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| Gymnasium at the Normal School, Bridgewater, Massachusetts |
The exhibit runs from September 14 through December 31, 2015 and can be viewed outside of the Library, Room 341 of the State House. Library hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Massachusetts Through the Lens is now available in Flickr
The exhibit runs from September 14 through December 31, 2015 and can be viewed outside of the Library, Room 341 of the State House. Library hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Funeral Sermons: A Useful Genealogical Resource
An often-overlooked resource for genealogists and historians, funeral sermons can provide interesting details about the lives of our ancestors. The State Library’s holdings include a number of funeral sermons and orations, the majority of which are from the 18th and early 19th centuries. During that time in history, funeral sermons were often printed and distributed to family members and other mourners as keepsakes.
Although these publications tend to be brief, they often include details that might have been omitted from an obituary, such as the personality and temperament of the deceased, family details, and information about the funeral service itself. For example, the following sermon for Mary Skinner of Colchester, CT, printed in 1746, includes eight pages of personal details about her temperament, such as, “As she had a Genius and Turn for Government beyond what is common for Persons of her Years, so she was regular and strict in ruling those under her Care.”
Another common trait of funeral sermons is the use of a mourning border, which is a heavy black border typically found on the cover or title page of a sermon and often printed on stationery used in periods of mourning. These borders are sometimes embellished with drawings, such as the skull and crossbones found in this 1765 sermon for the rector of Christ Church in Boston, the Rev. Timothy Cutler:
One of the most interesting funeral sermons in the State Library’s collection was printed in Boston in 1717. This sermon, which includes a preface by Increase Mather, was preached by his son Cotton Mather at the funeral for Wait Still Winthrop, one of the magistrates for the Salem witch trials and grandson of John Winthrop, one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The sermon includes interesting details about Winthrop’s life, such as, “This Gentleman, having furnished himself with Medical Skill, became also a Master of Medicines, which he freely gave away as well as his Counsils, unto a Great Multitude of People, who from all parts flock’d unto him.”
Whether they are used to research important historical figures or distant relatives, funeral sermons are a resource that can provide a glimpse into the personal lives of our ancestors. To find these and other sermons, search our online catalog for the phrase “funeral sermons,” or visit us at the State Library’s Special Collections Department, Room 55 in the Massachusetts State House.
Laura Schaub
Cataloging Librarian
Although these publications tend to be brief, they often include details that might have been omitted from an obituary, such as the personality and temperament of the deceased, family details, and information about the funeral service itself. For example, the following sermon for Mary Skinner of Colchester, CT, printed in 1746, includes eight pages of personal details about her temperament, such as, “As she had a Genius and Turn for Government beyond what is common for Persons of her Years, so she was regular and strict in ruling those under her Care.”
Another common trait of funeral sermons is the use of a mourning border, which is a heavy black border typically found on the cover or title page of a sermon and often printed on stationery used in periods of mourning. These borders are sometimes embellished with drawings, such as the skull and crossbones found in this 1765 sermon for the rector of Christ Church in Boston, the Rev. Timothy Cutler:
One of the most interesting funeral sermons in the State Library’s collection was printed in Boston in 1717. This sermon, which includes a preface by Increase Mather, was preached by his son Cotton Mather at the funeral for Wait Still Winthrop, one of the magistrates for the Salem witch trials and grandson of John Winthrop, one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The sermon includes interesting details about Winthrop’s life, such as, “This Gentleman, having furnished himself with Medical Skill, became also a Master of Medicines, which he freely gave away as well as his Counsils, unto a Great Multitude of People, who from all parts flock’d unto him.”
Whether they are used to research important historical figures or distant relatives, funeral sermons are a resource that can provide a glimpse into the personal lives of our ancestors. To find these and other sermons, search our online catalog for the phrase “funeral sermons,” or visit us at the State Library’s Special Collections Department, Room 55 in the Massachusetts State House.
Laura Schaub
Cataloging Librarian
Monday, September 14, 2015
New exhibition on Photograph Collections at the State Library of Massachusetts opens today
Photographs tell very different stories than the printed texts in the State Library. Opening this week at the State Library of Massachusetts is a new exhibition entitled Massachusetts Through the Lens: Photographic Collections at the State Library of Massachusetts. This exhibition features collections that hold photographs of people, places, and events in Massachusetts history, from tintypes and cartes de visite of the Civil War to snapshots from the 1970s.The exhibition runs from September 14 through December 31, 2015 and can be viewed outside of the Library, Room 341 of the State House. Library hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. This exhibition will also be available to view online as a set of images on the State Library's Flickr site.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
ArtWeek Boston at the State Library
This
fall the State Library will participate again in ArtWeek Boston, a “twice-annual 10-day collection of events
throughout the city that features unexpected and creative experiences that are
interactive or offer behind-the-scenes access to artists or the creative
process.”
Our event, a Special Collections Tour, will take place on Thursday, October 1,
from 1-2pm, in the Special Collections reading room. Visitors will see
treasures from the State Library collections that are not normally on public
view, including some of the earliest published laws of Massachusetts, a
realistic facsimile of Mayflower passenger William Bradford’s manuscript
journal Of Plimoth Plantation,
broadsides recruiting soldiers for the Civil War, photographs of
African-American soldiers, a handwritten journal by a Civil War soldier from
Massachusetts, early maps of Boston, and 19th-century birds-eye view
maps of other Massachusetts cities and towns.
Seats
are limited, and reservations are required. Participants can sign up through
the ArtWeek
Boston website, which provides a link
for reserving a seat, and directions to the Special Collections department.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
The Legal View: from Native American Nations to Territories to States at the Massachusetts State Library
The earliest origins of the State Library’s collections date back over 200 years to 1811 when a formal exchange program of law books with other U.S. States, Territories, and Native American Nations was established by the Massachusetts General Court. These legal collections expanded to a point where the State Library was formally established to house them in 1826. Over the past two centuries, the collections eventually grew to number almost 24,000 volumes and form a vast and vital part of the library’s 19th and 20th century holdings, making it one of the largest collection of state publications in existence.
While some might call these “dusty old law books” in the
era of Westlaw and Lexis legal research, the volumes collectively tell the
story of our nation’s legal foundations as a democracy, and the growth of the
individual states to create the present United States of America. The State Library’s legal collections include
such varied items as the Laws of California written in their original Spanish, the
laws of Native Indian tribes and nations (i.e. Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw,
Choctaw, Osage), some even in the original native language, and the laws of
various territories that eventually became the familiar U.S. States we recognize
today (i.e. Dakota, Illinois, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Hawaii). 
One of the most curious volumes in the collection has to
be the Laws of the Jefferson Territory,
the one and only law volume printed for the Jefferson Territory that existed
from 1859 to 1861 and encompassed a land area that would eventually become the
states of Kansas and Colorado but was never legally recognized by the United
States government. The dissolution of
the Jefferson Territory coincided with the fallout from the 1860 election of
President Abraham Lincoln that precipitated the subsequent secession of the
original seven states to form the Confederate States of America. In order to augment the number of free
states, the U.S. Congress quickly moved to admit the state of Kansas to the
Union on January 29, 1861. This action left
the remainder of the Jefferson Territory unorganized until February 21, 1861, when
it was made part of newly formed Colorado Territory, leaving its legal legacy
behind for posterity in one 303 page volume.Judy Carlstrom
Technical Services
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