Three remarkable women

What a cornucopia of goodness you have opened up for us, Editor, with the direction to The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s Women in History series. I have selected some pieces that appealed to me.

Miss Jeannie Dove

“Thanks to Jeannie Dove (1917–2000) and other pioneers, Christian Science took root in Ghana. Her career as a spiritual healer and teacher aided its growth not only in her own country but throughout West Africa.

“Dove faced an unexpected challenge a few years after she began teaching Christian Science. She rented the house where she lived and maintained an office for her healing practice. Learning about her expanding responsibilities, her landlord assumed that she was subsidized by a foreign missionary organization, like some others in Ghana. In fact, Christian Science practitioners and teachers are not employees of the Christian Science church but are paid by their patients and pupils. The landlord substantially raised her rent, to the point that Dove feared she would be forced to leave the city and find a secular job in order to survive. This was a threat not just to her but also to the modest beginnings of Christian Science teaching in West Africa.”

Ed.: Read the remarkable way this situation was resolved at https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/women-of-history-jeannie-dove/

Bette Graham (inventor of Liquid Paper)

“I have had the hardest time getting others to understand that the company’s success was not because of an unusual ability on my part, but because of the direct effect of this clear recognition that Spirit [God] is substance—a recognition available to everyone.

“In a 1978 interview with the Journal, she elaborated on … the atmosphere of equality within her company: From the company’s beginning, there has been a long-range plan to elevate our practice of business… I worked to base business on the spiritual value of man. The employee’s thinking has been the most valued asset…” 

I am not a fan of Liquid Paper. Having been a typiste (Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s name for a female typist), I was quite adept at rubbing out and typing over. There was always a duplicate to correct as well, and perhaps more copies! 

Ivimy Gwalter

Lucy and Henry Gwalter left these calling cards when they visited Pleasant View, Mary Baker Eddy’s home in Concord, New Hampshire, in June 1901.

The designation “Mrs. Henry Gwalter” reminds me of my very first business meeting as a new member at my first branch Church of Christ, Scientist. The Clerk read from his minutes: “Mrs. Doug S…..”  Mrs. S… was on her feet immediately.  “I am Mrs. Barbara S….”.  A big lesson for me.

I have been in awe of Ivimy Gwalter since my early years as a student of Christian Science. More recently I came across her submission as10-year-old to the Christian Science periodicals.  (I haven’t been able to turn it up at this time.)

The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s account of Ms Gwalter includes the following:

“Ivimy Gwalter’s life of service, as well as the lives of her parents, may be summed up in this extract from one of her Journal editorials: 

"The Christian Scientist is not merely an observer; he is a doer. Thus in his evaluation of the affairs of his church, of the politics of his country, or of the state of the nations he is not satisfied to sit idly by and look on either approvingly, critically, fearfully, or rebelliously. Rather does he, through consecrated and alert obedience to the inspired admonitions of his Leader and through daily study of her writings in conjunction with the Scriptures, so enlarge his spiritual understanding and spiritualize his thought and outlook that he is found agreeing always with Truth, never with error, acknowledging God’s allness, error’s nothingness, and man’s true self-identification or oneness with God.”

Ed.: Readers are invited to visit the Mary Baker Eddy Library website and listen to  the Women in History series: Listen to Women of History from the Mary Baker Eddy Library Archives, a Seekers and Scholars podcast episode featuring Library staffers Steve Graham and Dorothy Rivera.

Joyce Voysey