Christmas with the Congregationalists 2024: A Collections Tour

Celebrate the season by joining us at 14 Beacon Street for an in-person viewing of materials in the Congregational Library & Archives’ collection related to Christmas with Executive Director Dr. Kyle Roberts and Librarian Meaghan Wright.

Christmas was not always a widely celebrated holiday by Congregationalists. The Massachusetts Bay General Court banned the observance of the holiday in 1659 and ministers, such as Cotton Mather, spoke out against yuletide reveling. Congregational practices started to look more familiar by the nineteenth century, as congregations put on Christmas plays and publishing houses, like the Pilgrim Press, printed holiday gift books featuring lovable characters like Winky the Christmas Cat.

See first-hand these holiday-themed treasures from the collections, learn about (and take home a copy of) a new edition of The Christmas Cat, share your own stories about how Congregationalists celebrate Christmas, and get into the holiday spirit.

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

SPEAKER BIOS

Dr. Kyle Roberts was appointed the Executive Director of the Congregational Library & Archives in 2022. He received his BA in American Studies from Williams College and his PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to the CLA, he was Associate Director of Library & Museum Programming at the American Philosophical Society and Associate Professor of Public History and New Media and Director of the Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities at Loyola University Chicago.

A scholar of Atlantic World religion, print, and library history, he is the author of Evangelical Gotham: Religion and the Making of New York City, 1783-1860 (Chicago, 2016), the co-editor, with Stephen Schloesser, of Crossings and Dwellings: Restored Jesuits, Women Religious, American Experience 1814-2014 (Brill, 2017) and, with Mark Towsey, of Before the Public Library: Reading, Community, and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1650-1850 (Brill, 2017).

Kyle is an accomplished public historian and digital humanist whose collaborative projects include the Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project, the Maryland Loyalism Project, and Dissenting Academies Online: Virtual Library System. In addition to being the consultant for numerous digital and public history projects, he sits on the executive committees of the American Catholic Historical Association, the New England Historical Association, the Urban History Association He is on the editorial and advisory boards for American Catholic Studies, Early American Studies, and portal.

Meaghan Wright earned her Bachelor’s degree in History and English from the University of Durham and leveraged her love of history, literature, and organization towards the library arts. She graduated from the University of Sheffield with a Masters in Librarianship with High Honors. Before coming to the CLA, Meaghan worked as a reference librarian at the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum for over six years, honing skills in research and reference, cataloguing, statistics, social media, and exhibitions. She was an active member of both the staff-led Climate + Environment Ideators and DEIA Working Group at PEM, and remains committed to sustainability and DEIA. She has attended five classes at the Rare Book School on book production and design and served as a subcommittee chair for the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association's Climate Readiness Task Force from 2020-2022. In her capacity as Librarian, she looks forward to expanding access to the collection through improved description, data tracking, and outreach.