Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global peer-led mutual aid fellowship begun in the United States dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's twelve traditions, besides stressing anonymity, establish it as free to all, non-professional, unaffiliated, and non-denominational as well as apolitical with a public relations policy of attraction rather than promotion. In 2020 AA estimated a worldwide membership of over two million, with 75% of those in the US and Canada.
Robert Holbrook Smith, also known as Dr. Bob, was an American physician and surgeon who founded Alcoholics Anonymous with Bill Wilson.
William Griffith Wilson, also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
The Richard Nixon Birthplace is the birthplace and early childhood home of Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States. It is located on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, and serves as a historic house museum.
Samuel Moor Shoemaker III DD, STD was a priest of the Episcopal Church. Samuel Shoemaker was considered one of the best preachers of his era, whose sermons were syndicated for distribution by tape and radio networks for decades. He founded Faith At Work magazine in 1926. He served as the rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City from 1925 to 1952. He was the head of the United States headquarters of the Oxford Group and later of the Moral Re-Armament which the Oxford Group became in 1938, from circa 1927 until circa 1941. From 1952 to 1962, he served as the rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He retired in 1962 and died the following year. Sam Shoemaker's interdenominational focus and the Oxford Group were significant influences for the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) who met through the Oxford Group. Bill Wilson attended Oxford Group meetings at Calvary Church from late 1934 to circa 1939. Sam Shoemaker helped start an Oxford Group chapter in Akron, Ohio, where Dr. Bob Smith became involved.
Margaret Marty Mann was an American writer who is considered by some to be the first woman to achieve longterm sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Mary Ignatia Gavin, C.S.A., was an Irish-born American Religious Sister, better known as Sister Ignatia, belonging to the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, who served as a nurse. In the course of her work she became involved in the care of those suffering from alcoholism, working with Bob Smith, a co-founder of what became Alcoholics Anonymous. In this work she became known as the alcoholic's "Angel of Hope".
The Arthur H. Compton House is a historic house at 5637 South Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1905 and designed by architects Holabird & Roche, it was the residence of physicist Arthur Compton (1892–1962) from 1928 until 1945. Compton discovered the Compton Effect in 1923, proving that light has both a particle and a wave aspect. Compton received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for this discovery. His house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
The Daniel Hale Williams House is the former home of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931), one of the first major African American surgeons. Located at 445 East 42nd Street in the Grand Boulevard community area of Chicago Illinois, the building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
The Robert A. Millikan House is a historic house at 5605 South Woodlawn Avenue in the Hyde Park community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built about 1907, it was the home of American physicist Robert A. Millikan (1868-1953) from about 1908 until 1921, the period in which he made his most significant Nobel Prize winning work. The three-story brick building earned National Historic Landmark status on May 11, 1976.
Stepping Stones is the historic home of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson and his wife, co-founder of Al-Anon/Alateen Lois Wilson, in Bedford Hills, New York. The historic site features their house ; Bill W.'s writing studio, nicknamed "Wit's End"; approximately 15,000 objects left by the Wilsons; a water pump house; the original one-car garage; a two-car garage and Welcome Center with an orientation display highlighting some of the 100,000 items in the Stepping Stones Archives; a flower garden; a community vegetable garden; and more. Lois left the property to The Stepping Stones Foundation - the nonprofit, tax-exempt organization that she founded in 1979. Since Mrs. Wilson's death in 1988 the Stepping Stones Foundation has maintained and preserved the site with the help of friends, and has offered on-site tours by reservation and off-site educational programs.
Rowland Hazard III was an American businessman and member of a prominent Rhode Island family involved in the foundation and executive leadership of a number of well-known companies. He is also known as the "Rowland H." who figured in the events leading to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global fellowship founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Robert Smith, and has since grown to be worldwide
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Benjamin Lundy House is a historic house at Union and Market Streets in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. It was home in 1820 to abolitionist Benjamin Lundy (1789–1839), where he established the influential anti-slavery newspaper The Genius of Universal Emancipation, one of the first anti-slavery publications in the United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in May 1974, and was included in the Mount Pleasant Historic District later the same year.
The Bill Wilson House is a historic 19th-century hotel at 378 Village Street in East Dorset, Vermont, United States. Built in 1852, it is the birthplace and living memorial of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson. With 14 guestrooms and a conference room the non-profit bed and breakfast is a center for recovery seminars and regular AA and ALANON meetings. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism is a 1939 basic text, describing how to seek recovery from alcoholism. The Big Book was written by William G. "Bill W." Wilson, one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, with the help of various editors. The composition process was not collaborative other than editing. Bill wrote all of the chapters except for "To Employers" which was written by Bill's right hand man, Hank Parkhurst. Parkhurst influenced the more liberal notions of "God as we understand him" and "your own conception of God." Drafts of sections were sent back and forth between Bill W.'s group in New York and Robert Holbrook Smith, the other AA founder, in Akron, Ohio. Dr. Bob made no major changes. It is the predecessor of the seminal "twelve-step method" widely used to treat many addictions, from alcoholism, heroin addiction and marijuana addiction to overeating, sex addiction and gambling addiction, with a strong spiritual and social emphasis. It is one of the best-selling books of all time, having sold 30 million copies. In 2011, Time magazine placed the book on its list of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923, the year in which the magazine was first published. In 2012, the Library of Congress designated it as one of 88 "Books that Shaped America."
Summa St. Thomas Hospital was a former orthopedic and psychiatric hospital located in Akron, Ohio. The hospital opened in 1922 and was originally operated by the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine as a non-denominational, non-profit general hospital. In 1989, St. Thomas Hospital merged with Akron City Hospital to become Summa Health System. The emergency room was closed in 2014, and the hospital was closed in 2023.
Henrietta McBrayer Buckler Seiberling was a member of a Christian fellowship group named the Oxford Group. Seiberling is well-known for connecting the two men who would found Alcoholics Anonymous.
