We have big news at the Congregational Library: we have some volunteers to help with the unpacking! Our two champions started a couple of weeks ago and have been doing an absolutely super job. Between the three of us we have unpacked nearly 60 boxes this month alone at time of writing (22 May). Given we had previously unpacked 65 boxes in total between January and the end of April, this is amazing work. You will be seeing more about these volunteers in due course, including, I hope, some guest posts on some of the more interesting material we’ve been unearthing.

Enquiries have been coming in thick and fast, ranging from research queries regarding identifying early-nineteenth century Congregationalist ministers to genealogical requests for data from the Surman Index. We have a hard copy here in the library, so if you need any information on someone who might be in the index, get in touch! We are happy to take up enquiries about anything Congregational, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you think we can help you. As always, our catalogue can be accessed here, and our manuscripts handlist can be found here. Let us know if you would like to see anything and we will order it up for you here at Westminster College, Cambridge.

Speaking of ordering things up, this month we have had our very first readers! It has been lovely to meet some of the people who use the library at last, and to see the collection finally being used after having been in storage for so long. We would love to have even more readers, so drop us a line if you’d like to make us a visit and we will do our best to help you.

As always, please follow us on Twitter and Instagram if you have not already done so, and have a look around our website to find out more about the Library and the Congregational Memorial Hall Trust. If you have any suggestions about how the site might be improved, please let us know – we’re always trying to make it better!

Thank you for reading – look out for the next update in June!