The Harvard Square Library presents the unabridged autobiography of Olympia Brown free online. Olympia Brown was a pioneer for the admission of women to the Christian ministry and an active women suffragist. Her official ordination by the Universalist Church in 1863 antedated that of any other women in any denomination.

Throughout her life, Olympia Brown was urged by friends to write her autobiography.  However, it was characteristic of her that while she was able to "work in the field", as she expressed it, she considered it a waste of time to write her own life. It was, therefore, only after the suffrage victory was won in 1920 and when she was past the age of eighty-five that she turned her attention to writing some notes about her life.

At the request of her mother, Gwendolen Willis arranged and edited this autobiography from Olympia Brown’s personal writings and notes from her life. This autobiography is a testament to Olympia Brown’s unwavering conviction to her ministry, a belief in the freedom of religious thought and a liberal church, and of the importance of women’s social and political enfranchisement. This illustrated edition was edited by Alana Pradham ‘13,  Harvard College.

Click here to read Olympia Brown: An Autobiography