Happy Easter to all! We are well and truly in the middle of spring here in Cambridge: the weather is sunny and dry, the skies are blue, the flowers are out everywhere, and a little wren sings regularly to us through the reading room window. It is a privilege to be here and Westminster College continues to be an excellent host for the Congregational Library, as well as a really friendly place to work.
Unpacking the collection is going well: we have several hundred books on the shelves, from sixteenth-century translations of Martin Luther to modern periodicals. The big news is we have recruited a couple of volunteers to help out, so with luck things should go twice (three times?) as quickly now. There will be plenty for the volunteers to do, from unpacking and stock-taking to cleaning and conservation tasks. Books are also still going into the Carrie Room, although not too many, as we will soon have modern shelving installed so anything in there already will have to be temporarily removed fairly shortly!
We have been cataloguing a series of photographs related to Congregational history recently donated to the library. There are thirty-five photographs in all, ranging from portraits of eminent nineteenth-century Congregationalists to enormous panoramic pictures of international Congregationalist conference attendees. All are very interesting and with luck we will be able to share some of them with you soon. We have also received a hard copy of the Surman Index, so if you would like to know what the Index says about any individual Congregationalist figures, let us know.
Enquiries have slowed down over Easter but are still coming in steadily. We may even have our first on-site visitors soon: we will keep you posted on that. If there is anything in our collection you would like to see, please let us know and we will arrange for it to be ordered in to our Westminster College reading room for you (our printed catalogue can be accessed here, and our manuscripts handlists can be found here). If you’re very lucky, our little wren will also serenade you during your visit.
We are hoping to do some work on the Congregational Library website soon. Should you visit the website, drop the Congregational Librarian, Jacqueline Reiter, an email to let her know of any comments. What did you access the website for? Did you find the information you wanted? Do you have any feedback about how the website might be improved?
Finally, please follow us on Twitter and Instagram if you have not already done so.
