Linus Carl Pauling (February 28, 1901-August 19, 1994), a distinguished American chemist, helped to integrate chemistry with quantum theory and founded the discipline now called molecular biology. From 1945 on much of his time was devoted to antiwar activities and stopping the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.…
Caroline Howard Gilman (October 1, 1794-September 15, 1888), one of the most popular women writers of the first half of the nineteenth century, was born in Boston on October 1, 1794. Her parents, Samuel Howard and Anna Lillie, were prosperous and well-connected.
Samuel Gilman (February 16, 1791-February 9, 1858) was arguably the most important and dedicated leader of the ultimately unsuccessful effort to establish Unitarianism in the antebellum South. He served the Archdale Street Church, the only Unitarian congregation in South Carolina, for almost 40 years and became a central figure in Charleston’s social and intellectual life.…
Maria Cook (1779-December 21, 1835) was the first Universalist woman preacher in America. A traveling evangelist during the early 1810s, she preached before many audiences in New York State and Pennsylvania and was well received for a few years.
Little is known of her early life.…
John Relly Beard (August 4, 1800-November 22, 1876), British educational reformer and minister, was a militant exponent and populariser of mid-Victorian Unitarianism. His most enduring achievement is the Unitarian Home Missionary Board.
John was born at Portsmouth, Hampshire, the first of John and Ann Beard’s nine children.
John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) spent most of his youth and adult life in public service to the United States, as senator, diplomat, secretary of state, president, and congressman. He made his greatest contribution to his country after his presidency, while serving in the United States House of Representatives as a staunch opponent of slavery and expansionist war.
Robert Spears (September 25, 1825-February 25, 1899), a remarkably able and successful Unitarian minister, was the voice of Biblically-based British Unitarianism in his day. He organized or reinvigorated twelve congregations and founded journals and social service organizations. Because of his great energy he has been called the Unitarian dynamo of the 19th century.…
William Drennan (May 23, 1754-February 5, 1820), a physician, poet, educationalist and political radical, was one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen. He is also known as the first to refer in print to Ireland as “the emerald isle.”…
William Hamilton Drummond (August 1778-October 16, 1865), a leading 19th century Irish non-subscribing Presbyterian minister and Unitarian Christian theologian, was also an honored poet, an educationalist and an early advocate of the rights of animals.
Born in Larne in August, 1778, Drummond was the son of William Drummond, a naval surgeon, and Rose Hare.…
John Abernethy (October 19, 1680-December 1, 1740), called “the father of non-subscription”, was a prominent Irish Presbyterian minister who led many ministers and congregations out of the Synod of Ulster into a separate liberal-minded denomination, known today as the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland.
John Turner Sargent (July 12, 1807-March 26, 1877) served as a Unitarian minister-at” align=right>t-large in Boston for eight years. Deeply committed to the poor and to freedom of the pulpit, he was active in many causes, including woman’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery.
John E. Wood (July 30, 1910-June 15, 1980), Universalist and Unitarian Universalist minister and denominational official, played a significant part, first in preparing the way for the Unitarian-Universalist consolidation, and then in raising environmental consciousness within the Unitarian Universalist denomination.