Samuel Putnam
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James Bayne Photographer, Grand Rapids, Michigan Unknown 1928-0001-0368.jpg MS - 12, Box 20, Folder 3 B&W 1928-0001-0368 1928-0001-0368 Photo Card Print 5x7 Manuscript Collections 1890s Reproduction requires permission. Digital images property of SHM Library & ArchivesDescription
SAMUEL PORTER PUTNAM (b. July 23, 1838 – d. December 11, 1896) was born in Chichester, New Hampshire. He was a Congregational and Unitarian minister, but eventually renounced Christianity and became one of America’s most prominent atheist leaders of the late 19th century, barnstorming across the country promoting atheism and “Freethought”. Putnam founded the Freethought Institute of America” in 1892, and published several books of essays and poetry, as well as a thick volume of tributes to Freethinkers from the past, called “400 Years of Freethought”.
Putnam lectured in Prescott in 1895, at which time he befriended Sharlot Hall and her family. Some biographers of Sharlot have speculated that she and Putnam had a brief romance at this time.
Samuel Putnam died on December 11, 1896, in an accident in which he and a twenty year-old Freethought lecturer named May Collins were asphyxiated by gas in his hotel room.
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