It’s a sweltering summer here in Cambridge, as our brand new environmental monitors are telling us! We’ve had very little rain since May and temperatures as high as 30oC, but the Cheshunt and Carrie Rooms are holding up admirably, despite the occasional temperature spike. The Tower, predictably, reflects external conditions more and there are rather more severe fluctuations, but it is interesting to have much more granular information about what is going on there.
In the Cheshunt Room, we’ve reached a huge milestone: a whole room from the Congregational Library’s former home at 14 Gordon Square has now been unpacked! Room 1, consisting mostly of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century materials, is now completely on the shelves and we are making progress with Room 2 (nineteenth-century pamphlets). Unfortunately the condition of the nineteenth-century books is not always great thanks to the nineteenth-century paper making process, but these books will be triaged for conservation and hopefully we can at least stall their further decay by wrapping and boxing them.
Next month, the Congregational Library is taking part in a joint exhibition at Westminster College Library in Cambridge. “Leaving a Mark” will run during the University of Cambridge’s Lent term (September–December 2025). Along with materials from Westminster College Archives and the various libraries of the Theological Federation, the library has provided a selection of bookmarks – and other things deliberately or accidentally left in our books over the years. These include They include traditional bookmarks, like two woven silk “Stevengraphs” – invented in the 1860s by Thomas Stevens (1828-1888), a manufacturer based in Coventry who produced over 900 designs at his factory using Jacquard looms; early twentieth-century photographs; amusing bookplates; pressed flowers and leaves; and a letter to Joshua Wilson, one of the Congregational Library’s main founders. These items show how a library is not just a collection of books, but also a way of connecting with readers from the past.
You are welcome to visit the exhibition at Westminster College, which is on public display in the library area. In addition, on Sunday 21 September between 10:00 and 16:00, Westminster College is participating in Open Cambridge. Tickets for this are free and can be obtained from https://www.opencambridge.cam.ac.uk/events/westminster-college. There will be bonus material on display in the exhibition as part of this event.
As always, please follow us on Twitter and Instagram if you have not already done so and investigate our website to find out more about the Library and the Congregational Memorial Hall Trust.
See you next month!
