Jonathan Beecher Field: What a Library Means to a Church: Congregational Philanthropy & Print Culture

 www.congregationallibrary.org/events/what-library-means

The history of print culture in Boston and the history of Congregationalism are deeply intertwined. Like a famous university across the river, the Congregational Library & Archives is an institution that began with a gift of books. While Harvard honors a single donor with the name of their institution, the Congregational Library & Archives owes its beginnings to the largesse of several prominent Bostonians. At a time when both philanthropy and which books are included in which libraries mattered, it can be instructive to consider how the forces of print culture and philanthropy fostered a Boston institution.  

The fact that two-thirds of the books in the original Congregational Library were printed in Boston likely does not come as a surprise. Not only was Boston a center for Puritan (and later Congregational) spiritual and intellectual activity, but also the city’s printing shops dominated the information landscape of British North America over the first 150 years after the establishment of the first press. Learn more about the early history of printing in Boston with a leading scholar of early Boston printing, Jonathan Beecher Field.

The event is free to all, but registration is required via this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-N7hfkvySUCDEARXULJqTg

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For more information, please email info@14beacon.org