Jared Sparks (May 10, 1789 – March 14, 1866) was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard College from 1849 to 1853. Biography Born in Willington, Connecticut, Sparks studied in the common schools, worked for a time at the carpenter's trade, and then became a schoolteacher. In 1809–1811, he attended the Phillips Exeter Academy, where he met John G. Palfrey, who became a lifelong friend. He graduated from Harvard College, (now Harvard University), with an A.B. in 1815, and an A.M. in 1818. While an undergraduate, Sparks was a member of the Hasty Pudding. In 1812, he served as a tutor to the children of a family in Havre de Grace, Maryland. A few years later he taught in a private school at Lancaster, Massachusetts during 1815–1817. Sparks also studied theology and was college tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard College in 1817–1819. In 1817–1818 he was acting editor of the North American Review. He was the first pastor of the newly organized "First Independent Church of Baltimore", serving from 1819 to 1823. It occupied what became a landmark structure at West Franklin and North Charles streets. It later was known as the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist) after a 1935 merger with the Second Universalist Church at Guilford Avenue and East Lanvale Street. At Sparks' ordination by Dr. William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), of the Federal Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, Channing delivered his discourse on Unitarian Christianity. This later was known as "The Baltimore Sermon". It set out the tenets and some principles for the developing theology and philosophy of Unitarianism. By 1825, these principles led to the founding of the American Unitarian Association. (In 1961 a merger between two groups resulted in the modern Unitarian Universalist Association of America.) During this period, Sparks founded the Unitarian Miscellany and Christian Monitor (1821), a monthly, and edited its first three volumes. He served as chaplain of the United States House of Representatives from 1821 to 1823; and he contributed to the National Intelligencer and other periodicals. In 1823, his health failed and Sparks withdrew from the ministry. Removing to Boston, he bought and edited in 1824–1830 the North American Review, contributing about 50 articles to it. He founded and edited in 1830, the American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, which was continued by others and long remained a