| Birth Name: | Mary Hawley Beecher |
| Birth Date: | December 21, 1851 |
| Birth Place: | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Death Date: | March 14, 1931 (aged 79) |
| Death Place: | Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Nationality: | United States |
| Occupation: | Philanthropist, collector |
| Known For: | Founder of Longyear Museum |
Mary Beecher Longyear (December 21, 1851 – March 14, 1931) was an American philanthropist and wife of John Munro Longyear, a wealthy businessman. She funded the first King James Version of the Bible in Braille and was a patron of the arts, education and benevolent organizations. A student of Christian Science, in 1911, she began collecting documents and items related to the early development of the religion and later established the Longyear Museum to further this work.
Mary Hawley Beecher was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her parents were Samuel Peck Beecher, a farmer, and Caroline Matilda Beecher (née Walker). She grew up in Bedford Township, Michigan.[1] She was educated at Battle Creek public schools and Albion College, after which she became a teacher. Her mother instilled in her and her siblings a love for the Bible and daily prayer and study.[2]
On January 4, 1879, she married John Munro Longyear in Battle Creek and moved to Marquette, Michigan, where they had seven children,[3] one of whom would later drown in a canoe accident.[4] As her husband's business ventures, particularly in timber and mining, became successful, they became one of the wealthiest couples in Michigan. They built a mansion in Marquette, overlooking Lake Superior, but they also became benefactors of the arts, education,[5] and of efforts to help the blind.[6] From the early 1890s, she was also active in the Christian Science movement,[7] providing financial support to send Frances Thurber Seal to assist the growing interest in Christian Science in Germany.[8] [9]
When Southeastern Railway wanted to lay track through their property, the Longyears decided to move. Knowing that the mansion would be difficult to sell or reproduce, they had the house dismantled and shipped by train 1,300 miles to Brookline, Massachusetts, where it was rebuilt and enlarged. The feat was mentioned in Ripley's Believe It or Not.
In 1911, she began collecting objects, letters, and real estate relating to the early history of Christian Science and the life of Mary Baker Eddy, under the belief that these things would be valuable to future generations. In 1923, she established the Longyear Foundation, which later became the Longyear Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts.[10] In addition to the museum, the foundation owns and preserves a number of historic houses.[11]
In 1920 she established a research organization called the Zion Research Foundation, now known as the Endowment for Biblical Research, to collect books and manuscripts related to the Bible, translate and publish literature, and finance individuals and institutions engaged in archaeology and research. She worked with E. A. Wallis Budge to curate a collection of around 13,500 volumes, and the foundation was introduced at the Society of Biblical Literature's annual meeting at Yale Divinity School in 1922, opening to the public shortly there after. After the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the organization funded multiple archeological digs to the site and later hosted the first public exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls in America in the 1950s.
In 1919, Mary Beecher Longyear offered J. Robert Atkinson $5,000 a year to create a Braille copy of the King James Version of the Bible.[12] The project took five years. The project was the beginnings of the Braille Institute of America, headed by Atkinson.
In 1925, Longyear hosted the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, as well as the Special Libraries Association of Boston, and again addressed the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Longyear was a member of a number of organizations, including the Society of Biblical Literature, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Daughters of the American Revolution, the Boston Authors Club, Sulgrave Manor Institute in England, and the Marquette County Historical Society, which received a bequest from Longyear's will, enabling them to purchase a building in 1937.[13]