News
A Tour Through Longyear’s Vault
April 29, 2009
Interviews with Cheryl Moneyhun, Director of Museum Collections and Stephen R. Howard, Director-Curator, reveal a collection containing enough documents to stand about 235 feet tall; some 33,000 books and periodicals; 8,200 photos, works of art, prints and postcards; 164 scrapbooks and albums; and 1,200 objects. Add eight historic houses and their furnishings, and you have enough to keep over 30 employees buzzing.
Cheryl Moneyhun, Director of Museum Collections
Q: So, Cheryl, we have just entered one of Longyear’s vaults, tell me what is stored here?
A: This vault contains the Museum’s collection of documents, manuscripts, books, periodicals, scrapbooks, photographs — paper-based materials.
Q: In this first row I see document boxes, and there are some familiar names on the labels, such as “Joseph Armstrong.”
A: These boxes contain materials relating to Mary Baker Eddy’s students and others associated with her during the establishment of Christian Science. The materials about these early workers in Christian Science is a rich assortment, from calling cards to letters to reminiscences. In some cases, there is quite a lot of documentation about an early worker, filling several document boxes. In other cases, only two or three sheets of paper have come down to us concerning an early worker. But even a single sheet of paper can have historically valuable information to tell the researcher. Like viewing an ancient mosaic, we realize that each tile is important to understanding the whole picture. In building this collection across three decades in the early 1900s, Mrs. Longyear gathered quite a bit of material, much of which would certainly have been lost if she had not seen the importance of preserving this evidence. In addition to gathering existing material, she also commissioned reminiscences of people who had known Mary Baker Eddy.
Q: Are items still coming in to the collection? An item added within the past year?
A: Yes, material does still come to the collection, and sometimes the preservation of that material has a history of its own. For instance, these boxes contain documents concerning Mrs. Eddy’s students Alfred Farlow and his brother William. This collection was literally rescued from a dumpster where they had been tossed by someone who had no interest in them. The documents and artifacts concerning the early workers provide a rich context for understanding Mary Baker Eddy and her spiritual journey.
Q: So now we are in the scrapbooks aisle. Tell me about these.
A: We have 164 scrapbooks and albums. Some were personally compiled by Mrs. Longyear, some belonged to early workers. In addition to newspaper clippings, scrapbooks sometimes contain calling cards, letters, and photographs, and each is a unique little collection in itself.
Q: We have now moved to another vault. What is here?
A: This vault contains framed and painted portraits, furniture, and smaller artifacts — essentially non-paper materials. The furniture is mostly period pieces that are useful for the historic houses. But there are historically significant pieces as well — things that belonged to Mrs. Eddy, her family, or her students.
Q: And the portraits?
A: Mrs. Longyear commissioned portraits of many of the early workers, and in the years since then other portraits have been added. A number of them were painted by noted artists and have been loaned to other museums and galleries in the United States for special exhibits.
Q: The upkeep and care for all of this must keep you busy.
A: Once you get things properly cleaned and stored, you still need to check them routinely. It’s important to have a stable environment. When an object is being considered for exhibit, its condition and fragility are considered along with its historical or artistic importance. And we strive to do some needed conservation work on collection items every year. 
Stephen R. Howard, Director-Curator
Q: Stephen, what do the collections tell us? What is their value?
A: The Longyear collections illustrate and document the hard work and perseverance necessary to establish Christian Science. Sometimes people look back to the time of Mrs. Eddy and her students and believe it was a golden age when the practice of Christian Science was somehow easier. The historical record challenges that view and shows that success for the early workers came with dedication, self-denial, and plain hard work — from learning from defeats as well as from victories.
Q: How do you draw upon the collections for exhibits?
A: That poses its own set of challenges. For instance, if Longyear were a museum specializing in medieval art, there would be no problem with exhibiting intricate, hand-illuminated manuscripts, dazzling metal work, and richly colored paintings. In such a museum, the object itself is often what people come to see. But exhibits at Longyear must do justice to illustrating the life of Mary Baker Eddy — a life dedicated to Spirit, not matter. Thus, it is not the object itself that is important, but what the object can illustrate about her life.
Q: For example?
A: On display in the main exhibit is a small key to the house where Mrs. Eddy lived from 1855 to 1860. She had persuaded her husband to move there so that she could be near her 10-year-old son. When she moved in, think of what that key must have meant to her, opening a door not just to a house but to a future with bright hopes to be near her son for the first time in several years. But a year later her son was taken without her permission to Minnesota. That key, which previously must have felt so light in her hand, must now have felt so heavy. What had promised to unlock a future of hope now locked her into a sort of prison for the remaining four years she lived there. The importance of the key is not as an artifact, not as a bit of 19th-century life; rather, it has value because it symbolizes how Mary Baker Eddy had to deal with dashed hopes and grief, eventually to emerge with her faith and trust in God intact, and a heart wide enough to minister to the world a message of healing and consolation.
