Reverend Leonard Edward Feeney

An important yet controversial character in American Catholicism
A Jesuit priest who brought a group of followers to Harvard

Tabitha Babbitt

Tabitha Babbitt (December 9, 1779 to December 10, 1853) would have been known as Sister Tabitha in her time, as she was a lifelong member of Harvard’s Shaker community. In her lifetime, Babbitt would go on to invent the circular saw,…

Shadrack Ireland

Lay preacher (1718-1778) of a Perfectionism sect, he built the Square House that later became a base for Shaker leader, Mother Ann Lee.

Temperance Movement and Harvard

“…saturnalia at the taverns on Harvard Common were gross, but they were cheap and open to public scrutiny. Men of all sorts and conditions resorted there every day and evening to guzzle until stupid or half-crazed. There are traditions of more vicious, secret, and costly orgies at which Harvard citizens figured in the old brick taverns of North Lancaster.”- Henry Nourse in “History of Harvard, Mass. 1732-1893”

Shakers and Animal Husbandry

“My first dinner at the Shaker Community was at noon that Friday. That was a traumatic meal for me. I had been brought up in the Catholic Church at a time when it did not accept eating meat on a Friday.”
Sister Frances A. Carr, “Growing Up Shaker”

Revolutionary Cemetery Tour

In honor of the 250th anniversary of America’s independence, the Harvard Historical Society organized a tour of the Center Cemetery, highlighting Harvard’s very own Revolutionary soldiers who lie in rest there.