Portrait of Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)

Portrait of Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)

Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860)

American Philosophical Society. Gift of Mrs. Caspar Wistar, 28 March 1818.

c. 1801

Joseph Priestley was an outspoken minister and one of the founders of rational Unitarianism. He was also a renowned natural philosopher, who is perhaps most famous for discovering oxygen. He developed innovative teaching methods at Warrington Academy, a school for the children of Dissenters that Samuel Vaughan helped to fund. Both Benjamin and William Vaughan resided in the Priestley household when they attended Warrington Academy. Priestley's support of the French Revolution and his unorthodox religious beliefs ultimately endangered his life. In 1791, an angry mob set fire to his house, and Priestley fled with his family to London, immigrating to America three years later.