Mary Baker Eddy is regarded by those familiar with her as one of the most important women in United States religious history," declared Don W. Wilson, speaking at a gathering of Boston's civic and cultural leaders. "Yet the universe of people who know about her is quite small. We now all have the opportunity to correct that." Wilson is a former Archivist of the United States and a trustee of the newly established Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. "The library's most important contribution is to ensure that her legacy endures the rest of this century and into the 22nd century."

The gathering, held just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, introduced the Boston community to The Mary Baker Eddy Library. The audience learned about how exhibits, programs, and research facilities of the library will provide a wealth of information and ongoing discourse about the life, times, and ideas of Mrs. Eddy.

"The library will open its doors broadly, and will welcome scholars, researchers, and the general public who are interested in spiritual ideas," said Virginia S. Harris, president of the library's Board of Trustees and chairman of The Christian Science Board of Directors. "There will be something of interest to everyone."

The library will offer a blend of exhibits and public programs, including opportunities for school children to explore the 19th century through the eyes of a woman whose life, writings, and transforming ideas were far ahead of her time.

Scores of Boston civic and cultural leaders joined hard-hat tours of the new library space, to be located in the Christian Science Publishing Society Building at 200 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston's Back Bay.

Following the tour, scholars, architects, and civic leaders spoke enthusiastically about the library's unique purpose and promise, to "further the universal quest for spirituality and the science of being—and their effect on health and human progress." When it opens in June 2002, the library will make available to scholars and to the public nearly 500,000 pages of Mary Baker Eddy's previously unpublished writings and related documents as well as thousands of photographs and artifacts. It is one of the largest multidisciplinary collections of an American woman, her life, ideas, and achievements.

"The library will be a very warm and special place, and inviting to the public," commented Boston Pops manager Tony Beadle. "We're all engaged in the world of ideas ..., we are no longer working on building for building's sake. We're working on buildings so that the ideas inside will have a safe depository for future generations."

"Nearly 200 years ago, Boston opened the very first large, free municipal public library in the country," said Boston City Councilor Mike Ross, a speaker at the luncheon. "I believe that what The Mary Baker Eddy Library is doing today to open its doors to the public is something to be very pleased about, and the Church is to be congratulated."

Professor Allen Weinstein, Library trustee, noted historian, and author, said, "This library will add to our knowledge of the 19th century and of women in leadership. It will increase our understanding of religious thought, healing, spirituality, organizational development in the founding and growth of a religious movement, and entrepreneurship.

Scholars will come here to study religion, women's rights, and the frontiers of the mind." Weinstein, president and founder of The Center for Democracy, in Washington, D.C., previously served as chairman of the American Studies program at Smith College and university professor at Boston University.

The new library is expected to become a leading forum for the exploration of questions and issues that Mary Baker Eddy first investigated over a hundred years ago, and which remain central to today's burgeoning exploration of spirituality, religion, and wellness. The library and its collections will support an active and ongoing program of fellowships, lectures, and symposia.

In concluding remarks, Gillian Gill, Ph.D., Mrs. Eddy's most recent biographer (Mary Baker Eddy, Perseus Books, 1998), noted that "this library is a magnificent historical collection, but it goes beyond that. This is a woman who believed that gender has to be addressed and transcended. Mary Baker Eddy believed that certain ideas undergirded all reality. That they are the scientific principles of life. And that if we believe and practice these principles, we can progress.

"This library is going to be an eye into the past," Gill continued, "but it also is a ray of light into the future. Mary Baker Eddy believed that the basis of the world is love and peace and order. If we believe those things, we can make a difference. We can combat the cynicism and inertia that creeps up on us. We can make a small contribution toward bettering humanity. This is what Mary Baker Eddy taught and lived. These ideas are not denominational. They speak to us today. They are universal, transcendental ideas."