Background
Henrietta Baker Chanfrau was born in 1837 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, of good family. She was named Jeannette Davis (Henrietta Baker being a stage name).
(This volume is one of many that record the spiritually sa...)
This volume is one of many that record the spiritually sacred history of the most remarkable woman the world has ever known, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. Henrietta Chanfrau was a student of Mrs. Eddy as well as one of the "First Members" of the Mother Church as organized in Sptember of 1892. She served the Leader of Christian Science for many years in her home, providing help to Mary Baker Eddy in communications to other students as well as in directed metaphysical work.
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Henrietta Baker Chanfrau was born in 1837 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, of good family. She was named Jeannette Davis (Henrietta Baker being a stage name).
Henrietta's début was made at the age of sixteen when, in the summer of 1854, she appeared as a vocalist at the Assembly Buildings, Philadelphia, under the management of Professor Mueller. She was first seen as an actress on September 19 of that year at the City Museum, Philadelphia, as Miss Ashley in The Willcnv Copse. Soon afterward she became a member of the Arch Street Theatre where she remained two seasons. Later she was seen at the Walnut Street Theatre.
When Lewis Baker opened the National Theatre in Cincinnati, the season of 1857-1858, she became a member of the company and was a great favorite with her audiences. Later she played the Portia in the noted production, November 25, 1864, of Julius Ccesar, in which the three Booth brothers, Edwin, Junius, and Wilkes, appeared together, and she played Ophelia in the hundred nights’ run of Hamlet at Booth’s Theatre. For some years she was with Forrest and later with the elder Davenport, Wallack, Fechter, and William Warren.
While lessee and manager of the old Varieties in New Orleans in the early seventies, she “discovered” Mary Anderson, then playing Julia in The Hunchback in an obscure theatre, and introduced her to the public. In 1884, she temporarily retired from the stage, but in 1886 she made a European tour and afterward reappeared at the Union Square Theatre, New York. Subsequently she purchased the Long Branch News, but withdrew to carry on the work of a Christian Science leader, and was active in that sect in Philadelphia until she moved to Burlington, New Jersey, where she died at the age of seventy- one.
Henrietta Baker Chanfrau was considered one of the most natural actresses on the American stage. For many years she was one of the most popular performers in the country. She was the original representative in America of Dora (in Charles Reade’s play); was very successful as Esther Eccles in Caste and as May Edwards in The Ticket of Leave Man, and starred in East Lynne. She played Ophelia to the Hamlet of Edwin Booth in a long New York run and also supported Mrs. John Drew and Charlotte Cushman. She scored one of her greatest successes at the old Eagle Theatre, New York, as Grace Shirley in the drama called Parted in which she later starred.
(This volume is one of many that record the spiritually sa...)
Chanfrau married Francis S. Chanfrau on June 23, 1858. Her husband died in 1884.
