Congregations from the backbone of Unitarian Universalism. This page provides a guide to finding accurate and useful information on individual Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist congregations and organizations, from a cursory to an in-depth level. This page is meant to model the research process, with the user starting at the top of the page and working their way down as they find more information about their research subject. This guide includes links to digital, print, and archival resources.
Reference material are secondary sources that are often organized around entries (such as a dictionary or encyclopedia) and provide concise introductory information on a person or topic.
Southern Witness: Unitarians and Universalists in the Civil Rights Era by 
A Documentary History of Unitarian Universalism Volume I, From the Beginning to 1899 by 
A Documentary History of Unitarian Universalism Volume II: From 1900 to the Present by 
The Unitarians and the Universalists by 
The Larger Hope: The First Century of the Universalist Church in America 1770–1870 by The Larger Hope: The Second Century of the Universalist Church in America, 1870–1970 by Organized by region, by congregation, and by minister, Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist directories and yearbooks provide extensive information about congregation size and growth. It also contains information about the American Unitarian Association, the Universalist Church of America, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.
The Wiggin Library at Meadville Lombard holds a complete set of the Unitarian print directories, a near complete set of the Universalist directories, and a complete set of Unitarian Universalist directories. To access print copies of these materials at Meadville Lombard, email library@meadville.edu.
Digital
Andover-Harvard Theological Library had digitized historical Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist yearbooks and directories. Andover-Harvard Digitized Yearbooks and Handbooks
Current Directory
The UUA currently maintains a digital directory that can be found here: Unitarian Universalist Association Directory
Secondary sources are scholarly materials, such as academic monographs (book length academic writing on a single subject) and articles in academic journals. Secondary sources are generally not written by individuals who participated in the events being analyzed. In history and the humanities, academic monographs are the most common way to publish sustained, in-depth scholarship and generally address a subject at a deeper level than reference material.
When researching individuals and organizations, we suggest to expand your scope beyond books explicitly on your subject or topic to include scholarly books that are thematically or chronologically and related to the individual or organization you are researching. Very often, a keyword search in a library catalog will discover books where your research subject is a major figure, but not the subject of a book.
Academic articles are another useful secondary source. In history and the humanities, academic articles contain focused scholarship smaller in scope than an academic monograph. For social scientific disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, and religious studies, academic articles are often the primary method to publish scholarship.
The Journal UU History seeks to preserve and celebrate original scholarship that relates to any aspect of the history of the Unitarian Universalist religious traditions, or related liberal religion. Although our emphasis is on American history since the mid-eighteenth century, we welcome work related to any place and period (for example, Reformation Europe).
Journal Overview and Table of Contents: Journal of UU History
To access articles from the Journal of UU History, email us at library@meadville.edu.
While increasingly dated, this is an authoritative bibliography created by Conrad Wright and is still quite useful to discover pertinent academic monographs and articles.
Bibliography of Unitarian, Universalist and Unitarian Universalist Resources, 1946-1995
Primary resources are resources created by or contemporaneous to organization you are researching. Published primary resources pertinent to researching congregations and other organizations often include self-published histories that were sent to theological libraries. Much like with published academic secondary resources, specialized theological libraries are the best location to discover published primary sources by Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists.
If the organization you are researching was active in the 19th or early 20th century, there is a high likelihood that much of their published material has been digitized by Google Books and/or Haiti Trust. Because these books are completely digitized, Google Books and Haiti Trust searches you to easily perform keyword searches that allow you to find references to specific individuals, events, and themes within published books.
Digital
Meadville Lombard Library and Archives curates access to a variety of online newspaper and periodical databases. To start browsing these resources, click Historical Periodicals
The Andover-Harvard Theological Library curates a lists of digitized Unitarian, Universalist, Unitarian Universalist, and liberal religious journals in the public domain, click Liberal Religious journals in the Public Domain to access these resources.
The Meadville Lombard Archives and Special Collections holds an extensive print collection of historical periodicals from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries that document Unitarianism, Universalism, Humanism/Free Thinkers, Spiritualism, and liberal religion more broadly.
To see the list of our historical periodical holdings, click Print Historical Journals and Periodicals held by Meadville Lombard
To access any of the historical journals and periodicals from our print collection, email archives@meadville.edu.
Pamphlets were a common means of distributing sermons, religions tracts, and short theological works up to the early 20th century. The resource below are a good resource if your organization was active during that time.
Meadville Lombard holds an extensive and unique collection of over 10,000 nineteenth and early twentieth century Unitarian and Universalist pamphlets. If you believe your individual would have written pamphlets during this time, email us at library@meadville.edu and we can check!
Digital
Archives contain primary, unpublished resources. They can be generated by an individual (often called "Personal Papers" or "Family Papers" or by an organization (often called "Records"). Archival documents form the backbone of most historical scholarship and are what secondary sources rely upon.
When researching individual Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalist congregations and organizations, records are often the most beneficial archival collection type. Records will often contain meeting minutes, internal correspondence, legal documents, and other material that reflect the how the organization functioned. In addition to records, it is often useful to research the individuals who make up the congregation or organization you are researching. For resources and strategies for researching individuals, look at our Researching Individuals page
While limited due to copyright and the high cost of digitization, there are a growing number of digitized online resources that document Unitarianism, Universalism, and Unitarian Universalism. Benefits of digital archives include granular keyword searching, item level descriptions, and ease of use.
The Meadville Lombard Archives and Special Collections holds the records of many defunct Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist regions and districts. To inquire if we have files on your research subject in any of the collections below, email us at archives@meadville.edu. We can work with you to schedule an in person appointment or, in some cases, scan pertinent material and email it to you.
Unitarian
Universalist
Unitarian Universalist
If you have any questions about the Meadville Lombard Archives and Special Collections, just ask!
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While the Meadville Lombard Archives and Special Collections holds the records of the Ryder Divinity School at Lombard College and most material relating to the merger of Lombard College with Meadville Lombard Theological School, Knox College holds most of the records of Lombard College, especially records related to the undergraduate program. You can find more information about the Lombard Collection at Knox College here.
While the Meadville Lombard Archives and Special Collections holds the records of the Ryder Divinity School at Lombard College and most material relating to the merger of Lombard College with Meadville Lombard Theological School, Knox College holds most of the records of Lombard College, especially records related to the undergraduate program. You can find more information about the Lombard Collection at Knox College here.
Meadville Lombard Wiggin Library
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Library and Archives Phone: 312-546-6488 Library Email: library@meadville.edu Archives Email: archives@meadville.edu