From the Papers: Mary Baker Eddy and photographer Sereno A. Bowers

Several members of Mary Baker Eddy’s staff over the years were amateur photographers. But the more formal images of her and her surroundings that we have today were taken by professionals.

One of these was Sereno A. Bowers, who photographed Eddy when she was living in Concord, New Hampshire. These well-known photographs were distributed, reproduced, and used in numerous publications in the following decades. They were also the basis for various paintings and engravings depicting Eddy. Some of the letters published on the Mary Baker Eddy Papers website tell the stories behind these photographs, as well as providing insight into the photographer’s additional involvement with Eddy and the Christian Science movement.

Eddy’s employment of Bowers might seem unlikely because of his early professional background. Born in 1847 in New York City, he was an artist who had traveled to Europe and India. In 1871, before becoming acquainted with Eddy, he was taking “spirit photographs” at C. W. Van Alstine’s Photographic Rooms in Potsdam, New York, purporting to picture living subjects with visible apparitions of relatives and friends no longer living.¹

By contrast, Eddy taught that according to Christian Science communication between the dead and living is not possible.“I never could believe in spiritualism,” she stated simply, in a chapter refuting spiritualism in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.²

During the rest of the 1870s, Bowers worked as a photographer with James H. Hills in Burlington, Vermont. Their studio, Hills & Bowers, specialized in portraiture and regional views, producing carte de visite photos of residents and stereo views of Vermont scenery.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. (1850 – 1930). Cavendish Falls, the Black River, Cavendish, Vt. [Windsor Co.] Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/85e1deb0-c56c-012f-b970-58d385a7bc34

By 1891 Bowers had his own studio in Concord, where he advertised as successor to Miller Photo Company. On November 26, 1891—Thanksgiving Day—he took Eddy’s portrait. Two series of poses were taken; one series in which she wore a silk beaded dress and another series in which she had on her winter coat and attire. Here are some of these photographs:

Carte de visite of Mary Baker Eddy, November 26, 1891. P00007. Sereno A. Bowers. 

Profile portrait of Eddy, November 26, 1891. P00011. Sereno A. Bowers. 

Portrait of Eddy, November 26, 1891. P00010. Sereno A. Bowers. 

In both poses Eddy is wearing a cross pin, consisting of 11 old mine-cut cut diamonds outlined by a thin band of gold—a gift she received in June 1891 from her student Josephine C. Otterson. This became an element closely associated with Eddy, as she wore it in a majority of her photographs.³ Other art pieces based on Bowers’s photographs would emerge over the years, most notably a 1925 woodcut by artist Timothy Cole (1852–1931). Evidently the artist’s images conveyed something genuine; viewing them, Cole remarked, “I can now understand how Mrs. Eddy became the Leader and Founder of this great movement.”⁴

Drawn portrait of Eddy, based off of Bowers’ profile portrait, 1892. 1989.0159. Henry Clark.

Eddy approved of Bowers’s photographs, and he sold them throughout the new year. “Mr. Bowers sells at about 1/2 his usual price until April He will supply you,” she wrote to her student Septimus J. Hanna in March 1892. “All orders for my photographs at his Office are proper.”⁵

In December 1892, Bowers worked with painter James F. Gilman, another artist with significant ties to Eddy and Christian Science. She employed Gilman to illustrate her 1893 book Christ and Christmas. As a present for Eddy, the two artists created photographs and sketches of the Concord, New Hampshire, home that she called Pleasant View. Eventually she used one of these as her letterhead.

Eddy’s stationary used Bowers’ copyrighted photograph as her letterhead. Eddy to Laura V. Lathrop, March 1894, L04359.

Photogravure reproductions of Bowers’ photographs were also used in Pleasant View: Twenty Plates of the Home Surroundings of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy. This 1894 book of photographs and sketches showed the interior and exterior of Pleasant View. It was published by Gilman and H. E. Carlton, a photogravure printer who also made the plates for Christ and Christmas.

Interior shots of the dining room and library at Eddy’s home in Concord, New Hampshire. Pleasant View: Twenty Plates of the Home Surroundings of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, 1894.

Why did Eddy select Bowers as one of her photographers and helpers? Gilman included this observation in an undated reminiscence:

He [Bowers] expresses dislike for the churches generally, and admits he has led a dissolute life before coming here to Concord, and came here to avoid the evil allurements of large city life…. It is said here by [Christian] Scientists that Mrs. Eddy appears to like him because he is willing to pass for just what he is, and isn’t in the least afraid of incurring her displeasure, appearing to recognize nothing but good as Mrs. Eddy’s past to be expressed in her own way whether by praise or rebuke. Hence he goes right to the house without appointment, whenever he wishes to talk with her on any subject of business, or otherwise…. Thus Mrs. Eddy talked freely on the subject of Christian Science to us, and particularly to Mr. Bowers, who like myself appears to understand but little of the spiritual sense of it and does not claim to really accept of it; but he, greatly admiring Mrs. Eddy, is led to giving a particular interest to what she has to say on Science.⁶

But there were limits to Eddy’s affinity. When Bowers manipulated a business matter, she wrote a May 18, 1893, letter to her student Edward P. Bates:

When I promised to give Mr. Bowers the right to copyright his drawing he showed me his sketch with two views [of Pleasant View] on it, front and rear, and told me he would get out all the pictures on this plan. I thought it was so fine I would give him the benefit of giving me such a fine cut of my place. But after he took out the copyright he told me he should make some of the pictures with one view, and now that all very many of my students are interested to have the pictures – it comes out that he has made the large pictures one view only, in one picture and some diminutive ones with both views. so he has three pictures for sale. quite a money making scheme!⁷

That same day, she continued in this line, writing to her adopted son, Ebenezer J. Foster Eddy:

Mr. Bowers promised me before I gave him the copyright to have the two views front and rear of my place in one picture, and now has disappointed me. I have wondered if he would be honest with me and do as he promised. More money is made by two than one. Dont make the least effort to circulate the pictures He has not suited me in the color of the rear view and seems to care nothing about it.⁸

The two exterior views of Pleasant View by Bowers. The Christian Science Journal, June 1893, 96.

But Bowers admired Eddy. And so—perhaps in an effort to get back in her good graces—he assisted her in business transactions concerning Pleasant View. Gilman later recalled this:

He [Bowers] assists her in her business transactions connected with improving the place, in which he says he has saved her several thousand dollars, already, for which service he will take nothing. He appears proud to do anything for Mrs. Eddy that she wants him to do.⁹

One piece of that business was Eddy’s gifting of two swans to the city of Concord in the summer of 1893, for the pond in White Park. Bowers was involved with obtaining the birds. The birdkeeper wrote to him from New York on June 15, 1893, when he was trying to capture the swans for transport to New Hampshire.¹⁰ This was one of a number of big and small philanthropic contributions Eddy made over the years to her city.

Swans in Concord, New Hampshire, n.d. P08857.

Bowers’ desire to serve Eddy continued to be hampered when he did not fulfill his commitments. That summer, planning for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World’s Fair) that was underway in Chicago, he had promised to provide his Pleasant View photographs. Calvin A. Frye, Eddy’s secretary, wrote this on June 19, 1893:

Mrs Eddy gave the copyright of the picture of her home to S. A. Bowers on condition that he place a sketch of five different views of her home on exhibition at the World’s Fair. This he agreed to do. He said he was one of the Committee on Photography from New York, and that the picture would be placed among their exhibit.¹¹

Bowers had apparently also promised to provide those photos to the Christian Science exhibit at the fair, as the June 1893 issue of The Christian Science Journal advertised:

In this issue we have the privilege through the kindness of Mr. S. A. Bowers, 135 North Main Street, Concord, N.H., of presenting to our readers a fine view of the country residence of Mrs. Eddy. The original of this picture, a very large one, will occupy a place in our department at the World’s Fair. Mr. Bowers will furnish copies 20×30 inches to Scientists at the nominal sum of $1.50 each.¹²

However, for unknown reasons, no such collection of photographs could be found displayed at the fair. Edward A. Kimball, Eddy’s student in charge of planning for the exposition and for creating the Christian Science exhibit there, had not run across any of them. He wrote to Eddy on July 15, reporting that “The Secretary of ’The Board of Lady Managers’ told me that no such collection was being made under the auspices of the Board, and that she knew nothing of it.”¹³ Additionally, Bowers was involved with handling funds for purchasing some land in front of Pleasant View. However, the money was mismanaged and the transaction postponed. Eddy had told one of her students in April that she regarded money as “unsafe to <be> entrusted to him.” And on May 5 she wrote to her student Hannah A. Larminie, stating that she “had proven him dishonest in business.”^{14 15}

At this point, it appears that Eddy had had enough. She tended to be quite patient with others’ personal failings. With her students and associates, she often mixed encouragement, rebukes, forgiveness, and tenderness, in an effort to help them grow into greater capability to help her establish Christian Science. Along these lines, she wrote in Science and Health:

Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help. You uncover sin, not in order to injure, but in order to bless the corporeal man; and a right motive has its reward.¹⁶

Eddy had provided multiple opportunities for Bowers, but she also needed to be selective and perceptive in her business affairs. After this situation in 1894, Bowers no longer appears in our records. His involvement with the Christian Science movement was short and, as revealed through correspondence published on the Mary Baker Eddy Papers site, did not end on the best of terms. Despite this, his photographs of Eddy and Pleasant View have continued to be utilized up to the present day. They provide us with a valuable perspective on Eddy and her home surroundings during an important period of development for the Christian Science movement.

Please note: Quoted references in our “From the Papers” article series reflect the original documents. For this reason they may include spelling mistakes and edits made by the authors. In instances where a mark or edit is not easily represented in quoted text, an omission or insertion may be made silently.