniversary: Tips and Tricks for a Memorable Commemoration
DESCRIPTION:Whether your church is celebrating 25 or 250 years\, an anniversary offers opportunities to make meaningful and creative connections with your congregation’s mission and story–past\, present\, and future. It is a time to learn more about the people who founded and led your church and about the events that have shaped its unique identity. \nThis roundtable discussion featured people from across the continental United States and Hawai’i who had recently helped to plan and lead church anniversary celebrations. They shared their experience and advice on how to research your church’s history\, balance planning and implementation\, and engage your church and broader community. \nThis program offered both inspiration for your church’s next anniversary and a great opportunity to hear some ways Congregational churches are celebrating their community histories! \nSPEAKER BIOS \nKeiko Denbeau is a grandmother and retired Army officer who has been a member of Kawaiahaʻo Church for 40 years. Between volunteering at her church and working on a federally-funded grant (also at her church)\, Keiko spends her time making memories with her children and grandchildren. \nRev. Norm Erlendson has been pastoring Congregational churches in Washington State and Connecticut since 1990. Norm was the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Snohomish\, WA during its Centennial Celebration in 2003. He is currently the pastor of First Congregational Church of Stonington\, CT\, (The Road Church)\, which is in the midst of a year-long celebration of its 350th anniversary that began in June 2024. \nLinda Lacy received an interdisciplinary BA degree with emphases in Art\, Education\, and Communications from Chadron State College. As an Artist in Residence with the Nebraska Arts Council for the past 25+ years\, Linda has instructed numerous painting and pottery workshops for children and adults in schools and communities across Nebraska. She has also been a member\, treasurer\, and landscape manager of Ashby Congregational Church for the last eight years.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/celebrate-church-anniversary
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CelebratingAnnivCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240808T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240808T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T183840Z
CREATED:20260209T110819Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T183840Z
UID:8980-1723122000-1723125600@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Cotton Mather and the Salem Witch Trials: Separating Fact from Fiction
DESCRIPTION:Cotton Mather is perhaps most famous for his role in the Salem witch trials. He was also the minister at Boston’s North Church (Second Church) and a prolific writer with a transatlantic audience. Mather has often been portrayed as an instigator of the trials and a witch hunter. But what exactly did he do\, and why has he been such a polarizing figure? \nThis virtual roundtable discussion featured Salem witch trials historian Marilynne Roach (author of The Salem Witch Trials and Six Women of Salem)\, Rachel Christ-Doane (Director of Education at the Salem Witch Museum)\, and Tricia Peone (Project Director of New England’s Hidden Histories at the Congregational Library & Archives). \nThe discussion focused on Cotton Mather’s writings about witchcraft\, misconceptions about his role in the Salem witch trials\, and his legacy today. \nSPEAKER BIOS \nMarilynne Roach is a writer\, researcher\, illustrator\, and lecturer who has so far written nine books on topics ranging from Thoreau at Walden to the Salem witchcraft trials. She was an associate editor on the definitive Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt and a member of the Gallows Hill Project that proved the correct location of the 1692 hangings (included in Archaeology Magazine’s list of the world’s ten most important discoveries of 2016). Roach’s The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege is considered the bible of the Salem witch trials. \nRachel Christ-Doane is the Director of Education at the Salem Witch Museum. She holds a BA in History from Clark University and MA in History and Museum Studies from Tufts University. As Director of Education she trains museum docents\, works with students and teachers\, creates educational programming\, oversees exhibit curation\, and engages in a range of research. Her recent publications include\, “The Salem Witch Trials Memorial: Finding Humanity in Tragedy” (Smithsonian Folklife\, 2022) and “The Untold Story of Dorothy Good\, Salem’s Youngest Accused Witch” (American Ancestors\, 2023). \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. 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/cotton-mather-and-swt
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/CMSWTCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240806T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240806T180000
DTSTAMP:20260209T154521Z
CREATED:20260209T154521Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260209T154521Z
UID:9311-1722960000-1722967200@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:NACCC Ministers & Members Reception 2024
DESCRIPTION:
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/naccc-reception-24
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240627T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240627T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170919Z
CREATED:20260209T110547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170919Z
UID:8978-1719493200-1719496800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:The Quebec Act at 250
DESCRIPTION:In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Quebec Act\, Dr. Brendan McConville explored the significance of the inclusion of the formerly French province into the British North American colonies—and why it made Congregationalists so profoundly uncomfortable. \nIn June 1774\, Parliament incorporated the formerly French province of Quebec into the British Empire. With that move\, the governor and his council at Quebec continued to legislate\, Roman Catholicism could be openly practiced\, and French civil law continued. In addition\, the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers now came under the control of the governor of Quebec. \nWatch the video from this excellent discussion to learn more about how these developments\, occurring a little over a decade following the end of a major war with France\, caused alarm among British North American colonists already unsettled by other acts of Parliament. \nThis program was part of Revolutionary Stories\, New England’s Hidden Histories’ series on the American Revolution and the Congregational experience. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Brendan McConville is Professor of History at Boston University and Director of the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society. His research focuses on the intersection of politics and social developments in Early America. He is the author of These Daring Disturbers of the Public Peace (Cornell\, 1999\, paperback University of Pennsylvania\, 2003)\, The King’s Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America\, 1688-1776 (OIEAHC-UNC Press\, 2006)\, and The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America (Harvard\, 2021).
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/quebec-act-250
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QuebecActCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240619T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240619T140000
DTSTAMP:20260608T132434Z
CREATED:20260209T110341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260608T132434Z
UID:8973-1718802000-1718805600@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:A Theology of Brotherhood: The Federal Council of Churches and the Problem of Race
DESCRIPTION:ACCESS VIDEO TRANSCRIPT + RESOURCES \nA Theology of Brotherhood explores how the national umbrella Christian organization\, the Federal Council of Churches\, acted as a crucial conduit and organizational force for the dissemination of “progressive” views on race in the first half of the twentieth century. \nDrawing on years of archival research\, Dr. Curtis J. Evans shows that the Council’s theological approach to race\, and in particular its anti-lynching campaign\, were responsible for meaningful progress on racial issues in some white Protestant churches. The book highlights the contributions that their religious vision made in expanding and propagating a civic nationalist tradition that was grounded in a “universal brotherhood” and belief in the equality of all human beings\, over and against a racial nationalist ideology that conceived of America in ethno-racial terms. \nIn this program\, Dr. Evans focused on the work of Dr. George Edmund Haynes\, an African-American Congregationalist who was the Executive Secretary of the FCC Commission on Church and Race Relations during the 1920s and 1930s. A graduate of Fisk and Yale\, Haynes was one of the first African Americans to receive a PhD from Columbia University. He co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the National Urban League before playing a pivotal role in the Federal Council of Churches. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Curtis J. Evans is Associate Professor of American Religions and the History of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is also the author of The Burden of Black Religion.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/theology-brotherhood
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/TheologyBrotherhoodCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240612T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240612T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T184157Z
CREATED:20260209T110140Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T184157Z
UID:8971-1718197200-1718200800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:The Surprising History of a Hymn: “The Little Brown Church in the Vale”
DESCRIPTION:“The Little Brown Church in the Vale” is one of the most famous Congregational hymns\, still celebrated at the church in Nashua\, Iowa that inspired it. Yet the hymn has a surprising history. It began as a love ballad about a lost sweetheart and went on to become a celebrated gospel hymn about the rural roots of America’s greatness. \n\nTitled “The Little Brown Church\,” but sometimes called “The Church in the Wildwood\,” the song’s evolution speaks to the ways in which nostalgia became central to the social and religious imagination of those American Protestants who call themselves “evangelicals.” Though it first appeared in college songbooks after its publication in 1865\, “The Little Brown Church” eventually became a favorite of evangelists\, revivalists\, and other gospel singers at the dawn of the twentieth century. \nFor these new singers\, “The Little Brown Church” spoke to more than just the simple faith they wished to restore. It also illustrated the centrality of white Protestants to the American experience at a moment when the hold these believers had on the nation was beginning to slip. And they would alter both the lyrics and the church’s history to bring the two in line. \nIn this program\, Dr. Christopher Cantwell discussed how the evolution of this hymn not only reveals the ways nostalgia for a bygone era became vital to those who think of themselves as evangelicals in the twentieth century\, but also how evangelicalism itself is something of a historical construction. \nThis event was part of the CLA’s series\, Congregationalism and the Arts\, exploring Congregationalists’ artistic expressions of faith\, past and present. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Christopher D. Cantwell is Assistant Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago. He is a scholar of religion and former museum professional who is interested in the ways that Christianity\, capitalism\, and collective memory form and shape each other. His first book\, titled The Bible Class Teacher: Memory and the Making of Modern charts the origins of America’s white evangelical nostalgia and will be out soon. This project was preceded by an edited collection on the religious life of working-class Christians called The Pew and the Picket Line\, as well as an article on the work of printers at religious publishing houses.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/surprising-history-hymn
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/HistoryHymnCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240605T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240605T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170542Z
CREATED:20260209T105912Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170542Z
UID:8969-1717592400-1717596000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church
DESCRIPTION:Poetry has the power to enliven\, challenge\, change\, and enrich our lives. But it can also feel intimidating\, confusing\, or simply “not for us.” In his new book filled with joyful and wise reflections\, Dr. Abram Van Engen shows readers how poetry is for anyone—and how it can reinvigorate their Christian faith. \nIntertwining close readings with personal storytelling\, Dr. Van Engen explained how and why to read poems as a spiritual practice. Far from dry\, academic instruction\, his approach encourages readers to delight in poetry\, even as they come to understand its form. He also opens up the meaning of poetry and parables in Scripture\, revealing the deep connection between literature and theology. \nWord Made Fresh is more than a guide to poetry—it’s an invitation to wonder\, to speak up\, to lament\, to praise. Including dozens of poems from diverse authors\, this book will inspire curious and thoughtful readers to see God and God’s creation in surprising new ways. \nThis event was part of the CLA’s series\, Congregationalism and the Arts\, exploring Congregationalists’ artistic expressions of faith\, past and present. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Abram Van Engen is Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities and chair of the English department at Washington University in St. Louis. His other books include Sympathetic Puritans and City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. Passionate about teaching poetry to a wider audience\, he also co-hosts the podcast Poetry for All with Joanne Diaz and directs the Carver Project\, a Christian nonprofit that aims to connect university\, church\, and society.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/word-made-fresh
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/WordMadeFreshCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240529T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240529T143000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170446Z
CREATED:20260209T105616Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170446Z
UID:8962-1716987600-1716993000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:What Does Congregational Worship Sound Like Today?
DESCRIPTION:Today\, Congregational churches across the United States offer worship services on Sunday mornings as they have done for centuries. The musical sounds you hear while sitting in the pews of those churches\, however\, might vary widely depending on the church’s community and the part of the country in which you find yourself. \nMany factors go into creating a moving worship experience. Church music has long been influenced by a wide variety of styles: classical\, traditional\, gospel\, folk\, and even contemporary. In the eighteenth century\, congregants grew heated over the introduction of instrumental music into worship. Today\, a great diversity of instruments might be played\, from organs and handbells\, to drums and guitars. Similarly\, congregational singing has been a hallmark of Christian worship\, but congregants might sing beloved hymns which are centuries old\, or new compositions. \nThis program explored what Congregational worship sounds like with people who plan for it each week\, as music ministry directors from Congregational churches in Chicago\, Boston\, Norfolk\, and Greensboro shared what goes into creating moving worship experiences. \nThis event was part of the CLA’s series\, Congregationalism and the Arts\, exploring Congregationalists’ artistic expressions of faith\, past and present. \n  \nSPEAKER BIOS \nJimmy Buchanan is Director of Music at the Congregational United Church of Christ Church in Greensboro\, North Carolina. Jimmy joined CUCC in August 2008. He is a middle school choral director with Guilford County Schools and is a native of Morganton\, NC and the mountains.  Jimmy graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in Music Education in December of 2002 and in August 2004 he received his Masters of Choral Conducting degree\, also from Appalachian State University. Jimmy directs the CUCC Chancel Choir and the Hand-Bell Choir. \nShirley Glaude is a retired Vocal Music Education Teacher and former Church Musician/Director from Union United Church of Christ\, Norfolk\, Virginia. At Union UCC\, she directed the Mass Choir\, Men’s Choir\, and the Children’s Choir for 13 years. She taught for 36 years\, 3 years in Virginia and 33 years in Newark Public Schools\, Newark\, New Jersey. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Vocal Music Education with a major in voice and a minor in piano on a four-year scholarship from Norfolk State University in 1968. She has done graduate studies at American University in Washington\, DC\, Norfolk State University\, Norfolk\, VA\, and Montclair State University\, Montclair\, NJ. \nBryan Johnson serves as the Executive Director of Sacred Music at Trinity UCC in Chicago\, Illinois. Mr. Johnson researches\, plans\, consults\, implements\, and monitors the ministry of music for the church\, supervises the performance of the music staff and contract musicians\, and ensures the development of their musical skills and talents by providing coaching\, training\, and workshop opportunities. He directs the rehearsals and performance of all choirs\, ensembles and praise teams\, and supports the movement ministry partners. \nNathan Skinner is Director of Music at Park Street Church in Boston\, Massachusetts.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/congregational-worship-sound-today
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CongWorshipTodayCarouselNEW400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240522T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240522T190000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170357Z
CREATED:20260209T105346Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170357Z
UID:8957-1716399000-1716404400@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Congregationalists and the American Revolution: A Collections Tour
DESCRIPTION:With the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution approaching\, attendees gathered at 14 Beacon Street for an in-person viewing of original materials related to the American Revolution with Executive Director Dr. Kyle Roberts and New England’s Hidden Histories Project Director Dr. Tricia Peone. \nCongregational churches could be found in nearly every town across New England in the 1770s. The stories of Patriot ministers who inspired their congregations to Revolution have long been told. Increasingly we are learning more about the experience of the people sitting in the pews and how being part of a Congregational church community shaped their experience of the celebrated ideals–and the sometimes harsh realities–of the revolutionary cause. Printed sermons\, pamphlets\, and histories; manuscript church and association records; and even paintings in the CLA’s collection help tell a story that is both familiar and not. \nThe event included an opportunity to see Revolutionary-era treasures from the collections first-hand\, hear stories about how Congregationalists experienced the period leading up to\, during\, and immediately following the war\, and reflect on what this pivotal event means 250 years later. \n  \nSPEAKER BIOS \nDr. Kyle Roberts was appointed the Executive Director of the Congregational Library & Archives in 2022. He received his BA in American Studies from Williams College and his PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to the CLA\, he was Associate Director of Library & Museum Programming at the American Philosophical Society and Associate Professor of Public History and New Media and Director of the Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities at Loyola University Chicago. \nA scholar of Atlantic World religion\, print\, and library history\, he is the author of Evangelical Gotham: Religion and the Making of New York City\, 1783-1860 (Chicago\, 2016)\, the co-editor\, with Stephen Schloesser\, of Crossings and Dwellings: Restored Jesuits\, Women Religious\, American Experience 1814-2014 (Brill\, 2017) and\, with Mark Towsey\, of Before the Public Library: Reading\, Community\, and Identity in the Atlantic World\, 1650-1850 (Brill\, 2017). \nKyle is an accomplished public historian and digital humanist whose collaborative projects include the Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project\, the Maryland Loyalism Project\, and Dissenting Academies Online: Virtual Library System. In addition to being the consultant for numerous digital and public history projects\, he sits on the executive committees of the American Catholic Historical Association\, the New England Historical Association\, the Urban History Association He is on the editorial and advisory boards for American Catholic Studies\, Early American Studies\, and portal. \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. 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/amrev-collections-tour
LOCATION:MA
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240515T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240515T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170317Z
CREATED:20260209T105135Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170317Z
UID:8955-1715778000-1715781600@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations
DESCRIPTION:This program celebrated the release of Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations in a virtual discussion with author\, Dr. Emily Conroy-Krutz. \nMissionary Diplomacy illuminates the crucial place of religion in nineteenth-century American diplomacy. From the 1810s through the 1920s\, Protestant missionaries positioned themselves as key experts in the development of American relations in Asia\, Africa\, the Pacific\, and the Middle East. Missionaries served as consuls\, translators\, and occasional trouble-makers who forced the State Department to take actions it otherwise would have avoided. Yet as decades passed\, more Americans began to question the propriety of missionaries’ power. Were missionaries serving the interests of American diplomacy? Or were they creating unnecessary problems? \nAs Dr. Conroy-Krutz demonstrated\, they were doing both. Across the century\, missionaries forced the government to articulate new conceptions of the rights of US citizens abroad and of the role of the US as an engine of humanitarianism and religious freedom. By the time the US entered the first world war\, missionary diplomacy had for nearly a century created the conditions for some Americans to embrace a vision of their country as an internationally engaged world power. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Emily Conroy-Krutz is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Michigan State University. She is the author of Christian Imperialism and Missionary Diplomacy.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/missionary-diplomacy
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/MDCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240507T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240507T130000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170216Z
CREATED:20260209T104903Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170216Z
UID:8952-1715083200-1715086800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Exploring Culture and Heritage through Congregational Church Records
DESCRIPTION:Rachel Groh\, a Simmons University MLIS graduate student intern\, worked with the CLA in the spring of 2024 processing two collections: East Congregational Church in Springfield\, Massachusetts and Berkeley Temple in Boston. In this talk\, she reflected on her time at the CLA\, her first archival experience and first time working with a religious repository. \nWhen she had nearly finished processing the Berkeley Temple collection\, Rachel made an unexpected find. What at first appeared to be correspondence regarding an exchange of funds in documents previously labeled “miscellaneous materials” turned out to be letters from the church arranging to purchase the freedom of an enslaved man from Maryland named John Henson. \nIn exploring these collections\, and particularly those from Berkeley Temple\, she explained how she has come to understand the importance of these records beyond research by sharing how they have the power to explore culture and heritage through the lens of Congregational history. \nSPEAKER BIO \nRachel Groh is a student at Simmons University pursuing the cultural heritage track for her MLIS who worked with the CLA for her field experience in the spring 2024 semester. Rachel greatly enjoying exploring this sector through the lens of Congregational history and looks forward to using the knowledge of both this history and archival skills to further explore culture and heritage in her studies and work.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/exploring-culture-heritage
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GrohCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240501T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240501T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170130Z
CREATED:20260209T104649Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170130Z
UID:8950-1714568400-1714572000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:The Sounds of New England Congregationalism in the 18th Century
DESCRIPTION:The “sound of Congregationalism”—the musical sound\, at any rate—changed markedly several times during the hundred years from 1720-1820\, as musical philosophies shifted between two sets of poles: ritual and art\, and worship and performance. \nAs the eighteenth century dawned\, music in New England’s Protestant meetinghouses was an aspect of worship practice\, solidly in the province of religious ritual. The Regular Singing movement of the 1720s and beyond and the eventual formation of church choirs changed all that. By the 1770s\, much of the singing had been wrested away from congregants and handed over to groups of hot-shot teenagers singing newly-composed four-part “fuging tunes” and anthems\, usually from the front gallery. \nAs a new century approached\, things began to shift again\, and music in the meetinghouse returned to older\, simpler tunes that everyone sang together.  And this was by no means the last shift: the advent of the organ\, the musical “monster” in the meetinghouse\, was yet to happen. \nNoted musicologist Dr. Nym Cooke explored these topics and more from this fascinating period of change in this virtual program. \nThis event was part of the CLA’s series\, Congregationalism and the Arts\, exploring Congregationalists’ artistic expressions of faith\, past and present. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Nym Cooke has a PhD in music history from the University of Michigan\, where he studied with Richard Crawford. He is an experienced choral conductor\, arranger\, and composer. His published works include an edition of the complete works of early New England composer Timothy Swan (A-R Editions\, 1997); the anthology American Harmony: Inspired Choral Miniatures from New England\, Appalachia\, the Mid-Atlantic\, the South\, and the Midwest (Godine\, 2017); and a website\, earlyamericansacredmusic.org (2023)\, which includes a database with information on over 10\,000 manuscript tunes and anthems in pre-1821 sources at 23 libraries\, including the Congregational Library & Archives.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/sounds-congregationalism-18th-century
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SoundsCongCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240425T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240425T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170041Z
CREATED:20260209T104341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170041Z
UID:8948-1714039200-1714053600@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Exploring Family History at the Congregational Library & Archives
DESCRIPTION:This in-person workshop was led by New England’s Hidden Histories Project Director Dr. Tricia Peone and CLA Archivist Billy McCarthy. \nParticipants learned how to use the New England’s Hidden Histories’ digital archive and other resources at the Congregational Library & Archives to research family histories and fill in context for understanding the lives of people in the past. \nThe workshop included time to conduct for participants to conduct their own family history research at the Congregational Library & Archives. \nSPEAKER BIOS \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. 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. \nBilly McCarthy graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science from Simmons University with a concentration in Archival Management. Billy started working at CLA through a graduate internship and stayed on a part-time basis until he was hired full-time 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/exploring-family-history-at-the-congregational-library-archives
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/FamilyHistoryCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240423T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240423T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T183948Z
CREATED:20260209T104047Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T183948Z
UID:8945-1713877200-1713880800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Stripped and Script: Loyalist Women Writers of the American Revolution
DESCRIPTION:Female loyalists occupied a nearly impossible position during the American Revolution. Unlike their male counterparts\, loyalist women were effectively silenced—unable to officially align themselves with either side or avoid being persecuted for their family ties. \n\nIn this virtual book talk\, Dr. Kacy Dowd Tillman discussed how women’s letters and journals were the key to recovering these voices\, as these private writings were used as vehicles for public engagement. Through a literary analysis of extensive correspondence by statesmen’s wives\, Quakers\, merchants\, and spies\, Tillman’s recent book\, Stripped and Script\, offers a new definition of loyalism that accounts for disaffection\, pacifism\, neutralism\, and loyalism-by-association. Taking up the rhetoric of violation and rape\, the texts she examines repeatedly reference the real threats rebels posed to female bodies\, property\, friendships\, and families during this period. Through writing\, these women defended themselves against violation\, in part\, by writing about their personal experiences while knowing that the documents themselves may be confiscated\, used against them\, and circulated. \nThis program was part of Revolutionary Stories\, New England’s Hidden Histories’ ongoing series on the American Revolution and the Congregational experience. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Kacy Dowd Tillman is Director of Honors and Professor of English and Writing at the University of Tampa. She writes about Revolutionary-era letters and diaries and 18th century sentimental fiction. Her manuscript\, Stripped and Script: Loyalist Women Writers of the American Revolution\, was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in August 2019. Her new work concerns Black loyalist rhetoric\, fake news and illness in early American sentimental fiction\, and the American Revolution in the popular imagination.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/stripped-and-script
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/StrippedScriptCarousel400.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240417T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240417T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T183100Z
CREATED:20260209T103654Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T183100Z
UID:8940-1713358800-1713362400@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:To Keep or Not to Keep: The Value of the Retention Schedule
DESCRIPTION:Not all church records are historic. Church stewardship also encompasses the records your church is producing today. This might include vital records\, meeting minutes\, financial documents\, and legal records\, among others. Some need to be kept for a set period of time and can then be safely disposed of\, while others will have lasting historic value. \nIn this virtual workshop\, the CLA’s archivists\, Billy McCarthy and Zachary Bodnar\, discussed the retention schedule\, a policy document which lays out how records created today will be handled in the future. Creating such a document ensures that record keepers who come after you have a clear guide to what has been preserved and what should be preserved in the future. Billy and Zachary also presented a model retention schedule\, spoke to how federal and state regulations may affect the policy\, and explained how to implement such a policy at your church. \nThis workshop was part of the Congregational Library & Archives’ Church Stewardship Initiative\, a program devoted to empowering churches to steward and preserve their valuable records. \nSPEAKER BIOS \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 from Simmons University with a concentration in Archival Management. Billy started working at CLA through a graduate internship and stayed on a part-time basis until he was hired full-time 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/keep-or-not-keep
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/KeepNotKeepNEW400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240320T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240320T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T164244Z
CREATED:20260209T103414Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T164244Z
UID:8935-1710939600-1710943200@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Preserving the History of British Congregationalism: Dr Williams’s Library and the Congregational Library\, London
DESCRIPTION:The founders of the Congregational Library in Boston in 1853 drew inspiration not only from the creation of historical societies in the United States\, but also from earlier efforts across the Atlantic. \nThe Congregational Library and the Congregational Union of England and Wales (the body which it was designed to serve) are coeval\, the Library having been opened and the Union founded on successive days in May 1831. Joshua Wilson (1795-1874)\, the son and biographer of Thomas Wilson\, chapel builder and major benefactor of Congregationalism\, first proposed the idea for a library and made a founding donation of 4\,000 volumes. After his death\, his widow gave the Library his entire remaining collection of printed books and manuscripts (a far greater number)\, which for a century and a half have been the core of the Library’s holdings. \nDr Williams’s Library\, the leading library of English Dissent\, traces its origins back a century earlier. It was established by the will of Dr Daniel Williams\, a leading London nonconformist minister of his day\, who died in January 1716. He left instructions for his trustees to house his collection as a public library and to make it available to nonconformist ministers\, tutors\, and students in the City of London. However\, the opening of the Library in 1730 was largely due to the selfless efforts of his trustees who contributed and raised the necessary funds to build and equip a separate library building. Among the original 56 books owned by the Congregational Library\, Boston\, at its founding were two volumes of an 1841 catalog of the Dr Williams’s Library collection. \nThis program offered the opportunity to learn more about the histories of the Congregational Library’s sister institutions – from what motivated their formation and early collections to how they have developed over time – in this virtual program with scholars who know their histories intimately. \nThis program was part of the CLA’s Founding 56 Lecture Series\, which accompanied our 2023 digital exhibition\, Founding 56: The Congregational Library’s Original Collection. \nSPEAKER BIOS \nAlan Argent is the former Research Fellow at Dr Williams’s Library\, London and minister of Trinity Congregational Church\, Brixton\, is the author of Dr Williams’s Trust and Library (Boydell & Brewer\, 2022). He has edited The Angels’ Voice for the London Record Society and is the author of The Richard Baxter Treatises (Boydell\, 2018) and The Transformation of Congregationalism 1900-2000 (Congregational Federation\, 2013). \nDavid Powell is the former Senior Cataloguer and Archivist of the Congregational Library. He came to the library just after it moved to Gordon Square in 1982\, and (now that the link with Dr Williams’s Library has been severed) is looking forward to overseeing its transfer to new lodgings. He is a Trustee of Pollock’s Toy Museum (another institution currently without a permanent home) and the author of several books on the toy theatre.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/history-british-congregationalism
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/BritishCongCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240306T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240306T193000
DTSTAMP:20260211T164102Z
CREATED:20260209T103120Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T164102Z
UID:8930-1709746200-1709753400@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Finding and Using Sources for African American History at the CLA
DESCRIPTION:The Congregational Library & Archives hosted an in-person workshop on finding and using sources for African American history at 14 Beacon Street in Boston from 5:30-7:30 pm on Wednesday\, March 6\, 2024. \nThe workshop\, led by Dr. Richard Boles\, introduced participants to archival materials related to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century African Americans that are available at the CLA or digitally within our New England’s Hidden Histories project. African American men and women have been active in New England’s Congregational churches since the seventeenth century\, so church records\, sermons\, personal papers\, diaries\, association records\, biographies\, and other documents are valuable sources for a variety of research projects. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Richard Boles is an Associate Professor of History at Oklahoma State University. He specializes in early North American and United States history\, particularly African American\, Native American\, and American religious histories. His first book\, Dividing the Faith: The Rise of Segregated Churches in the Early American North (NYU Press\, 2020)\, examines the transition from racially diverse churches during the early eighteenth century to separate Native American and African American congregations by the early nineteenth century in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Richard began researching at the Congregational Library & Archives in 2004 and is currently a member of its Board of Directors.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/finding-and-using-sources-for-african-american-history-at-the-cla
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/BolesWorkshopCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240229T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240229T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T164024Z
CREATED:20260209T102757Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T164024Z
UID:8924-1709211600-1709215200@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:What a Library Means to a Church: Congregational Philanthropy & Print Culture
DESCRIPTION:The history of print culture in Boston and the history of Congregationalism are deeply intertwined. Like a famous university across the river\, the Congregational Library & Archives is an institution that began with a gift of books. While Harvard honors a single donor with the name of their institution\, the Congregational Library & Archives owes its beginnings to the largesse of several prominent Bostonians. At a time when both philanthropy and which books are included in which libraries mattered\, it can be instructive to consider how the forces of print culture and philanthropy fostered a Boston institution. \nThe fact that two-thirds of the books in the original Congregational Library were printed in Boston likely does not come as a surprise. Not only was Boston a center for Puritan (and later Congregational) spiritual and intellectual activity\, but also the city’s printing shops dominated the information landscape of British North America over the first 150 years after the establishment of the first press. Learn more about the early history of printing in Boston with a leading scholar of early Boston printing\, Dr. Jonathan Beecher Field. \nThis program was part of the CLA’s Founding 56 Lecture Series\, which accompanied our 2023 digital exhibition\, Founding 56: The Congregational Library’s Original Collection. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Jonathan Beecher Field is Associate Professor of American Literature at Clemson University. He was born in New England and educated in the Midwest. His first book\, Errands into the Metropolis (UPNE\, 2009)\, concerned strategies of dissent employed by religious dissidents in seventeenth-century New England. His second book\, Town Hall Meetings and the Death of Deliberation (Minnesota\, 2019)\, considers how simulacra of deliberative processes allow politicians\, corporations\, and university to contain and silence dissent. He is currently working on a book project considering material bases of settler innocence.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/what-library-means
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/WhataLibraryMeansCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240222T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240222T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T163929Z
CREATED:20260209T102540Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T163929Z
UID:8922-1708606800-1708610400@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Acquisitions Afternoon: Collecting Congregationalism and the Founding 56 Adopt-a-Book Program
DESCRIPTION:The Congregational Library & Archives’ collection started with eight donors who contributed items from their personal collections that they saw as shaping an understanding and interpreting the Congregational story. 170 years later\, the CLA’s collection numbers over 225\,000 print and manuscript works\, many of which were donated from private collectors. \nIn this program\, Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree shared her journey as a book collector and her decision to contribute her collection of Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell’s works and her own personal papers to the Congregational Library & Archives. \nThis program was part of our 2024 Adopt-a-Book Program. \nSPEAKER BIO \nRev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree has served for over fifty years in the ministries of the United Church of Christ. Raised in a tiny rural church in northwest Connecticut\, she went to Andover Newton and on to parish and non-parish ministries\, including 23 years in Conference Ministry. Her family taught her to learn from the past\, so in her early years when she encountered those who thought women shouldn’t be ordained\, she began to collect the works of Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell and other women of the suffrage era. That collection and her own archives are now held by the Congregational Library & Archives.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/acquisitions-afternoon-collecting-congregationalism-and-the-founding-56-adopt-a-book-program
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AACarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240214T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240214T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T163725Z
CREATED:20260209T102247Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T163725Z
UID:8919-1707915600-1707919200@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Cotton Mather and the Women He Loved
DESCRIPTION:History has judged Cotton Mather harshly when it comes to women\, perhaps with good reason. His first published sermon was preached on the execution day of Elizabeth Emerson\, convicted of murdering her illegitimate newborn twins. And Mather’s writings are littered with numerous assertions reinforcing the deeply entrenched puritan notion of the subordination of women. Then\, of course\, there was the debacle of the witchcraft trials. For these reasons\, when people think of Mather today\, the word most likely to come to mind is “complicated.” \nBut who was Mather at home\, without the wig? Who was he as a husband and father? From the reputation that has come down to us\, one would assume Cotton Mather to have been a tyrant over his wife and a strong disciplinarian who ruled his children with a rod. Certainly\, few would suspect that between wives\, he was shamelessly sought after as a highly eligible widower. \nOn Valentine’s Day 2024\, we looked at Mather’s relationships with the women in his life: his three wives\, his daughters\, his sisters\, and his life-long pursuit of the one woman he strove to understand perhaps more than any other\, that prototype of all women\, Eve. \nThe Congregational Library & Archives’ 2024 Cotton Mather Lecture was presented by New England’s Hidden Histories’. \n  \nSPEAKER BIO \nHelen Gelinas is Director of Transcription for New England’s Hidden Histories. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Hartt School in Connecticut and a BA in English and an MA in American Studies from the University of Tübingen\, Germany. In Tübingen\, she was selected by The Mather Project to be a research and editorial assistant for Volume 5 of Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana. Following the presentation and publication of her essay\, “Regaining Paradise: Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana and the Daughters of Eve\,” she earned a Research Fellowship to the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale Divinity School. She is currently a PhD candidate in Early American Studies at the University of Heidelberg\, completing her dissertation entitled\, “’The Spirit and the Bride’: Female Parity\, Prophecy\, and the Power of the Pen in the Works of Cotton Mather.”
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/cotton-mather-and-women-he-loved
LOCATION:Virtual
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/CMWomenCarousel400.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240207T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240207T143000
DTSTAMP:20260211T163613Z
CREATED:20260209T102019Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T163613Z
UID:8915-1707310800-1707316200@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Why Study Library History?
DESCRIPTION:Before the advent of modern public libraries in the United States and United Kingdom in the mid-nineteenth century\, readers availed themselves of an array of subscription\, commercial\, private\, religious\, and other libraries for their edification and enjoyment. Rooted in regional communities\, these libraries became emblems of local pride and exceptionalism\, stimulating and promoting local culture\, politics\, civic infrastructure\, and educational provision. Libraries fostered communities of readers whose shared reading connected them to each other and to millions of other readers across the western world. \nIn this talk\, four leading historians of English\, Scottish\, and American libraries revealed the diverse ways that library history can illuminate different facets of the past. All are co-investigators on the recent major AHRC-funded grant entitled Libraries\, Reading Communities\, and Cultural Formation in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic\, which launched a major new web resource in early 2024 that features fully searchable membership lists\, catalogues\, and borrowing records from more than eighty libraries across the Anglophone Atlantic. The talk featured a demonstration of this powerful new web resource. \nThis program was part of the CLA’s Founding 56 Lecture Series\, which accompanied our 2023 digital exhibition\, Founding 56: The Congregational Library’s Original Collection. \nSPEAKER BIOS \nDr. Sophie Jones is Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Liverpool. Her research focuses upon the socio-cultural development of the North American colonies\, in particular the origins of political loyalism and the activities of loyalists during the American Revolution. Her most recent article explores variations of loyalism in the colony of New York\, while her first monograph project considers the role of print culture and urban spaces in shaping political sentiment. \nDr. Laura Miller is Professor of English at the University of West Georgia. She studies the intersections of literature\, media\, and science during the eighteenth century. Her first book\, Reading Popular Newtonianism: Print\, the Principia\, and the Dissemination of Newtonian Science\, was published by the University of Virginia Press in 2018. Dr. Miller has held fellowships at the Houghton Library at Harvard University\, the Library Company of Philadelphia\, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She is currently working on a book which focuses on the connections between readership\, scientific experimentation\, and conceptions of early American government as experimental\, as well as other projects related to library history\, science\, the digital humanities\, and gender. \nDr. Matthew Sangster is Professor of Romantic Studies\, Fantasy and Cultural History at the University of Glasgow. In the field of Library Studies\, he has published on the eighteenth-century records of St Andrews University Library in the Review of English Studies and led the Carnegie-funded ‘Enlightenment Readers in the Scottish Universities’ project (focusing on Glasgow). He is a co-investigator of the ‘Books and Borrowing 1750-1830: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers’ project out of the University of Stirling. His other research interests include the Royal Literary Fund\, Fantasy literature\, Romantic-period London\, literary institutions and the media environment of the 1820s. His first monograph\, Living as an Author in the Romantic Period\, was published by Palgrave in January 2021. \nDr. Norbert Schürer is Professor of English at California State University Long Beach. His research focuses on literature and book history in the long eighteenth century (c. 1660-1832). More specifically\, he works on eighteenth-century women writers\, circulating libraries\, and the Anglo-Indian encounter. He has published the anthology British Encounters with India (with Tim Keirn\, 2011)\, the collection Charlotte Lennox: Correspondence and Miscellaneous Documents (2012)\, the cultural guide Berlin (2014)\, and the local history study Boom and Bust: Miner Smith and His 1920s California Bungalow Mansions (2015).
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/why-study-library-history
LOCATION:Virtual
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240124T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240124T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T183356Z
CREATED:20260209T100808Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T183356Z
UID:8740-1706101200-1706104800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Protecting and Providing: A Guide to Reference Services for Church Collections
DESCRIPTION:Once your church records have been properly stored and inventoried\, you are ready to take the next step and find a way to share those records with your community while securely preserving the collection. A church records collection is valuable to many audiences: from staff members researching old meeting minutes\, to genealogists interested in building out their family tree. This work of connecting people with records is called reference services\, and it must not be taken lightly. \nIn this online workshop\, the CLA’s archivists\, Zachary Bodnar and Billy McCarthy\, discussed what we mean by reference services and why reference is so important\, provided examples of secure reading room policies\, and explained how to manage visitors from initial inquiry to successful research visit. They also walked attendees through the steps and procedures necessary to start their own church reference desk. \nThis workshop was part of the Congregational Library & Archives’ Church Stewardship Initiative\, a program devoted to empowering churches to steward and preserve their valuable records. \nSPEAKER BIOS \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 from Simmons University with a concentration in Archival Management. Billy started working at CLA through a graduate internship and stayed on a part-time basis until he was hired full-time 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/protecting-and-providing
LOCATION:Virtual
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240117T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240117T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T163313Z
CREATED:20260209T100028Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T163313Z
UID:8688-1705496400-1705500000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:To “Revive Their Spirit”: Collecting Books and Shaping Archives in Nineteenth-Century New England
DESCRIPTION:When the Congregational Library Association formed in 1853\, its members aimed to collect and preserve the Congregational story in print\, a testimony to the denomination’s rich past and a bulwark against future irrelevancy. In their founding statement\, the association communicated their belief that the library would serve not only as a storehouse of wisdom from the founders but would also “revive their spirit.” \nA belief in this revitalizing power of collecting and preserving books in libraries and archives swept through New England in the first half of the nineteenth century\, and this talk provides a broader survey of the people\, methods\, and philosophies that informed antiquarian practices in the early United States and built collections like the “Founding 56.” \nThis program was part of the CLA’s Founding 56 Lecture Series\, which accompanied our 2023 digital exhibition\, Founding 56: The Congregational Library’s Original Collection. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Lindsay DiCuirci is Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland\, Baltimore County\, where she teaches early American literature and the history of the book. She is the author of the Penn Press book Colonial Revivals: The Nineteenth-Century Lives of Early American Books (2019)\, which was awarded prizes from the Bibliographical Society of America\, the Library Company of Philadelphia and the journal Early American Literature. Her work can be found in Archive Journal\, Early American Literature\, Reception\, and a variety of edited collections. She also writes about book history\, pedagogy\, and working with students in archives. Currently\, she is conducting research for a new book on the print cultures of nineteenth-century spiritualism.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/revive-their-spirit
LOCATION:Virtual
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231214T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231214T190000
DTSTAMP:20260211T162946Z
CREATED:20260209T155323Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T162946Z
UID:9338-1702573200-1702580400@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Christmas with the Congregationalists 2023: A Collections Tour with Dr. Kyle Roberts
DESCRIPTION:Congregational Library & Archives members celebrated the season at 14 Beacon Street for an in-person collections viewing of materials related to Christmas with CLA Executive Director Dr. Kyle Roberts. \nChristmas was not always a widely celebrated holiday by Congregationalists. The Massachusetts Bay General Court banned the observance of the holiday in 1659 and ministers\, such as Cotton Mather\, spoke out against yuletide reveling. Congregational practices started to look more familiar by the nineteenth century\, as congregations put on Christmas plays and publishing houses\, like the Pilgrim Press\, printed holiday gift books featuring loveable characters like Winky the Christmas Cat. \nParticipants saw holiday-themed treasures from the collections\, shared their own stories about how Congregationalists celebrate Christmas\, and got into the holiday spirit. \n  \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Kyle Roberts is Executive Director of the Congregational Library & Archives.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/christmas-congregationalists-2023
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231207T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231207T130000
DTSTAMP:20260211T162836Z
CREATED:20260209T155545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T162836Z
UID:9345-1701950400-1701954000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:God in the Darkness: How Congregationalists in the Connecticut River Valley Faced the Upheaval and Violence of the American Revolution
DESCRIPTION:American Congregational Association – Boston Athenaeum Research Fellow Christopher Walton presented his research into how Congregationalists in the Connecticut River Valley navigated the American Revolution during a lunchtime talk. \nWar impacts religion just as much as religion affects war. Christopher Walton’s research examines the religious experience of Congregationalist non-combatants in the Connecticut River Valley during the American Revolution. Focusing on the years of warfare (1775-1783)\, the project reveals the ways in which Revolutionary violence affected congregational life in a region that was not subject to occupation or major military campaigns. The realities of dissension\, uncertainty\, violence\, and loss shaped the religious commitments and activities of Congregationalists in rural New England. Through it all\, many Congregational ministers in the Valley elevated a vision for personal and community piety that strove to use political turmoil for religious ends\, rather than to use religion for political ends. \nUsing the detailed diary of Rev. Stephen Williams of Longmeadow\, Massachusetts as a window into the religious world of communities and clergymen all through the Connecticut River Valley\, Walton showed how the Revolution tested religious beliefs and practices and how ministers and laypeople responded. \n  \nSPEAKER BIO \nChristopher Walton is a PhD candidate in history at Southern Methodist University. His research explores American religious history from the colonial era to the early national period. Specializing in the Revolutionary era\, he examines the effects of war on religious life\, showing how the Revolution affected Congregationalist beliefs\, practices\, and institutions in the Connecticut River Valley. Christopher holds a Bachelor of Arts from Whitefield College\, a Master of American Studies from the University of Dallas\, and a Master of Arts in History from Southern Methodist University.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/god-in-the-darkness
LOCATION:Congregational Library & Archives\, 14 Beacon Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
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