May Sarton (May 3, 1912-July 16, 1995) left an impressive legacy of over fifty books, including novels, poetry, memoirs and journals. Her appeal lay in her ability to “sacramentalize the ordinary” by probing everyday subjects such as flowers, gardens, animals, changing sunlight and personal relationships in order to find deeper, universal truths.…
Horace Holley (February 13, 1781-July 31, 1827) was a Unitarian minister, a popular orator and President of the University of Transylvania in Lexington, Kentucky. Mary Phelps Austin Holley (October 30, 1784-August 2, 1846) was an advocate of Texas independence and statehood.…
Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819-October 17, 1910), little known today except as author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” was famous in her lifetime as poet, essayist, lecturer, reformer and biographer. She worked to end slavery, helped to initiate the women’s movement in many states, and organized for international peace—all at a time, she noted, “when to do so was a thankless office, involving public ridicule and private avoidance.”…
William Laurence Sullivan (November 15, 1872-October 5, 1935) was one of the most eloquent Unitarian ministers of his day and a spokesman for liberal Christianity at a time when religious humanism was gaining favor. In early life, as a Roman Catholic priest, he displayed exemplary courage when under pressure by papal authority to renounce the ideal of free inquiry in biblical interpretation.…
Hannah Adams (October 2, 1755-December 15, 1831), an early American historian and pioneer in the field of comparative religion, was also the first American author to make a living solely from writing. She was the first historian of religions ever to try to represent sects and denominations in terms which adherents themselves used and from their perspective.
Florence Buck (July 19, 1860-October 12, 1925) was a Unitarian minister at a time when women ministers were uncommon and a leader in the development of Unitarian religious education. She served as Associate Secretary of the Department of Religious Education of the American Unitarian Association and was editor and author of significant religious study materials.
Caleb Rich (August 12, 1750-October 18, 1821), one of the earliest New England Universalist preachers, was the first to proclaim that there would be no punishment in the afterlife. His preaching led to the conversion of Thomas Barns, later a pioneer preacher to Universalists in Maine, and also Hosea Ballou whose advocacy of Rich’s eschatology brought on the Restorationist controversy.
Edmund Hamilton Sears (April 6, 1810-January 16, 1876), a Unitarian parish minister and author, was understood in his day to be conservative and not in sympathy with either “broad church” or “radical” Unitarians. He wrote a number of theological works influential among liberal Protestants, inside and outside the Unitarian fold.
Josiah Quincy (February 4, 1772-July 1, 1864) was a Congressman, judge of the Massachusetts municipal court, state representative, mayor of Boston and president of Harvard College. As Mayor he played a central role in making Boston a modern city.
Lucius Robinson Paige (March 8, 1802-1896) was a Universalist minister, biblical scholar, historian, and public official. Lucius was the youngest of nine children born to Timothy and Mary (Robinson) Paige of Hardwick, Massachusetts. His parents were Calvinists, but as Paige later wrote, “their hearts were so much better than their doctrine.”…
Benjamin Rush (December 24, 1745-April 19, 1813), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was the most celebrated American physician and the leading social reformer of his time. He was a close friend of both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and corresponded with many of the prominent figures of the revolutionary generation.
José María Blanco y Crespo (July 11, 1775-May 20, 1841), also known as Joseph Blanco White, was a poet who composed in both in Spanish and English and also a literary critic, novelist, essayist, journalist and religious controversialist. In his political writing he was an early advocate of Spanish American independence.…