0.0 – Christian Science Author – James F. Gilman – Biography and Publication Index

James Franklin Gilman was selected by Mary Baker Eddy to prepare the valuable drawings for Christ & Christmas.

Mr. Gilman was a self-taught artist who travelled to make artwork of landscapes and farms in places like Vermont, Wilmington and Burlington. He was known for painting or sketching farms in exchange for room and board.

Gilman became an art instructor at the Goddard Seminary in 1876, teaching in pencil, watercolor and oil where he taught for two or three years. In the 1880s he opened a studio in Montpelier to sell his art work.

In 1892 he felt a “clear spiritual conviction” to leave his art practice and to travel to Concord, New Hampshire.  In 1893 he made the illustrations of Mrs. Eddy’s poem Christ and Christmas. Gilman became a Christian Science student.

JAMES F GILMAN recorded his experiences with and impressions of Mary Baker Eddy during his association with her, when he had the privilege of drawing the illustrations for her poem, Christ and Christmas. Unquestionably he stated facts as far as he understood them concerning Mrs. Eddy and her doctrine, and made an effort to interpret them. Yet, there are points about his pen picture of our Leader that might he misunderstood from a merely human standpoint. Only an advanced metaphysician with an understanding of spiritual law and its operation through man, could read his reminiscences, and gain from them a picture of this great woman that was in no part distorted. It is evident that no one can rightly estimate the life of one who has made the demonstration of being governed by the law of God, unless he has some correct understanding of that law. Show all