Changes Underway at the Sargent House Museum

When the Sargent House Museum opens for the 2027 season, it will have a new name and focus as The Judith Sargent Murray and John Murray Historic House. This program will describe the changes underway and consider why these two figures deserve to be better known: Judith as an early advocate of women's equality and education, and John as the "Father of Organized American Universalism." Speakers will include Paul Lewis, Sargent House curator and Boston College Professor Emeritus, and Dan McKanan, Emerson Senior Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School. Passages from John Murray's autobiography will be read by Reverend Janet Parsons, minister of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, and extracts from Judith's letters will be read by Bonnie Hurd Smith, the former president of the Sargent House Museum. Q&A to follow. The presentation will be in Community Room 003 at the Sawyer Free Library. Registration required - please register on this webpage.