Appendix 1

New (actually old) information that I've found recently.

Searching through some old LSA files I found what looks like an early transcript/translation of Mahmud's Diary with a different sequence of events.

The current print version of the Diary mentions the following (see 2- The basic source):

"Upon leaving the meeting, He gave ten pounds for the poor. Later, sitting in Professor Black's home (the note says the name was unclear "and could be Blake.) surrounded by admirers, He showered kindness upon all. The professor accompanied the Master to the town of Worcester, located about 50 miles from Boston. "

This led me to question the fact that he rested at Blakeslee's house in Boston THEN left for Worcester.  But is is unlikely since a couple of paragraphs later it specifically states:

"In two hours we reached Worcester. The Master accepted the professor's invitation to rest for a while in his home. After tea Abdu'l-Baha went to the meeting at the university, "

The document that I recently found contains the following:

"When leaving He gave Ten Pounds (English money) towards the help of the poor.  He sat in the automobile of Professor ------------- which was surrounded by the people.  He showed kindness to all.  The said Professor accompanied the Blessed One to the town of ---------- which is a distance of fifty miles from Boston ........."


Unfortunately there's no date on this document but it was found among other documents with dates ~ 1970's (a couple of decades earlier than the current translation/edition of the Diary of 1997), so I'm guessing that this is a translation of an early Farsi edition, probably made around the same time that the Talk was translated and given to Clark U. in 1971. 

This could answer my question about "a house in Boston" and where was it that The Master went before traveling to Worcester, and after visiting the Denison House.

20 - The End

I conclude this blog on the day that I learned that my spiritual father passed away.  He brought me to the Baha'í faith.  He called me at home  early 2008 and my life changed after that.  I sorely miss you, Pete.


This is all I know about this significant event, the visit of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to our town.  He was here! It happened 100 years ago!

I'd appreciate, on behalf of the Baha'í Community of Worcester, MA, if anybody could share any extra piece of information around this topic. As I find more info, I'll publish it as it comes.


Thanks for accompanying me in this journey.  Thanks Master.  Thanks Peter.

Dedicated to Peter Richt.

19- 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Blakeslee IV - The Conclussion

The "First Contact" between The Master and Prof. Blakeslee - This is the point is where I'm still lacking a meaningful source.  So far I only have circumstantial evidence about it.

Worcester has the distinct honor of having been visited by The Master, and it seems like a sizable number of people were able to listen to him.  Did this contact with the community started a spark?

Abdu’l-Bahá returning to his home on Haparsim
  Street in Haifa, Israel. Source: Baha'i Media Bank

Some questions left without answers:

1. Did Blakeslee have a house in Boston?  Where was it that The Master went before traveling to Worcester, and after visiting the Denison House? (see Parts "2 - The basic source" and  "10- Discussion/thoughts II").  I'm hoping the friends in Boston have something more about this.
2.  Which is the lake that 'Abdu'l-Bahá stopped to admire during his trip?   It must likely is either Cochituate Lake in Natick or Sudbury Reservoir in Framingham (see Part "10- Discussion/thoughts II").  Maybe the friends in Framingham have an idea about this.
3.  Was there any special motivation for Prof. Blakeslee to invite 'Abdu'l-Bahá?  I'm in the process checking and re-checking the papers of Prof. Blakeslee at the archives of Clark University.  I plan to check the papers of the president of the university, Stanley Hall, also, assuming that he left something written before/after the talk.
4. When and how did the invitation reach The Master? Maybe somewhere in somebody's archives there's a copy of this letter/communication.  The future will tell.
5. Did Prof. Blakeslee and The Master meet before this day? Where?
6. Many years ago, the friends in Worcester used to have a ceremony to commemorate the visit which involved a visit to Crystal Park (in front of Clark U., across Main Street ) like "walking the Master's path" (that's my title).  Did 'Abdu-l'Bahá visit the park? or did he go directly from the gymnasium to the reception at the president's house then back to Cambridge?

18- 'Abdu-l-Bahá and Blakeslee III (Lake Mohonk)

The Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration was a "per invitation" very famous peace conference.  'Abdu'l-Bahá was invited to participate and he arrived May 14th and stayed until the 16th, 1912.

Source: 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America

In her book Abdu'l-Bahá in New York: The City of the Covenant ,  Eliane Lacroix-Hopson mentions:

"In 1911, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had exchanged correspondence with Mr. Albert Smiley, Founder and President of the Conference... He had been invited to be the featured speaker at the 18th Annual Conference and the Master had scheduled His visit to the United States to include this important event.

      These Conferences were attended by prominent people of New York, Washington DC, and other cities and countries. 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke on the first day on "The Oneness of the Reality of Humankind." Many in attendance were impressed and came on the platform to thank Him, some embracing Him with emotion."

Source: 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America

According to Mahmud's diary

"This conference was the greatest of all the peace conferences in America. It was held in a most ideal location and many dignitaries and delegates from various countries had been invited to attend. Lake Mohonk is four hours away from New York by train. At the train station special landaus were waiting to take the guests to the conference site. The Master took one of these and went to the Hotel Lake Mohonk. He praised the beauty of the place and the scenic grandeur of the route as His carriage drove for about an hour amidst green valleys, wooded hills, woodlands, waterfalls and natural springs."

Prof. Blakeslee did not attend the conference, nor he could have read the talk ahead of time since the conference was only about a week before to his visit to Worcester.  But he probably knew of The Master's presence, and my guess is that around this time he might have done some effort to send him an invitation, knowing that he will be in the vicinity.

17- 'Abdu-l-Bahá and Blakeslee II (London Congress)

Source: Open Library

`Abdu'l-Bahá had been invited to speak at the Universal Races Congress in London (July 26-29, 1911) while he was in Egypt, but couldn't attend. He sent two letters to the congress one apologizing for not attending and another was an actual tablet.  Both have been published in Star of the West Vol.2 #9 pages 3-5.  The proceedings of the congress shown on the left printed the tablet as well as an introduction by the chairman.  Also, both has been published in the following blog Bahaistravelwest (thanks to the anonymous author).

Did Blakeslee attend this conference and was impressed by The Master's tablet? Or did he read the publication afterward? From the publication it's not clear his attendance, although he is listed as part of the "HON. GENERAL COMMITTEE".  So it is very likely it was there that he heard the message of `Abdu'l-Bahá and the Baha'i cause in Persia for the first time, remember that his focus was more on the Far East.

16- 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Blakeslee I

What was the series of event that culminated in a visit from 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Worcester?  How did Prof. Blakeslee meet The Master?

At first I wondered whether Blakeslee was Baha'í or whether he had any Baha'í friend in Worcester.  After all the National Convention was held in Worcester in 1924, and Florence Morton, a Worcester Baha'ís, was then elected treasurer of the NSA, therefore there must have been a thriving Baha'í community in Worcester, right?  Wrong!

According to Roger M. Dahl, archivist at the National Baha'i Archives,  

"The earliest membership lists are from 1916 but George Blakeslee was not found on any of the early membership lists. We also do not have any Bahá’ís listed as living in Worcester in 1916." 

The first Baha'is are not recorded in the membership files of National until 1920, these were (again, from Roger Dahl)  

"Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Struven, Arthur Hathaway. The following Bahá’ís are listed in Worcester in the 1922 membership list: Arthur A. Hathaway, Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Struven, Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Green, Ellen M. Burt."

1910-Charles Mason Remey, seated second from left and
Howard Struven,second from right, with some eastern believers.

Source: Worldwide Community of Baha'u'llah

I don't want to imply that these people barely became Baha'is in 1920. Howard C. Struven, along with Mr. Charles Mason Remey, had been traveling around the word in 1909 visiting Baha'i communities in Hawaii, Japan, India, Burma, etc. and even visited The Master in Acca (Star of the West, vol. 2 #1).  More on these early Baha'is in a latter post.





A very significant clue came from a friend in Spain (Amín Egea), he told me:

"Regarding Blakeslee, as you probably know he was a pacifist. He launched the Journal of International Relations and launched a series of conferences at Clark university at which he invited personalities of his time to speak about social and peace issues. He was quite famous for this and his conferences, after the Lake Mohonk Peace Conference, were second in importance in the USA in what regards the peace movement.

At the Universal Races Congress (London 1911) one of the speakers spoke of him and his work for peace. And when the proceedings were published Blacksleee briefly mentioned ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s tablet to that congress in a review of it. So he knew the  Faith before the Master visited the USA."

15- Prof. Blakeslee

Source: China and the Far East
September 13 - 19, 1909

"George Hubbard Blakeslee taught history and international relations at Clark University from 1903 until his retirement in 1943. Dr. Blakeslee created and edited the first journal devoted to the study of international relations: the Journal of Race Development (it was later renamed the Journal of International Relations and in 1922 it merged with Foreign Affairs). He also founded at Clark University in 1909 a pioneering series of conferences about international relations." 

Born in New State on August 27, 1871, he later graduated  and obtained a master degree from Wesleyan University (1897).  He later continued studying at  "Leipzig University and Oxford University between 1901 and 1903. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1903."
He passed away in Worcester on May 5, 1954.

Mahmud's diary says ".....sitting in Professor Blacks's home surrounded by admirers, He showered kindness upon all. The professor accompanied the Master to the town of Worcester, located about 50 miles from Boston."  Did Prof Blakeslee have a house in Boston?    According to a friend, Lisa Welter:

"A US Federal census search for George H. Blakeslee  found him living at 24 Richards Street, Worcester with his wife Edna in 1910. By 1920, he's living at 21 Downing with wife Edna and three children, George, Frank and Edith.."   

It seems unlikely that he had a home so far from his work place (specially in those years, where a 50 mile trip would probably take over 2 hours, unless it was some relative's or friend's. He did get a degree at Harvard, so he had acquaintances around the area.(nowadays I do know that some Clark professors actually live in the Boston-Cambridge area).

Blakeslee's signature
Source: (I'd better don't say)

Prof. Blakeslee was an "orientalist".  His focus of research was mostly the Far East. Some of his books have been digitized, and are easily found doing a web search (Barnes & Noble offers lots of them free for their e-reader).  He doesn't seem to have written much (if anything) about the Middle East, specially Persia (from what I've found so far, please correct me if I'm wrong).  So, how come did he invite 'Abdu'l-Bahá to come to Clark?  And how come The Master acceded to come with such a busy schedule? (he already had two commitments in Boston and Cambridge)  Was Blakeslee a Baha'i? Did he know any Baha'i living in Worcester?  These are some of the questions that I've been dealing with since last Summer.  Some answers and hypotheses in the next blog.  Stay tuned.



Biographical sources:  Archives and Special Collections at Clark University and Wikipedia