I was searching for early Universalist convention records when I happened on a trove of midcentury issues of Universalist Leader and Unitarian Universalist Register-Leader, the magazines which became what is today the UU World.
This is really exciting, since documents from the late pre-consolidation and early post-consolidation (1961 onwards) eras are hard to find, at least working from Washington, D.C. Earlier anyway, denominational business was published in depth with documents drafts, so fingers crossed.
What lead me there? A search which showed groovy maps of Universalist state conventions and Unitarian districts before consolidation, and the UUA districts thereafter. I didn’t know the Alabama and Mississippi conventions survived to consolidation, for instance.
At the Harvard Divinity School Library (Harvard-Andover Theological Library) site:
Universalist Leader, January 1954-December 1954
Universalist Leader, January 1955-December 1955
Universalist Leader, January 1956-December 1956
Universalist Leader, January 1957-December 1957
Universalist Leader, January 1958-December 1958
Universalist Leader, January 1959-December 1959
Universalist Leader, January 1960-December 1960
Universalist Leader, January 1961-April 1961
Unitarian Register and Universalist Leader, May 1961-December 1961
Unitarian Register and Universalist Leader, May 1962-Midsummer 1962
Unitarian Universalist Register-Leader, October 1962-December 1962
Unitarian Universalist Register-Leader, January 1963-December 1963
Unitarian Universalist Register-Leader, January 1964-April 1964
Leader, May 1964-December 1964 with Register/Leader Spotlight
Leader, January 1965-April 1965 with Register/Leader Spotlight
The variously titled Universalist Leader and Christian Leader up through 1927 have entered the public domain and are easy to find. I’ll keep any eye out for issues between 1928 and 1953, and would appreciate leads.
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