bMS 480

Channing, William Ellery. Papers, 1803-1938.

Summary Information:

• Call Number: bMS 480
• Title: William Ellery Channing, Papers, 1803-1900.
• Repository: Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-1911
• Quantity: 2 boxes

Administrative Information:

• Acquisition Information: Gift of the Arlington Street Church, Boston.
• Access: There are no restrictions on access to this collection.

Biographical Information:

William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) graduated from Harvard College in 1798. He served on the board of the Harvard Corporation from 1813 to 1826, where he worked for the establishment of the Divinity School, which occurred in 1816. A Unitarian minister, Channing served as the pastor of the Federal Street Church in Boston from 1803 until his death in 1842. In 1819 he gave the landmark Unitarian sermon, Unitarian Christianity, which upon publication sold thousands of copies. A believer in the abolitionist movement, he penned The Duty of the Free States in 1842, which was a rebuttal to Daniel Webster's teachings concerning the national slave laws. See related collection bMS 100, and the records of the Arlington Street Church, bMS 4.

Scope and Content:

Collection includes material related to Channing's ministry at Federal Street Church, Boston (now known as the Arlington Street Church), plus general correspondence (1817-1840), memorials and services for Channing, published sermons and addresses, and pamphlets on Channing. 

Container List:

Series I. General correspondence

• bMS 480/1 (1) Dated correspondence, 1817-1824.
• bMS 480/1 (2) Dated correspondence, 1825-1840.
• bMS 480/1 (3) Undated correspondence.

Series II. Papers re: Channing's ministry

• bMS 480/1 (4) Letter of acceptance of pastorate at Federal Street Church, 1803. Note: There is another letter of acceptance in bMS 396/2 (2).
• bMS 480/1 (5) Article on Channing in Daily Evening Telegraph, Boston, July 24, 1830.
• bMS 480/1 (6) Papers re: salary.
• bMS 480/1 (7) Channing's salary receipts, 1808-1814.
• bMS 480/1 (8) Channing's salary receipts, 1815-1840.

Series III. Memorials and services for Channing

• bMS 480/1 (9) "Address and Discourse after the Death of Rev. W.E. Channing," Ezra S. Gannett, 1842.
• bMS 480/1 (10) Report of Committee of Federal Street Society re: monument to Channing, 1844.
• bMS 480/1 (11) Record book of subscriptions for monument.
• bMS 480/1 (12) Correspondence re: monument, 1844-1880.
• bMS 480/1 (13) Miscellaneous papers re: monument.
• bMS 480/1 (14) "Series in Memory of William E. Channing," 1867.
• bMS 480/1 (15) Exercises of the unveiling of the Channing statue, June 1, 1903.

Series IV. Channing's published sermons and addresses

• bMS 480/1 (16) "Duties of Children," 1807.
• bMS 480/1 (17) Sermon on day of public fast, 1810.
• bMS 480/1 (18) "Two Sermons on Infidelity," 1813.
• bMS 480/1 (19) Discourse re: end of War of 1812, 1814.
• bMS 480/1 (20) Sermon, 1814.
• bMS 480/1 (21) "Letter to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher," 1815.
• bMS 480/1 (22) "Sermon on War," 1816.
• bMS 480/2 (1) "Unitarian Christianity," 1819.
• bMS 480/2 (2) "Letters to Unitarians Occasioned by the Sermon of the Reverend William E. Channing at the Ordination of the Rev. J. Sparks," 1820.
• bMS 480/2 (3) "Religion a Social Principle," 1820.
• bMS 480/2 (4) "Discourse on Evidences of Revealed Religion," Dudleian lecture at Harvard, 1821.
• bMS 480/2 (5) Sermon at Gannett's ordination, 1824, two editions.
• bMS 480/2 (6) Sermon on annual election, 1830 ("I call that mind free...), with later pamphlet, "The Free Mind," containing excerpts from this sermon.
• bMS 480/2 (7) "Channing on Temperance," 1837.
• bMS 480/2 (8) "Letter of Rev. William E. Channing to the Standing Committee," printed with a reply, 1840, plus shorter typescript version.
• bMS 480/2 (9) Address on anniversary of emancipation in British West Indies, 1842.
• bMS 480/2 (10) "Discourse on the Church."
• bMS 480/2 (11) "William Ellery Channing--Passages from his Writings," selected by W.C. Gannett and Judson Fisher.

Series V. Pamphlets on Channing

• bMS 480/2 (12) "Essay on Philosophical Character of Channing," by Rowland Hazard, 1845.
• bMS 480/2 (13) "Story of Channing," by Jabez T. Sunderland.
• bMS 480/2 (14) "Channing, the Man and his Message," by W.C. Gannett.
• bMS 480/2 (15) "William Ellery Channing on Labor," by Percy Atherton, 1938.

Series VI. Miscellaneous papers

• bMS 480/2 (16) "Channing Pulpit," messages by various authors published in the Arlington Street Church bulletin.
• bMS 480/2 (17) Miscellaneous papers.