Nathaniel Bowditch (March 26, 1773-16 March 16, 1838), a self-taught astronomer, navigator, and business executive, was one of America’s first scientists. His enduring reputation is based on two books; the New American Practical Navigator, a manual for sailors that is still in print; and his definitive translation of French mathematician Pierre Laplace’s Méchanique céleste.…
Hendrik Willem van Loon (January 14, 1882-March 11, 1944), a Dutch-American author and illustrator, was the first winner of the Newbery Medal for The Story of Mankind. He was beloved by the public during his lifetime as an engaging, energetic interpreter of the arts and humanities.
John Moses Ratcliff (June 6, 1892-February 22, 1953), a Universalist minister, was Professor of Education and Religious Education at Tufts College, Dean of Tufts School of Religion, Secretary of the Universalist General Convention, and President of the General Sunday School Association.
(May 16, 1836-December 15, 1913), educator and minister, was the third Unitarian minister to arrive in New Zealand. As a school inspector he influenced educational thought and policy in the Colony. As an educator he often wrote and spoke on religious issues.
Field Marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain (January 10, 1820-February 3, 1902), a significant figure in Britain’s wars on the Indian subcontinent, was the only person to have been appointed to the highest rank in the British Army while a member of a Unitarian church.
Rammohun Roy (c.1772-September 27, 1833), a Hindu monotheist, who made early translations of Vedic scriptures into English, co-founded the Calcutta Unitarian Society, and later founded Brahmo Samaj. He successfully campaigned against sati, the practice of burning widows. He sought to integrate Western culture with the best features of his own country’s traditions.…
Roger Frederick Etz (April 30, 1886-December 19, 1950) was a parish minister and a major figure in the Universalist denomination for forty years. He was Executive Secretary and General Superintendent of the Universalist General Convention, 1919-37. During a period of rapid denominational decline, and the Great Depression of the 1930s, he kept American Universalism a functioning organization, which made possible consolidation with the American Unitarian Association in 1961.…
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772-July 25, 1834) was a poet, philosopher, and romantic visionary, an inescapable presence in early 19th-century England. John Stuart Mill coupled him with Jeremy Bentham (another man often claimed as a Unitarian) as “the two great seminal minds of England of their age.”…
Leon Milton Birkhead (April 28, 1885-December 1, 1954), a controversial Methodist and Unitarian minister, achieved national prominence in the 1940s as director of the Friends of Democracy in New York. From the late 1930s through the early 1950s, he battled those, on the right and the left, who spread totalitarian propaganda.…
Edvard Grieg (June 15, 1843-September 4, 1907), considered Norway’s greatest composer, was the first to create an internationally celebrated body of musical works inspired by the folk-heritage and culture of Norway. Although most of his compositions were solo songs and short pieces for the piano, he contributed a few enduring Romantic-era classics to the orchestral and chamber repertoires.
Amos Bronson Alcott (November 29, 1799-March 4, 1888), educator, philosopher, utopian, and visionary, ran the progressive Temple School in Boston, founded the Fruitlands community in Harvard, Massachusetts, and led many public Socratic “conversations.” Although he belonged to no church, Alcott was influential both in the Transcendentalist wing of Unitarianism and in the Free Religion movement which followed.
Emily Howard Jennings Stowe (May 1, 1831-April 30, 1903), a path-breaking Canadian woman physician and suffragist, led campaigns to provide women access to medical schools and other professional education. Her efforts led to the organization of the woman’s movement in Canada and to the foundation of a medical college for women.