New England's Hidden Histories: Congregational Church Records in the Digital Age

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 20; pp. 111 - 119
• Main Author: Bendroth, Margaret
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Ambiguity; American history; Archives & records; Bendroth, Margaret; British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Church buildings; Corporate profiles; Cultural identity; Digitization; English literature; Internet; Libraries; Library collections; Literary translation; Objectives; Puritanism; Religion; Researchers; Sermons; Society; Spirituality; Success; Theology; Websites; New York; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Massachusetts; England
• ISSN: 0954-0970

From one-fifth of all American church members in 1776, Congregationalists had declined to four per cent, dwarfed by the astonishing success of denominations with centralized organizational structures and a popular style much more suited for the burgeoning religious marketplace, Methodists and Baptists in particular.1 It was during this time that Congregationalists adopted the Puritans - or, as they were more commonly known, the 'Pilgrim Fathers' - as their common identity marker, one that bestowed not just spiritual unity but cultural prestige and an unquestionably American religious pedigree. [...]the 'Puritan library and museum', as it was first called, was to be filled with books and portraits and, yes, relics, to inspire pride and generosity among American Congregationalists.2 As the dream of a few history-minded entrepreneurs, the Congregational Library struggled from the start. The stacks began to fill with everything and anything: world history and geography, art and architecture, city planning and urban problems - and of course preaching, praying, and counselling.5 The internet and the digital age changed everything. The dissertation became an important book on Puritanism, revising some of the hoary truths about ministers and laypeople held by generations of scholars who read mostly published sermons and theological treatises.6 What better individual to do some 'spot-checking' of the Worthley inventory, visiting a small number of selected churches to see if records were still in the same places they were when Dr Worthley first visited. In the United States digital projects of this scale are the province of leading, well-funded historical societies or academic libraries with access to endowments, development departments, and inexpensive student labour.