Let's face it: We simply don't know how Mary Baker Eddy would respond to today's innovations. On the other hand, we can ask: How did she use the new technologies of her day? Were there any new technologies in her lifetime?
The advances that took place in Mary Baker Eddy's lifetime were huge. For most people, life changed in ways that make many of today's developments look pretty minor! Take communication, for instance. In the early 19th century, sending a message meant sending a letter—which in most cases traveled by horseback or coach to its destination. Delivery across long distances could take weeks or months. But by the end of the century, worldwide communication was possible at unprecedented speeds. Messages transported via telegraph could arrive nearly instantaneously at their destination, and use of the telephone for quick delivery of information was becoming more and more common.
Of course, these are only two of the many, many extraordinary innovations that paved the way for so much of what we do and use today. Did Mary Baker Eddy utilize these inventions? She did. The archival collections document her regular use of telegrams, and while we are not certain that she ever made a telephone call, we know that her staff certainly used the phone communicate her messages to others. Also, many of the letters and other manuscripts in our historical collections are typescripts—the typewriter was a 19th-century invention, one of the precursors to today's computers.
