Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810-May 10, 1860) was a preacher, lecturer, and writer, a public intellectual, and a religious and social reformer. He played a major role in moving Unitarianism away from being a Bible-based faith, and he established a precedent for clerical activism that has inspired generations of liberal religious leaders.…
Emily Taft Douglas (April 19, 1899-January 28, 1994) was a congresswoman, civil rights activist, early feminist, actress, author, and Unitarian lay leader. Throughout her life she promoted international cooperation for the preservation of peace and for democratic cultural exchange.
Joseph Tuckerman (January 18, 1778-April 20, 1840) was a Unitarian minister widely known in his time for his labor of love with Boston’s poor and for his advocacy of social and political reforms on their behalf. He founded and led the Benevolent Fraternity of Unitarian churches.
Harriot Stanton Blatch (January 20, 1856-November 20, 1940) was a leader in the woman suffrage movement, a writer and an advocate for labor reform. She is credited with modernizing a suffrage movement that, by the opening of the 20th century, was listless and flagging.
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.
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.
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.