
Henrietta "Etta" W. Belcher (b. Sherrod) (1848-1913) was born in North
Providence, Rhode Island, and died in Providence, Rhode Island. In the mid-1860s she
attended The Musical Institute in Providence, and in 1870 she married Newell W. Belcher,
a hardware merchant in Providence. Belcher joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist,
on April 6, 1895, and was listed as a practitioner in
The Christian
Science Journal in 1913. She was a portrait artist, and around 1905 she
painted a portrait of Mary Baker Eddy based on existing photographs as well as her
impressions and recollections from having seen Eddy in public. The portrait was briefly
considered for publication alongside Sibyl Wilbur's interview with Eddy in the
Boston Herald on May 21, 1905, but ultimately it was not published.
Belcher was also a member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Providence, Rhode
Island, and when she passed away she left the entirety of her sizable estate to that
church and its Reading Room.
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