Material expression and maternalism in mary baker eddy?s boston churches: how architecture and gender compromised mind

Notes and References

• For discussion of multiple themes articulated within evangelical church architecture of the late nineteenth century, see Kilde (2002).
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• On domestic themes in late-nineteen-century churches, see Kilde (2002, 146–69).
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• In her definitive biography of Eddy, Gillian Gill effectively demonstrates Eddy's skills in this regard and her purposiveness. See, for instance, her chapter exploring Eddy's strategies for disseminating her metaphysics in (Gill 1998, 318–38). See also Peel (1977). Also helpful on this period is Knee (1994).
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• Eddy's thought on this critical point developed over time. Some of the changes can be traced in the official tenets of the church, though they were frequently revised. The July 1894 version lists the following tenets: “5. We acknowledge the way of Salvation demonstrated by Jesus, to be the power of Truth over all error, sin, sickness, and death; and the resurrection of human faith to seize the great possibilities and living energies of divine Life. 6. We solemnly promise to strive, watch and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus, to love one another, and to be meek, merciful, just and pure” (Church Tenets and Rules, 1894). See also, Eddy (1994, 210, 369).
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• On Christian Science services, see Ivey (1999, 18).
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• See also, Eddy (1900, 2–3; 1994, 332, 516, 569, 577). For scholarly discussions of Eddy's conception of the godhead and its encompassing of both male and female elements, see Bednarowski (1980, 218–19); Gottschalk (1974, 52–7); Lindley (1984, 322); Porterfield (1980, 155–61); Setta (1977, 289–305); Trevett (1984, 146–51). Eddy was not unique in assigning feminine traits to the godhead. On other religious groups that have countered masculine-dominated God-language with feminine elements, see Bednarowski (1980, 210–17, 221–5) and Porterfield (1980, 68–81).
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• MBE to unnamed recipient, December 15, 1894 (A11505, Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity (MBELBH)).
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• The windows were produced in opalescent glass by Phipps and Slocomb, under the direction of Horace Phipps. See “An Interview with Mr. Horace Phipps of Phipps and Slocomb, makers of the Windows in the Original Edifice of The Mother Church,” n.d. (Historical File, “The First Church of Christ, Scientist—Edifices, Original—Windows—Folder 1,” MBELBH). See other correspondence in this file for further information on the windows.
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• The phrase “With face toward the Jerusalem of Love and Truth, in silent prayer” would appear later in Eddy (1896, 133).
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• MBE to the Christian Science Board of Directors and Edward P. Bates, December 11, 1894 (L00652, MBELBH). The word “Mother” on the floor outside the room has been replaced with the following: “The Rev. Mary B. Eddy's Room, The Children's Room.”
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• The growing concern with physical comfort at the close of the nineteenth century has been explored by Grier (1988).
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• The first quotation is from MBE to the Christian Science Board of Directors, November 26, 1894 (L02737, MBELBH); the second appears in MBE to Edward P. Bates, Caroline S. Bates, Caroline W. Frame and Emilie B. Hulin, November 25, 1894 (V01325, MBELBH); see also MBE to Edward P. Bates, November 30, 1895 (L09113, MBELBH).
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• MBE to Edward P. Bates, November 30, 1894 (L09113, MBELBH).
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• MBE to Edward P. Bates, Caroline W. Frame, and Emily Hulin, November 25, 1894 (V01325, MBELBH).
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• See, for instance, clipping “Early Chimes,” Christian Science Journal, December 1898 (Scrapbook 25, p. 197, MBELBH); clipping “A Card,” Christian Science Sentinel, December 21, 1899 (Scrapbook 25, p. 198, MBELBH); MBE to Rachel F. Marshall, April 8, 1904 (L05855, MBELBH).
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• Church Manual (1906), article XI, section 4.
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• See, for instance, MBE to Ebenezer J. Foster Eddy, October 7, 1894 (L01920, MBELBH), in which she laments that “There is too much personality getting into the Church, God does allow nothing of this in C.S. Let us obey him and be consistent with our doctrine teaching and His revelation.” See also, MBE to Henrietta E. Chanfrau, January 9, 1894 (L03895, MBELBH).
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• Examples of Eddy's rebuke and responses to it are seen in MBE to The First Church of Christ, Scientist, November 3, 1894 (L00075, MBELBH); William B. Johnson to MBE, May 14, 1895 (V04791, MBELBH); MBE to E. Frank Woodbury and Josephine Curtis Woodbury, January 28, 1896 (L02647, MBELBH); MBE to Ira Oscar Knapp, February 4, 1896 (L14431, MBELBH); and Daisette D. Stocking McKenzie to MBE, February 9, 1896 (incoming correspondence, MBELBH).
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• While I will be focusing from this point exclusively on the feminine/mother, the conception of father in Eddy is also worth examining, particularly in light of recent work on the changing notions about fatherhood in the late nineteenth century.
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• See MBE to the Christian Science Board of Directors, September 18, 1894 (L02720, MBELBH), in which she instructs them to include the four windows discussed below and arranged in the order given as it represents a historical progression: Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary Anointing the Head of Jesus, Mary First at the Resurrection, and Woman God-Crowned. Her involvement in the topic selection and design of the windows of the Mother Church is well documented. See MBE to William B. Johnson, February 16, 1894 (L00091, MBELBH); MBE to Ira Oscar Knapp, April 14, 1894 (L03439, MBELBH); Calvin A. Frye to Edward P. Bates, April 27, 1894; MBE to Edward P. Bates, May 12, 1894 (L08159, MBELBH); MNE to Ebenezer J. Foster Eddy, September 12, 1894 (L01916 and L01917, MBELBH) and October 7, 1894 (L01920, MBELBH); See also miscellaneous incoming letters to the board of directors and MBE filed in the Historical file of the First Church of Christ, Scientist—Edifices, Original—Windows (MBELBH).
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• The story appears in three places in the New Testament. Mark 14: 3–10 tells of an unnamed woman in Bethany who approaches Christ with an alabaster box of oil, breaks it, and anoints his head. Luke 7: 37–9 tells of an unnamed woman who approaches Christ in a Pharisees' house with an alabaster box of oil and anoints Christ's feet. John 11: 2 identifies the woman who anointed Christ as Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. Eddy has chosen to combine these stories into a single narrative act performed by “Mary.”
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• See glossary definition for “oil” in Eddy (1994, 592).
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• Mary Baker Eddy and Calvin Frye, draft of “Not Theory, But Theology,” April 24, 1894. p.10 (A10388, MBELBH); see also Mary Baker Eddy, “The Corner Stone” May 21, 1894 (L14671, MBELBH).
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• This window was designed by Dorthea Warren O'Hara. See Dorthea Warren O'Hara to Miss Firth, May 3, 1941 and August 1, 1941 (MBELBH).
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• On Eddy's authority, see Peel (1977).
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• “An Improbable Story,” Boston Herald, January 30, 1895.
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• It is possible that Eddy actually anticipated this. In a letter to her adopted son, Ebenezer J. Foster Eddy, written several months before the church and its windows were completed, she complains that “There is too much personality getting into the church,” and two sentences later she prohibits him from using a picture called “Seeking and Finding,” which many people had viewed as a portrait of her, for a window in the new church (October 7, 1904, L01920, MBELBH). She also prohibits generally the use of pictures from Christ and Christmas as windows in the church. See MBE to Calvin A. Frye, May 3, 1894 (L09112, MBELBH).
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• See MBE to Augusta E. Stetson, December 17, 1900, in which she rebukes Stetson, saying “you injure the cause and disobey me in thinking that I am Christ or saying such a thing” (H00069, MBELBH).
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• See “An Improbable Story,” Boston Herald January 30, 1895.
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• “An Improbable Story,” Boston Herald January 30, 1895.
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• Laura E. Sargent, “From Notes by Mrs. Laura Sargent,” typescript, n.d. (Reminiscence File, MBELBH). See also, MBE “Deification of Self,” February 2, 1895 (A10576, MBELBH). This piece was apparently intended for publication in the New York Daily Herald. See also, “Do Not Deify Mrs. Eddy,” The Boston Herald, 14 June 1899; MBE to Augusta E. Stetson, December 17, 1900 (H00069, MBELBH); Calvin Frye and Joseph Mann to Edward A. Kimball, January 29, 1901 (L09311, MBELBH). Belief in Eddy's divinity persisted, nevertheless, and a whole school of though developed in Christian Science identifying Eddy with the God-Crowned Woman and explicating her role as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
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• On the widespread popularity of gift books, see Schmidt (1995, 115–17).
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• On Christ and Christmas, see Peel (1971, 43–7). 34 That Eddy was very pleased with the illustrations is evident in a letter she wrote to Edward P. Bates, January 9, 1894 (L0973, MBELBH).
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• Daisette Stocking McKenzie, “Recollections of my Acquaintance with Our Beloved Leader Mary Baker Eddy,” transcript, February 10, 1942 (Reminiscence File, MBELBH).
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• MBE to Augusta E. Stetson, January 22, 1894 (H00133, MBELBH).
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• MBE to Ebenezer J. Foster Eddy, January 10, 1894, (L01883, MBELBH). See also, MBE to E. N. Pearson, January 10, 1894 (F00497, MBELBH).
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• MBE to James F. Gilman, January 7, 1894 (L02313, MBELBH).
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• MBE to Daisette McKenzie, May 15, 1894 (L13019, MBELBH).
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• James F. Gilman to MBE, January 9, 1894 (MBELBH). See also Daisette Stocking McKenzie, “Recollections of My Acquaintance with Our Beloved Leader Mary Baker Eddy,” transcript, February 10, 1942 (Reminiscence File, MBELBH), p. 2, which quotes MBE saying that she stopped publication of the book because “it was misused by materializing the illustrations.” Here, too, Eddy reportedly goes on to compare her images to other allegorical ones, such as the representation of Liberty by a figure of a woman.
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• MBE to Edward P. Bates, May 3, 1894 (L09112, MBELBH). 42 Reasons for her absence are not clear. Some have suggested that she stayed away because she had not been invited. Though she did suggest this to Caroline and Edward Bates some weeks after the dedication and they took steps to make amends, it is clear from the reminiscence of Clara Shannon, a young woman student who lived with Eddy as an aide, that in December of 1894, Eddy was eagerly anticipating the event, having been surprised with a new dress from Shannon and having hired a milliner to create a new hat to go with it. A week before the dedication, however, Eddy instructed Shannon to tell the organizers that their Mother would not be in attendance. Though the diary is not explicit on the reasons for this change in plans, it does say that “I did all I could to make it possible for her to go but she suffered so much that she thought it wisest to remain at home,” suggesting that Eddy had taken ill. Of course, for it to become known that the leader of Christian Science was ill and could not effect a cure in time for such an important event would provide another opportunity for opponents to again raise their charges. See Clara M.S. Shannon, “Golden Memories, By One who is Grateful to be Able to Testify to the Truth about Our Beloved and Revered Leader,” c. 1928 (Reminiscence Collection, MBELBH). The quote appears on page 23.
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• Accounts of the three visits are available in the following: Edward P. Bates, “Reminiscences of the Teachings and of the Personality of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and Author of its Only Text-Book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” 1918 pp. 64–5 (Reminiscence Collection, MBELBH); Charles Welch to the Christian Science Board of Directors, March 26, 1928 (MBELBH).
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• MBE to Septimus and Camilla Hanna, January 17, 1896 (L05130, MBELBH). See also, Peel (1971, 97).
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• Edward P. Bates to MBE, October 13, 1894 (MBELBH). On Eddy's displeasure with the board of directors during the construction process, see MBE to Ebenezer J. Foster Eddy, May 16, 1894 (L01903, MBELBH), September 9, 1894 (L01793, MBELBH); MBE to the Christian Science Board of Directors, June 19, 1894 (L00065, MBELBH), July [n.d.], 1894 (L00066, MBELBH), October [n.d.] 1894 (V01323, MBELBH); MBE to Caroline S. Bates and Emilie B. Hulin, November 7, 1894 (L08708, MBELBH); MBE to Joseph Armstrong, December 6, 1894 (L02741, MBELBH); MBE to Stephen A. Chase and Joseph Armstrong, November 23, 1894 (L02732 and L02733, MBELBH).
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• Eddy deputized Emilie B. Hulin, Caroline S. and Edward P. Bates, and Carline W. Frame. See, for instance, MBE to Emilie B. Hulin, November [n.d.], 1894 (L08665, MBELBH).
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• See, for instance, Edward P. Bates to MBE, October 13, 1894; William B. Johnson to MBE, January 8, 1895; Ira O. Knapp to MBE, January 25, 1895; Edward P. Bates to MBE, May 28, 1895 (MBELBH).
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• MBE to Caroline D. Noyes (L05459, MBELBH).
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• MBE to Joseph and Mary Armstrong, February 4, 1896 (L02776, MBELBH).
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• See, for instance, MBE to Edward P. Bates, December 10, 1900 (L08207, MBELBH).
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• See also, Twain, “Christian Science,” North American Review, December 1902, 756–68; April 1903, 505–17; February 1903, 173–84, and March 1903, 349–64. Christian Science (New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers) appeared in 1907, but the US and British editions were not identical, the US edition eliminating a particularly scathing chapter on Eddy.
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• MBE to an unknown recipient, January 14, 1903, intended for publication in the New York Herald, indicating that she had read only extracts of the complete text (A10173, MBELBH).
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• MBE to Harriet L. Betts, January 7, 1902 (L04462, MBELBH); see also a letter from Calvin Frye to William Dennison McCrackan, dated January 7, 1902, which indicates that Frye has kept the “whole story of Twain's” from Eddy because “there is too much bad stuff in it for her to read” (L12454, MBELBH).
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• In speculating on why Eddy missed the negative influence of the windows while perceiving that of Christ and Christmas, an anonymous reviewer of this article has suggested that familiarity with the historical use of allegorical representation in stained-glass may have masked the potential for and ramifications of literal interpretation of the windows, while book illustrations, viewed in intimate settings by readers, and perhaps more encouraging of a personal relationship with the beloved leader, may have been more readily understood as literal depictions of Eddy. This interpretation contains much to recommend it, particularly in its focus on the role of media in the reception of a given message. Eddy's lack of comment on the windows, however, leaves this inquiry in the realm of supposition. 55 MBE to Edward P. Bates, December 10, 1900 (L08207, MBELBH); MBE to Joseph Armstrong December 18, 1900 (V01794, MBELBH); MBE to Albert Metcalf December 19, 1900 (L08842, MBELBE).
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• MBE to Albert Metcalf, January 9, 1901 (L08843, MBELBE). Interestingly, Twain was particularly concerned about the growth in the number of Christian Scientists—he predicts the denomination will boast ten million people by 1920—a forecast which may have had a hand in prompting his criticism (Twain 1966 [1907], 72).
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• Beman, a Chicago architect and member of Christian Science, was brought in at MBE's behest. See MBE to Solon S. Beman, June 16, 1905 (L10492, MBELBH); see also Gilbert C. Carpenter to William B. Johnson, June 16, 1905 (L09631, MBELBH).
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• On these traditional gender pairings, see De Beauvoir (1957, 450). Paul Ivey connects the Christian Science use of classical styles to efforts to counter charges that the religion was overwhelmingly feminine and women-oriented (Ivey 1999, 34–5).
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• See William B. Johnson to Joseph Armstrong, March 13, 1905, in which Johnson, presumably with MBE's approval, tells Armstrong that the windows in the new church should not have pictures. He explains, “I think I am on record as saying at a meeting of the Directors, that I believe the interior of the edifice should be in all its appointments, in their appearance, not ostentatious, but harmonious and restful in effect. Worshipful and spiritual service accompanied by healing and reforming should constitute the attraction to this house of our God” (MBELBH). See also, MBE to Archibald McLellan, November 29, 1905, in which she says there are “so many” windows in the first building that the new one should have fewer (L03110, MBELBH).
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• See also several items in MBELBH collection, including a note signed “M.E.L.,” dated August 29, 1952, which states that a contract between the Christian Science Board of Directors and artist Edith H. Ogden for $12,000 was executed on December 6, 1907; also a photocopy of a note dated 1906, indicating that the “Woman at Prayer” statue was to be place in the “niche over organ in The Mother Church Extension.” (Box 212, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Edifices–Extension–Info Gathered from Board Correspondence–Finances and Funds, Folder 3, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Edifices–Extension–Statue, MBELBH.)
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• It should be noted, though, that some pains were taken to limit visual association of the building with the White City. Among Beman's suggestions for revising the original plans was the observation that the finials on the secondary domes would bring to mind the Mechanics Building at the Chicago fair. Eddy, who harbored no kind feelings for the fair, apparently agreed that the finials should go.
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• See “Dedicatory Message by Mary Baker G. Eddy,” and “Consecrate New Fane to Christian Science,” Boston Herald, June 11, 1906; “A Big Church Addition,” Boston Transcript, June 16, 1902; “$2,000,000 for Church,” Boston Journal, June 19, 1902.
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