c.1880's MARIA WOODWORTH ETTER. Superb Cabinet Photo of the Proto-Healing Evangelist.

A superb cabinet card photograph of the “mother of Pentecost,” Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844–1924).

Her ministry style was radical, and became a model for Pentecostalism and the later Charismatic movement. By the time the Pentecostal movement was born in 1906, Maria, in her early sixties, already had two decades of Pentecostal ministry under her belt. She was practicing and pioneering the distinctive features of Pentecostal worship — healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues, people falling to the floor under the Spirit — fully twenty years before the famous Azusa Street Revival that is conventionally treated as Pentecostalism's birth moment. Some historians refer to her as the "grandmother of Pentecostalism," recognizing her role in creating a spiritual climate where the Azusa Street Revival could flourish.

She is also significant for her role in the history of women's religious. Among the first women to emerge as a Holiness preacher, she faced an era in which women were rarely seen — let alone heard — in public ministry. Woodworth-Etter's enemy was the patriarchy of the Protestant evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Prohibited from public preaching among the Disciples of Christ, she found support in a local Quaker meeting, and when churches and church leaders opposed her because of her gender, she believed it contradicted the visions she had following her conversion. She broke through despite relentless institutional opposition, and her success helped crack open the door for generations of women preachers — a lineage that runs through Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman to the present day.

Her reach was extraordinary for the era. As she preached throughout the nation, her reputation grew, leading her to purchase an 8,000-seat tent in which to conduct her services. Some of her meetings had over 25,000 attendees. She traveled with her tent coast to coast at least three times by 1894. Her meetings were genuinely interdenominational — while still in Ohio, she attracted members from at least eight different denominations, and was outspoken against doctrinal disputes.

Her commitment and dedication personally influenced such major figures as Smith Wigglesworth, Aimee Semple McPherson, John G. Lake, E.W. Kenyon, F.F. Bosworth, and Kathryn Kuhlman— essentially the foundational generation of twentieth-century Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. She helped found the Assemblies of God in 1914, despite never being a formal member.

Rear stamped by Woodworth, M. B. Woodworth, Evangelist. Almost certainly obtained at one of her healing campaigns. 

Produced c.1880's by J. W. Fischer, prominent photographer in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1880's and 1890's. 

In near fine condition with image bright and crisp, some ever so slight smudging of blue ink probably at the time of production as there is no evidence of dampness. Remarkably clean. This is the finest example we ever expect to handle.