Son of Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ter Abi­el Holmes, Oliver taught an­a­to­my and phys­i­ol­o­gy at Har­vard Med­i­cal School, where he even­tu­al­ly be­came dean. How­ev­er, he is per­haps best rem­em­bered as an au­thor, and as fa­ther of Amer­i­can Su­preme Court Jus­tice Ol­i­ver Wen­dell Holmes, Jr. In ad­di­tion, with James Low­ell, he helped found The At­lan­tic Month­ly mag­a­zine in 1857. Holmes’ works in­clude:

• Old Ironsides, 1830
• The Cham­bered Nau­ti­lus, 1858
• The Au­to­crat of the Break­fast Ta­ble
• The Pro­fess­or at the Break­fast Ta­ble, 1859
• Songs in Ma­ny Keys, 1861

• Hughes, pp. 432-33
• Julian, pp. 330, 1649, 1713
• Telford, p. 61

1. Angel of Peace
2. Behold Not Him We Knew
3. Father of All Life, Near and Far
4. Father of Mer­cies, Hea­ven­ly Friend
5. God Bless Our Fa­thers’ Land
6. Land Where the Ban­ners Wave Last in the Sun
7. Lord of All Be­ing
8. Lord of All Life, Be­low, Above
9. Lord, Thou Hast Led Us as of Old
10. Not Char­i­ty We Ask
11. Not in the World of Light Alone
12. O Lord of Hosts, Al­migh­ty King
13. O Love Di­vine, That Stooped to Share
14. Our Fa­ther, While Our Hearts Un­learn
15. Soon Shall the Slum­ber­ing Morn Awake
16. Sun of Our Life, Thy Quick­en­ing Ray
17. This Is the Ship of Pearl
18. Thou Gra­cious Pow­er
19. Though Scat­tered Far the Flock May Stray
20. Triple Health to Friend­ship, Science, Art, A
21. Waves Un­build the Wast­ing shore, The
22. We Trust and Fear, We Ques­tion and Be­lieve
23. What Flow­er Is This That Greets?
24. Who Is the Shep­herd Sent to Lead?