Buckminster, J. S. (Joseph Stevens), 1784-1812

Unitarian clergyman, author, and an Athenaeum founder.

Joseph Stevens Buckminster received his A.B. from Harvard in 1800.

Unitarian minister and Athenaeum founder.

Joseph Stevens Buckminster (1784-1812) was an influential Unitarian minister of the Brattle Street Church in Cambridge, Mass. He was instrumental in disseminating German biblical criticism in New England.

Buckminster was born on May 26, 1784 in Portsmouth, NH. He entered Harvard College at the age of thirteen and received an AB in 1800 at the age of sixteen; he received an AM in 1803. Buckminster was ordained as the pastor of Cambridge's Brattle Street Church on January 20, 1805. In 1806 and 1807, he traveled through Europe and collected a library of 3,000 volumes that would become the foundation of the library of the Boston Athenaeum. As a member of the Anthology Club, Buckminster helped found the Boston Athenaeum and also edited and contributed to the Club’s Monthly Anthology, one of America’s earliest literary magazines. In 1811, Buckminster was appointed the Dexter Lecturer of biblical criticism at Harvard, but died before he could begin teaching. Buckminster died on June 9, 1812 in Boston. Buckminster was the son of Joseph Buckminster (Yale AB 1770), and the grandson of Joseph Buckminster (Harvard AB 1734).