Celebrating the Bible in Women's History

Collection ID

PHO.000279.12

Type

Photograph

Date

ca. 1877

Geography

United States

Language

N/A

Medium

Photographic Print

Dimensions

4.1 × 2.5 × 0.2 in. (10.4 × 6.3 × 0.5 cm)

Exhibit Location

Not on View

Born in what is today Lebanon, Mary M. Lyons was the daughter of Syrian missionary Rev. J. L. Lyons. Mary graduated from Elmira Female College in 1876. On September 22, 1877, Mary and Rev. William Bird embarked to Sidon (now in Lebanon) as missionaries. The field of the Syria Mission in the late 1800s consisted of what is today Lebanon and western Syria. Mary served for three years until poor health required her to return home.

Created around 1877 by C. Tomlinson, photographer, Elmira, New York.[1] Acquired by 2010 by Gene Albert (Christian Heritage Museum), Hagerstown, Maryland; Privately purchased in 2010 by Green Collection, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Donated in 2017 to National Christian Foundation (later The Signatry), under the curatorial care of Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.

Notes: [1] The cardboard back contains the photographer’s name and art gallery information: “C. Tomlinson, Artistic Photography, 118 Baldwin St., opposite the Rathbun House, Elmira, N. Y.” Inscriptions in two different hands appear on the back of the card. One reads, “Mary M. Lyons, Class of ’76, E. F. College.” The second inscription reads, “Went as a missionary to Sidon, Syria, her birthplace, in 1877.”

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