Spring/Summer 2011
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
REPORT TO MEMBERS SPRING /S UMMER 2011 IN THIS ISSUE Supporting the Mary Baker Eddy Historic Houses . 1 Life with the Baker Family . 2 Annie M. Knott’s Granddaughter Visits Longyear . 8 News Briefs . 9 During Mary Baker Eddy’s earliest years growing up in the Baker family in Bow and then Tilton, New Hampshire, she developed a great love for family, the Bible, and church. Longyear Museum’s Baker Family collection of letters and artifacts offers interesting insights into how some of these early influences helped prepare her for her life as Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. A Message from the Outgoing Presiden t•Executive Director Dear Friends, Looking out my window at the beautiful flowering trees, I am delighted to welcome the month of June. I am reminded of Mary Baker Eddy’s poem to James T. White, published in The Christian Science Journal of August 1894, “who loves not June is out of tune with love and God.” The passage from winter to the warm sunny seasons of spring and summer is always a welcome time of year. Longyear, as with the seasons, is experiencing change. Some change is not easy. Our hearts were saddened recently with the sudden passing of Christopher L. Tyner, a dear friend and valued Longyear employee, and author of the recently-published Paths of Pioneer Christian Scientists. Longyear’s Directo r• Curator, Stephen R. Howard, has written a beautiful tribute to Christopher that can be found on page 7. Christopher will be greatly missed. And there is another change to tell you about. Three years ago my Anne McCauley with Principia Upper School students during husband took a position at The Principia, where we also enrolled their May 2011 visit to Boston. our two daughters, and I began the long commute between Boston and Saint Louis. Now, with several major projects at Longyear coming to completion, the time is right for me to change hats and live in Saint Louis full-time. I am very pleased to report that I have accepted the Longyear Trustees’ invitation to now serve as Longyear’s Director of External Affairs and Development, working from Saint Louis. This is a wonderful new opportunity to continue supporting the mission of Longyear and to focus on securing the financial future of the Museum and the historic houses in our collection. As I begin my new position, I would like to thank my Longyear colleagues who have made my six years as Executive Director so meaningful. They have produced outstanding historical documentary films, written and published historically significant monographs and books, launched an award-winning new website, designed and installed new exhibits, sponsored hundreds of outreach events, and greeted thousands of visitors to the Museum and the historic houses. The most memorable activities for me during my tenure as Executive Director include purchasing the Mary Baker Eddy historic houses in Lynn and Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and introducing hundreds of young students of Christian Science to Mrs. Eddy’s history. Just as this newsletter went to press, we welcomed the Junior Class from The Principia Upper School for a week-long Mary Baker Eddy history tour sponsored by a dedicated Longyear donor. This tour, along with others for DiscoveryBound and Christian Science summer camps, ha s offered me special opportunities to share Mrs. Eddy’s life and work with young people. The future is bright with promise for Longyear’s activities, and I look forward to continuing to engage our members and new supporters in this important work. Thank you for your continued commitment to Longyear Museum’s mission. Sincerely, Anne H. McCauley Cover: Baker family home at Bow, New Hampshire, rendered in sepia watercolor, 1920, by artist James Franklin Gilman for Mary Beecher Longyear. Longyear Museum Collection. Advance Longyear’s Work: support our historic houses As Longyear welcomes visitors to the Mary Baker Eddy historic houses during the 2011 tour season, we are especially grateful for the supporters whose annual contributions help us maintain and preserve these sites and open them to the public. These houses serve as valuable educational resources for sharing an accurate story of Mrs. Eddy’s history with visitors of all ages. One individual recently told us, “The tours of the houses Amesbury anchored my understanding of Mrs. Eddy and her life history, and I appreciate them Concord now more than ever.” Longyear’s Trustees and staff take seri - ously the privilege of operating, main - taining, and preserving these historic houses which help advance the under - standing of the life and work of the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science. Today we invite you to make a gift or a pledge to help Longyear North Groton Lynn with a tax-deductible donation that supports the year-round operations and maintenance of the eight Mary Baker Eddy historic houses. Unrestricted contributions ranging from $25 to $100 to $500 to more than $1,000 provide for a variety of annual costs, including opening for visitors, utilities, painting, minor repairs, tree care, and other ongoing maintenance. Rumney Stoughton Your generosity is needed and your gift will be used prudently. To make your contribution or pledge, please contribute online at www.longyear.org, call Longyear at 800.277.8943, ext. 222, or mail your gift in the enclosed remittance envelope and note that your contribution is for this special fund. Thank you, in advance, for considering this request in support of furthering our mission to advance the understanding of the life and work of Mary Baker Eddy. Swampscott Chestnut Hill 1 Life with the Baker Family By Christopher L. Tyner Mary Baker Eddy’s early years were spent in a warm, affectionate family with her mother, father, and five brothers and sisters in the rural beauty of New Hampshire. Longyear Museum’s Baker Family collection of letters and artifacts show some of the unique influences on her early life that helped prepare her for her life as Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy, circa 1856 original tintype photograph. Longyear Museum Collection. THE BAKER FAMILY OF BOW AND THEN TILTON , Baker daughters sometimes found themselves at the center of New Hampshire, might appear, if one were to examine the the local social swirl, as attested by Mary Baker’s firsthand flow of events at the surface of life, almost interchangeable testimony. with many other nineteenth-century New England families. “We attended a party of young Ladies at Miss Hayes last Father, Mark Baker, and wife, Abigail, raised their six children evening,” fifteen-year-old Mary Baker wrote five days before — three sons, Samuel Dow (b. 1808), Albert (b. 1810), George Christmas in 1836 to her older brother George, who was Sullivan (b. 1812), and three daughters, Abigail Barnard living in Connecticut at the time. Her letter included the (b. 1816), Martha Smith (b. 1819), and Mary Morse (b. 1821) gentle sister-to-brother tease: “she [Miss Hayes] was truly — in Christian devotion anchored in Puritan tradition. sorry our Brother from Conn. was not there, but she is soon to be married and then the dilemma will close as it is your The importance of family, hard work, and education, and a fortune to have some opposing obstacle to extricate you.” 1 reverence for the Bible and church were all taught and rein - forced daily, and within the safety of these moral guideposts, Almost four months later, Mary again informed George the Bakers rode out life’s daily joys and struggles. (whom the family generally called by his middle name, Sullivan) of interesting events on her social calendar. She had Mark Baker’s sons, desiring to escape their father’s farming made the acquaintance of a “perfect complete gentleman”: life, launched into other occupations. Brother Samuel left home in his late teen years for Boston to work as a mason and I met him a number of times at parties last winter, became a successful building contractor. Albert was gradu - he invited me to go to the Shakers with him but my ated from Dartmouth College and took up the practice of superiors thought it would be a profanation of the law, passing the bar examinations of both New Hampshire Sabbath and I accordingly did not go. But since then and Massachusetts. George Sullivan, the romantic, left home … I attended a wedding with a Mr. Bartlett; he was in 1835 to work first in Connecticut and later to go into part - groomsman and I bridesmaid; we had a fine time I nership with his brother-in-law Alexander Tilton, a wealthy assure you. 2 woolen mill owner. Many such incidents are revealed in the Baker family mate - For the Baker women, education was important, but on an rials — about 250 documents, including about 170 letters — equal footing with finding a suitable husband. Thus, the lively that form a part of Longyear Museum’s collection. For Mark Baker, circa 1850 original tintype photograph, and Mark Baker’s Bible. Baker Family Collection, Longyear Museum. 3 anyone wishing to explore Mrs. Eddy’s life from child to From my very childhood I was impelled, by a young adult, especially the years from 1835 to 1844, this hunger and thirst after divine things, — a desire for collection forms a crucial window through which one can see something higher and better than matter, and apart her as a warm, playful, and affectionate Baker family member from it, — to seek diligently for the knowledge of with a developing sense of spiritual commitment. God as the one great and ever-present relief from 3 In addition to the papers, the collection includes about 175 human woe.