Eliza R. Sunderland (née, Read; April 19, 1839 – March 3, 1910) was an American writer, educator, lecturer, and women's rights advocate of the long nineteenth century.

She was also prominent in her religious denomination, no woman in the country being called upon more often than Sunderland for addresses at local, state, and national Unitarian gatherings.

Her father was Amasa Read, a native of Worcester County, Massachusetts, who removed to Illinois in 1838 as one of the earliest pioneer settlers in the central-western part of the State.

Her mother, whose maiden name was Jane Henderson,[2] was born in Ohio, of Scotch ancestry, and was a woman of remarkably vigorous mind and noble character.

At the age of 24, she entered Mount Holyoke Seminary, in Massachusetts, at that time the most advanced school for young women in the country; she was graduated from that institution in 1865.

[6] Sunderland's highest ambition was realized when, on graduation day, she was invited to return as a teacher, but circumstances at home prevented her doing so.

[6] After graduation, Sunderland became a teacher in the high school in Aurora, Illinois, where quickly, she made principal, holding that position during the period of 1866–71.

[8] From 1872 to 1875, Sunderland's home was in Northfield, Massachusetts, then three years in Chicago, Illinois, and in 1878, the family removed to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

During this time, she gave a series of 28 lectures on "Religious Thought of the Great Thinkers of the Nineteenth Century", her specific subjects being Haeckel, Goethe, Emerson, Browning, Tennyson, and others.

[8] Her married life, before coming to Hartford, Connecticut, was spent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Northfield, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Toronto, Canada, where her husband held pastorates.