February is rather shorter than the other months and has therefore caught us by surprise. We’re glad to report, however, that we are making good progress with unpacking. The pamphlet collection is now on the shelves! This is particularly good news as it is a popular collection with readers and several of our pamphlets cannot be found anywhere else. We are also two rows of shelves from filling the Cheshunt Room, after which we will move on to the Carrie Room. This will be more difficult as the Carrie Room is up a flight of stairs in the Tower, but we have already started moving relevant boxes up, so hopefully it will not be too tricky.

To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, we are partnering with the library at Westminster College and the Cambridge Theological Federation to put together an exhibition on female book ownership. Watch this space for more information, but the Congregational Library has a large collection of books that once belonged to women, from sermons, histories, and meditations right down to classical textbooks. This Latin grammar in our collection, for example, was once the possession of Elizabeth Siddall Hayward McAll, wife of Robert Whittaker McAll who founded the Popular Evangelical Mission of France.

We’ve had many enquiries this month and are preparing to receive some readers over the next few weeks. If you wish to use our collections, let us know so we can book you into our reading room and order your items for you. Our catalogue is available online. If you need more information about us or about the activities of the Congregational Memorial Hall Trust more generally, please visit our website – and of course follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Below are a few of the other interesting books we have unpacked this month. See you in March!