Minute books

The minute books of the British Humanist Association, Ethical Union, Union of Ethical Societies, and the constituent groups of each (notably the Women’s Group of the Ethical Movement, the Hampstead Ethical Institute, and the West London Ethical Society) help to rescue the names, discussions, and decisions of those involved in the humanist movement from being lost to history. Before we more closely examined them, the integral role of figures like Zona Vallance, May Seaton-Tiedeman, and Harry Snell were almost completely unknown. These minute books, held today in our archives at the Bishopsgate Institute, are a rich source of information about the evolving organisation, allowing us to glimpse the resolutions made, the causes supported, and the people at the centre of them.