Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810-July 19, 1850) “possessed more influence on the thought of American women than any woman previous to her time.” So wrote Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in their 1881 History of Woman Suffrage. Author, editor, and teacher, Fuller contributed significantly to the American Renaissance in literature and to mid-nineteenth century reform movements.…
Ephraim Peabody (March 22, 1807-November 28, 1856), an early Unitarian missionary to the (then) western United States and later a prominent and beloved minister of King’s Chapel in Boston, was widely recognized as an insightful and inspiring preacher. His theology of character was a central concept for antebellum Unitarian moralists.
Henry Solly (November 13, 1813-February 27, 1903), British Unitarian minister and social reformer, was one of the most remarkable social innovators of his time. He was the instigator and founder of three important social organisations in Britain—Working Men’s Clubs, the Charity Organisation Society and the Garden City movement—that had a significant influence on the provision made for the working classes in late Victorian Britain.
Noah Worcester (November 25, 1758-October 31, 1837), entirely self-educated after the age of 15, studied and thought his own way to unitarian doctrine and also to pacifism. A formally unschooled farmer and school teacher, he became a respected and influential minister, author, editor and peace advocate, honored by two institutions of higher learning and a “father of the American peace movement.”…
William James Potter (February 1, 1829-December 21, 1893), born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was a Unitarian minister, a founder, Secretary and President of the Free Religious Association, and President and later Editor of The Index. For more than forty years Potter was perhaps the leading public citizen of New Bedford, Massachusetts.…
Samuel Atkins Eliot II (August 24, 1862-October 15, 1950) was the first president of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) to be given executive power; he held this office from 1900 to 1927. In 1925 the two major American Unitarian organizations, the AUA and the National Conference of Churches (NCC), were merged under his leadership.…
Béla Bartók (March 25, 1881-September 26, 1945), the greatest Hungarian composer, was one of the most significant musicians of the twentieth century. He shared with his friend Zoltán Kodály, another leading Hungarian composer, a passion for ethnomusicology. His music was invigorated by the themes, modes, and rhythmic patterns of the Hungarian and other folk music traditions he studied, which he synthesized with influences from his contemporaries into his own distinctive style.
Charles Francis Potter (October 28, 1885-October 4, 1962) was a Unitarian minister, theologian and author who changed, over half a century, from an evangelical Baptist to a radical Humanist. Such a transformation reflects remarkable openness to new ideas, flexibility of personality, and capacity for intellectual and theological growth.
Maria Weston Chapman (July 25, 1806-July 12, 1885) was described by Lydia Maria Child as “One of the most remarkable women of the age.” Chapman and three of her five younger sisters played vital roles in the antislavery movement. Even the smaller Weston girls were pressed into service for the cause that dominated the lives of this family.…
Angus Hector MacLean (May 9, 1892-November 11, 1969), Universalist minister, theological school professor and dean, played a major part in reshaping the philosophy and practice of religious education within the Universalist and Unitarian denominations during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.
Lydia Maria Child (February 11, 1802-Oct. 20, 1880) was a novelist, editor, journalist and scholar who produced a body of work remarkable for its brilliance, originality and variety, much of it inspired by a strong sense of justice and love of freedom.…
Richard Hildreth (June 28, 1807-July 11, 1865) was a journalist, philosopher, historian, and antislavery activist. His 1836 novel The Slave is considered the first American antislavery novel. His History of the United States of America broke new ground with its “warts and all” portrayal of the founders of the American republic.…