Longyear Museum is an independent historical museum dedicated to advancing the understanding of the
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It’s nearly 2023! As we approach the end of the year, we find ourselves looking back over the last 12 months, which were bustling with activity both at the Museum and at the Mary Baker Eddy Historic Houses. We thought you might enjoy some postcards from 2022—images that capture the programs and projects, the people who visited and the staff who worked, and the many steps forward. Click the link below to walk through the past year at Longyear.
http://ow.ly/GPmR50M8hC3
The trustees and staff of Longyear Museum are grateful to be part of the effort to preserve and share the history of the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science. Your support is essential to our success, too, so we hope you’ll consider making a gift to this year’s Annual Appeal before December 31. Please click the link below to contribute. If you’ve already given, thank you so much! We deeply appreciate each and every donation we receive.
http://ow.ly/QG8150M8PIC
On Dec. 25, 1909, while living at 400 Beacon Street in Chestnut Hill, Mass., Mary Baker Eddy sent a Christmas message to her household: "Beloved:—A word to the wise is sufficient. Mother wishes you all a happy Christmas, a feast of Soul and a famine of sense. Lovingly thine, Mary Baker Eddy." (Her message was later published in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," p. 263.)
All of us here at Longyear wish you a peaceful and blessed Christmas.
In 1903, Mary Baker Eddy wrote to Albert Conant, organist of The Mother Church, asking him to set her “Christmas Hymn” to music that could be sung in church services. She wanted a melody “adapted for my words,” as she put it. “They need neither a dirge nor a trumpet blast, but they do require the depths of HARMONY, plaintive and joyous. … I shall never consent to have that Hymn sung in any tune less sweet than the music that moves my heart, not head.” Click the link below to enjoy this video from Longyear’s 2021-22 series about Mrs. Eddy’s seven poems that appear in the Christian Science Hymnal.
http://ow.ly/oHfw50M3lYX
Come and join our children’s virtual tea party with the Longyear lambs on Dec. 17 at 11 a.m.! Little ones will learn about Mary Baker Eddy’s childhood on her family’s farm in Bow, New Hampshire, and about her love of animals, including sheep and lambs. The program will include a storytime reading of Christmas in the Manger. Suggested for children ages 2 to 6, but all are welcome. Click the link below to register.
http://ow.ly/jTtR50M3lu0
Longyear researchers regularly encounter festive flashes of red and green among the papers in the Museum’s collection. Enjoy this selection of Christmas cards exchanged by early Christian Scientists, precious mementos that show the relationships and affection that they shared. This photo gallery features cards to and from Mary and Joseph Armstrong, James Neal, Maurine Campbell, Mary Beecher Longyear, and others. Click the link below to view the cards.
http://ow.ly/vJuv50LRuLs
The Longyear Museum Store is full of unique Christmas gifts for friends and family, including a wonderful selection of new products. Come visit us in person or enjoy some last-minute online shopping! Browse our Chestnut Hill Collection, featuring notebooks and coasters with patterns based on original historic wallpaper from Mary Baker Eddy’s final home. Don’t miss our popular new Cross and Crown glass paperweight. Or find children’s books, favorite stuffed animals, and so much more. Click the link below to shop online.
https://store.longyear.org
Living Stones make wonderful Christmas presents for beloved family members, favorite Sunday School teachers, or even yourself. The grounds of Longyear Museum feature a path with more than 5,000 engraved bricks winding between several outdoor artifacts—the Pleasant View gate, summerhouse, and fountain. These bricks recognize generations of Christian Scientists, from 19th-century early workers to present day supporters of Longyear. Please note the upcoming price increase: Now through Dec. 31, 2022, Living Stones are available for $200 per brick. Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, the price will increase to $300. Click the link below to order.
http://ow.ly/el0e50LRpo8
As 1905 drew to a close at Pleasant View, Mary Baker Eddy’s home in Concord, New Hampshire, household workers decided to pool their resources at Christmas and help needy neighbors instead of exchanging presents. They settled on gifts of coal for six families and firewood for another household—much welcome fuel for warming homes during the long New Hampshire winter ahead. Read more about the workers’ act of charity by clicking the link below!
http://ow.ly/pvaO50LQslX
Today is Giving Tuesday, and we hope you’ll consider a gift to Longyear! Just for today, your donation can have three times the impact. Thanks to generous friends, Longyear will receive $3 for every $1 you give, up to $15,000. This triple match will only be live for 24 hours, until midnight tonight. You can make a donation by clicking the link below, or by calling 617-278-9000, ext. 231. We are deeply grateful for your support.
http://ow.ly/TIwc50LKXBE
In this season of Thanksgiving, our hearts are full of gratitude and love for all who have supported Longyear’s mission and participated in the Museum’s activities this year. You have visited, toured, watched, read, corresponded, and given of your resources so generously. As an expression of our deep thanks, we have produced a new video about religious devotions in Mary Baker Eddy’s childhood home, recalled in her own words. Enjoy! Click on the link below to watch.
https://vimeo.com/772116231/7ccb42a291
Save the date! Longyear’s holiday sale starts right after Thanksgiving. Enjoy 20 percent off on all Museum Store items, in person or on our website, from Friday, Nov. 25, through Monday, Nov. 28. Local friends and visitors are invited to stop by for shopping and refreshments. Starting this Friday, use the code HOLIDAY2022 to receive the discount online. Click the link below to visit the Store.
http://ow.ly/eR3350LzYCz
We invite you to learn more about an article called “Thanksgiving Dinner” by Mary Baker Eddy, which can be found in “Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896.” Originally titled “Day After Thanksgiving,” the article was first published on Dec. 1, 1864, in the “Lynn Bay State,” a local weekly publication. Mrs. Eddy’s article celebrates the warmth and good cheer of joining family and friends around the Thanksgiving table. Click the link below to find out more about an early version of the article, which happens to be the only piece in “Miscellaneous Writings” first published before Mrs. Eddy’s discovery of Christian Science in 1866.
http://ow.ly/oS8250LzY84
A handsome addition to any desk, our new glass dome paperweight features a stained-glass window from the Mother’s Room in the Original Edifice of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. In 1908, when Mary Baker Eddy requested that the Cross and Crown emblem be redesigned, exchanging the coronet for a celestial crown, this window was replaced. It eventually became part of Longyear’s collection. The window is reproduced here as an attractive glass paperweight which comes packaged in a gift box. Click the link below to purchase from the Museum Store.
http://ow.ly/ejRf50LnnxI
Do you enjoy sharing the story of Mary Baker Eddy with the public? Longyear Museum is currently looking to fill part-time and full-time positions in Visitor Services. Serving at the front desk, you’ll be the first person to greet people visiting or calling Longyear. You’ll be part of the team that staffs the Museum Store. Strong communications skills and a warm sense of hospitality are key. Prior retail or sales experience is a plus. Click the link below to learn more about joining our staff and supporting our mission—to advance “the understanding of the life and work of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science.”
http://ow.ly/2g4650Lnnmw
We hope you and the children in your life will tune in for a virtual Longyear for Kids program on Saturday, Nov. 19! Gratitude was a focus throughout Mary Baker Eddy’s life. Her love of Thanksgiving began when she was a little girl on a New England farm and eventually led her to create a Thanksgiving service for Christian Science churches worldwide. This event is recommended for children ages 4 to 8 years old, but all are welcome. Click the link below for more information and to register.
http://ow.ly/YsyB50Lnnbz
Junction City, Kansas, was home to the close-knit Salchow family. Many are familiar with John, who once sped across the country to serve Mrs. Eddy as groundskeeper at her Pleasant View home, but his sister Bertha was also a pioneer of Christian Science. One of the first in her family to adopt the new religion, she wrote letters to Mrs. Eddy that were published in the Christian Science periodicals and, later in life, entered the public practice of Christian Science. Click the link below to enjoy new research about this early worker.
http://ow.ly/4tPQ50LnmHu
In this season of Thanksgiving, we’re so grateful for all that our members and friends do to support Longyear’s mission. As a small token of our thanks, we’d like to share a treasured video from the Museum’s archives, about Mrs. Eddy’s book “Retrospection and Introspection.” In this slim volume, she offers an account of her own history. This PowerPoint talk by Stephen Howard, Longyear’s former director/curator, asks the question: Might this little book be more than an autobiography? Through the month of November, you can enjoy his talk from the comfort of your own home. The link below will let you view it. http://ow.ly/Y9Q050Lom0h
We invite you to learn more about the pioneer Christian Science families in Japan. Emi Abiko, who was a third-generation Christian Scientist, recounts how an American schoolteacher, living in Japan for 35 years, helped introduce Christian Science to several prominent Japanese families by making it possible for them to read and understand “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy. Click the link below to order a copy of “A Precious Legacy,” available in Longyear Museum’s store.
http://ow.ly/5cko50KYpvE
Today we continue to celebrate the publishing of the first edition of “Science and Health,” by Mary Baker Eddy, and the early editions that soon followed. Click the link below to view a short Longyear Museum documentary which discusses the revisions made for the third edition of the Christian Science textbook and the obstacles that had to be overcome when it was published. In this edition, which was published in two volumes, Mrs. Eddy added the chapter entitled Recapitulation, in which the “scientific statement of being” appears for the first time. And the beautiful Cross and Crown symbol is embossed on the cover for the first time. Within little more than a year, the book would sell out three successive printings of 1,000 copies each.
http://ow.ly/qwNB50KYoZU
In the fall of 1892, the Christian Science Publishing Society issued the first official Christian Science Hymnal with music. A gifted writer and poet, William McKenzie was the author of seven hymns in this 1892 hymnal, in addition to more than 300 articles and poems in the Christian Science periodicals. Mary Baker Eddy said his poems “touched my heart of hearts.” Click the link below to read an article from our research archives sharing why one of McKenzie’s much-loved hymns was written without a moment to lose and absolutely needed to begin with the letter “W.”
http://ow.ly/zHBI50KYoFa
It’s been a year full of progress for Longyear! Since June 1, we’ve welcomed more than 250 visitors to the recently restored Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in Amesbury, Massachusetts. After a pause of several years, we resumed our popular fall tours of Mary Baker Eddy’s New England. Work continued on Mrs. Eddy’s final residence in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and the granite and wrought-iron gate from Mrs. Eddy’s Pleasant View home on the grounds of the Museum was completely restored, among many other forward steps. Your contribution to the Annual Appeal—and our all-important general fund—supports activities like these, and our work to advance the Museum’s mission. This year, generous Longyear friends will match your gift dollar for dollar, up to $100,000, thereby doubling your contribution. Please click the link below to make your donation.
http://ow.ly/jQrQ50KYon9
Rain or shine, it's time for the fall tour at Longyear. To learn more about the 2023 tours of Mary Baker Eddy's New England, visit our website at https://www.longyear.org/visit/events/fall-tour/. Here the group is visiting the home where Mrs. Eddy (then Mrs. Patterson) lived in North Groton, N.H.
Mary Baker Eddy loved animals. As a little girl on her family’s farm in Bow, New Hampshire, she would hug frail chicks and nurse them back to health. While living at Pleasant View, she had a fountain stocked with goldfish and enjoyed feeding them right from her hand. And she would often speak directly to the horses she kept for carriage rides and farm work. We hope both children and adults alike will enjoy this new Longyear for Kids article. Click the link below to read stories about how animals responded to Mrs. Eddy’s profound love, often with healing results.
http://ow.ly/ILpV50KYo6i
Mary Baker Eddy was living in Lynn, Massachusetts, when she completed and published “Science and Health.” In this first home of her own at 8 Broad Street, she also founded her church, chartered a college, and taught dozens of students. And on New Year’s Day in 1877, she married Asa Gilbert Eddy in its second-floor parlor. If you haven’t had a chance to see the Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in Lynn—designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2021—click the link below to enjoy taking an in-depth virtual tour from the comfort of your own home.
http://ow.ly/Yye150KYnLW
Does the Museum’s mission—to advance “the understanding of the life and work of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science”—speak to you? Longyear is currently seeking to fill several positions: finance and business assistant; and part-time and full-time visitor services representatives. Click the link below to learn more about these important roles. We hope to hear from you!
http://ow.ly/QAjO50KYnjt
On Oct. 30, 1875, the first edition of “Science and Health,” by Mary Baker Eddy, was published by the “Christian Scientist Publishing Company,” and 1,000 copies were printed. For the rest of her life, Mrs. Eddy revised her signature work, praying deeply to find the specific words that would more clearly express her explanations of Christian Science. Longyear’s main exhibit, “Mary Baker Eddy: A Spiritual Journey,” has on display the eight major revisions and several hundred printings of the book that she eventually retitled “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” Visit the Museum this fall to see this exhibit, or click the link below to enjoy this interview from our research archives, in which Stephen R. Howard, the museum’s former director/curator, discusses some notable revisions.
http://ow.ly/cFFL50KYmus
1125 Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, MA
02467
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Winding through the outdoor exhibits at Longyear Museum is a walkway of engraved bricks—“Living Stones” that bear the names of individuals whose lives have been enriched by the practice of Christian Science. Some are Christian Science practitioners, teachers, or nurses. There are also Sunday school teachers, fellow church members, and beloved family members. If you’d like to help further Longyear’s mission and at the same time honor a special friend or loved one, the Museum is accepting orders for the spring 2022 installation through April 15. Click the link below to design your Living Stone today! https://store.longyear.org/product/DON-100-102/livingstones.php
As January 1908 began, Mary Baker Eddy was preparing for a major move. She was leaving Pleasant View, her beloved New Hampshire home, to return to Massachusetts. She had been contemplating this move for some time, waiting on God, and now the way was clear. Please enjoy a video clip from the Longyear documentary “‘Follow and Rejoice’—Mary Baker Eddy: The Chestnut Hill Years” to learn about what may have motivated this important step.
Enjoy this video about the newly restored Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in Amesbury, Mass. (The furniture has just been moved back in.) And thank you for considering a year-end gift to Longyear’s Annual Appeal. Click the link below to give through our website. https://store.longyear.org/product/DON-100-101/annual-appeal
On this #ThrowbackThursday, let’s travel to Bow, New Hampshire, to learn more about Mary Baker Eddy’s childhood years. Enjoy this 2020 video titled "Homestead."
Who Is Mary Baker Eddy? On Monday, Longyear's Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in Lynn, Massachusetts, made an appearance on Jeopardy!. Contestants were asked who "laid the foundations for Christian Science" in this "national landmark."
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