This month, get to know Sarah Pike Conger (1843–1932), a fascinating “woman of history” who played a significant role in Chinese-American relations surrounding the Boxer Rebellion. In July 1900 she and her husband Edwin Conger—the American ambassador to China—survived a siege of Peking’s foreign quarter when the anti-imperialist Boxers, supported by Imperial troops, descended on the city for 55 days. Despite the conflict, Sarah Conger developed a strong relationship with China’s leader, the Empress Dowager Cixi. Although the Western media vilified Conger, her prayerful approach ultimately led to improved educational opportunities for Chinese women. Through it all, she corresponded with Mary Baker Eddy. Dorothy Rivera, Research Manager at the Library, shares Conger’s story, along with former Library fellow Áine Poland. And Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor’s Beijing Bureau Chief, discusses the importance of this historical period for modern-day China.
Access more on this topic:
- Women of History: Sarah Pike Conger
- “Christian Science And China” by Mary Baker Eddy, Sarah Pike Conger with contributions from Iac. J. Lossins, The Christian Science Journal, April 1906
- “Siege of the Foreign Legations” with contributions from Sarah Pike Conger, Christian Science Sentinel, October 11, 1900
- “RedNote is bringing Chinese and Americans face-to-face. What have they learned?” by Ann Scott Tyson, Christian Science Monitor, January 29, 2025
- “Our reporter finds community at a century-old Chinese teahouse in Chengdu” by Ann Scott Tyson, Christian Science Monitor, August 13, 2024
Áine Poland is an ESRC-funded PhD candidate in History at Queen’s University, Belfast. She holds a bachelor’s in history and sociology, and a master’s in social science research methods. Her doctoral research—“Mapping Connections: Exploring the Networks of Anglophone Foreign Women in Late Imperial China, 1860-1911”—employs social network analysis to examine the social and professional relationships of foreign women in China. A visiting research fellow at The Mary Baker Eddy Library, Poland gathered archival data contributing to her PhD research. Her work highlights the often-overlooked role of women in transnational history, emphasizing their networks of support and influence.
Ann Scott Tyson is The Christian Science Monitor Beijing Bureau Chief, covering China and Northeast Asia. She is an award-winning journalist and author whose career includes a decade covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and eight years as a foreign correspondent in China and Asia. Her US beats have included the Pentagon, Congress, and the Midwest. She has also reported for The Washington Post and contributed to The Wall Street Journal. Tyson is the author of a bestselling Afghanistan war memoir, American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant (William Morrow, 2014). She also co-wrote Chinese Awakenings: Life Stories from the Unofficial China (Westview Press, 1995). She holds an honors degree in government and East Asian studies from Harvard College, as well as an honors certificate from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris (Sciences Po). She was awarded the Bagehot Fellowship for graduate studies in economics and business at Columbia University and the Rotary Graduate Fellowship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She speaks Chinese and French.
Dorothy Rivera is Manager of Research and Exhibits for the Library, where she began her work in 2014 as a researcher. She holds a bachelor’s in history and political science from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in history from the University of Maryland, College Park. Rivera wrote an article on Conger for the Library’s “Women of History” series.
Collage images (from left): Local residents frequent Heming Tea House in People’s Park in central Chengdu, China, June 13, 2024. Photo by Ann Scott Tyson © The Christian Science Monitor. The Empress Dowager Cixi (center) in Leshoutang, Summer Palace, Beijing, with Sarah Pike Conger (second from right) and other foreign envoys’ wives. Xunling / National Museum of Asian Art Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Cixi, Empress Dowager of China, 1835-1908, Photographs, FSA_A.13_SC-GR-249.
Guest photos used by permission.
