Theodore Parker, the grandson of Revolutionary War hero Captain John Parker, was a noted Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and advocate for transcendentalism. Born in Lexington, he excelled at academics and was accepted to Harvard College in 1830, but due to family financial struggles, Parker was unable to attend. He later enrolled in Harvard Divinity School, and graduated in 1836, after which he was ordained as the pastor for a Unitarian church in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. By 1840, Parker had become interested in and influenced by the Transcendentalist movement. Defying easy categorization, Transcendentalism was a social, philosophical and literary movement that began in New England in the 1830s; led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, it emphasized the essential goodness of men and the importance of intuition, imagination and individual thought over logic in the quest for the divine. Parker took elements of these beliefs to create his own theological ideas, which differed from traditional Christian teachings by focusing on a personal relationship with God based on man’s own experiences. In 1841, he publicized these views in a sermon entitled “The Transient and Permanent in Christianity,” in which he posited that the permanent was the individual relationship with God, while the transient was priestly ritual. He later published A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Literature, which further elaborated on his beliefs and alienated many local ministers. His controversial religious views, combined with his liberal leanings on issues of social reform, which included speaking out in favor of temperance, women’s education and the abolition of slavery, meant that he was forced to resign his pastorate in 1843. He left Boston and traveled around Europe for a year; upon his return, a small but loyal group of supporters founded the Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society of Boston and made him its minister. Parker continued to preach and speak out on social justice issues until his untimely death at the age of 50. The wood for the pedestal of this bust came from the original belfry which called the Lexington Minutemen to arms in 1775.
Sidney H. Morse (1833-1903) was a writer, sculptor and poet. Born in Rochester, New York, he initially trained as a sculptor in Connecticut before becoming a Unitarian minister. In his varied career, he founded and edited The Radical, a Unitarian periodical that supported free thought and religion, and was also a prolific author and speaker. Morse believed in the idea of individual sovereignty and supported the economic theory of mutualism, a school of thought that advocated for the individual’s right to receive appropriate compensation for their labor. In addition to his literary activities, Morse also worked sporadically as a sculptor and made busts of various American Rationalists and reformers of the 19th century, including such notable figures as Thomas Paine, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Susan B. Anthony.