14- Clark University II

Clark University campus ~1920. 
Center right Crystal Park is visible.

Source: Archives and Special Collections,
Goddard Library, Clark University

In 1912, by the time of the visit of 'Abdu-l-Bahá the physical plant university consisted primarily of the first building, Jonas Clark Hall the science building, and the library (now Jefferson Academic Center). 

Jonas Clark Hall, early 1900's (Science Building on the left)
Source: Archives and Special Collections,
Goddard Library, Clark University

'Abdu-l-Bahá's talk was given in the gymnasium that was locate in the basement of Jonas Clark Hall.  Eventually this became the women's gym when men got a larger facility.  Nowadays some structure of the old gym (poles) can be seen when you enter the building through the front door (room 001).

Source: Archives and Special Collections,
Goddard Library, Clark University

The president's house (on the Northeast of Jonas Clark Hall; where the current library is located).  This might have been the place for the reception after the talk.

This house was torn down in the 1960's to make space for the new Goddard Library.

Modern day Jonas Clark Hall and campus green.  Can you find Eugenio in the picture? (hint: I used to teach there 2001-2006)  Can you also find Sigmund Freud?

Sincere thanks to Fordyce Williams, Coordinator of Archives and Special Collections of Goddard Library for her help and making available these great images.

13- Clark University I

Jonas Clark Hall, Summer 2011
(I took that picture!)

Clark University was founded in 1887 by Jonas Clark "as the first all-graduate school in the United States. Until Clark instituted undergraduate programs in 1902, the university offered only Ph.D.-granting programs.  G. Stanley Hall, professor of psychology and pedagogy at Johns Hopkins University, is appointed the first president of the University"  

The first students (all male) started in 1989, the first female student was admitted in 1896, and the first African-American in 1909.   In 1900 the founder, died leaving an endowment for the founding of Clark College which started in 1902 and Carroll D. Wright, U.S. Commissioner of Labor, is the first president of the college.  The first undergraduate women didn't enroll until 1942.

Granville Stanley Hall (1844 –1924)
Source: Wikipedia

In 1909  "programs celebrating Clark University's 20th anniversary bring eminent scholars to Clark, including Carl Jung and, of course, Sigmund Freud. It was Freud's only visit to America."

In 1910 "Professors George Blakeslee, hailed as one of the founders of the field of international relations, and G. Stanley Hall edit the first Journal of Race Relations, which later becomes the Journal of International Relations. It is the first scholarly journal dedicated to international relations."

Sources: About Clark.  and  Historical timeline

12 - A prayer

O God! O God! This is a broken-winged bird and his flight is very slow—assist him so that he may fly toward the apex of prosperity and salvation, wing his way with the utmost joy and happiness throughout the illimitable space, raise his melody in Thy Supreme Name in all the regions, exhilarate the ears with this call, and brighten the eyes by beholding the signs of guidance. 

O Lord! I am single, alone and lowly. For me there is no support save Thee, no helper except Thee and no sustainer beside Thee. Confirm me in Thy service, assist me with the cohorts of Thy angels, make me victorious in the promotion of Thy Word and suffer me to speak out Thy wisdom amongst Thy creatures. Verily, Thou art the helper of the weak and the defender of the little ones, and verily Thou art the Powerful, the Mighty and the Unconstrained. 

—‘Abdu’l-Bahá 

Calligraphy by Mishkín-Qalam (1826-1912)

 

11- Comments on newspaper articles

About the "Before" articles"
1- *The talk was advertized for 4 PM
2- The Telegram article compared the Baha'is to the Mormons a couple of times
3- They got the business of The Bab all messed up
4- Many other details are also wrong.  I hope nowadays reporters are not that bad!
5- They're looking forward to seeing Him in some exotic clothing :-)
6- *He was invited by Prof. Blakeslee, chair of the history dept.

About the "After" articles
1- The clothes did make an impact on the reporters
2- Still got The Bab thing wrong
3- *He talked to ~500 people

4- The Master is 65 to 68 years old (that day was actually his 68th birthday)
5- *The talk was given at the Gymnasium
6- *After the talk there was a reception at the president's house
7- In Persia "59 per cent of the people are member of the new faith."!!!  I didn't know the Baha'is were the majority of the population :-)

*  These points are important (in my opinion) to reconstruct the series/sequence of events

10- About the trip to Worcester

Several observations from Mahmud's diary:

Source: http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/denison.html

1- The trip happened after lunch at the the Greek Syrian Relief Society (church?), which used to be hosted at the Denison House in Boston according to a booklet shared by the Boston Baha'is ("In the Steps of The Master)

 2- It latter mentions sitting in the home of Prof.
Black that latter accompanied him to Worcester.  This must be Prof. Blakeslee (the editors of the books were not cleared about the name and thought it might be Blake).  I need to find out if he had a home in Boston. (more on Prof. Blakeslee later)

 

Route 9 (black) and Route 20 (Red)

3- It mentions about his trip that he asked the driver to stop several times, which means that he traveled by car (there was already train connection Boston-Worcester).  There were two major routes at the time joining the two cities: the Boston-Worcester Turnpike (Route 9) and the Old Boston Post Road (Route 20).  The first one is straighter and only about 35 miles between Boston-Worcester, I can't imagine, even today, taking route 20 which is 44 miles to Worcester and arrives in the southern part of the town, unless the condition of the surfaces were significantly different.

Lakes along both routes

 4- They stopped, at the Master's requests, at the shore of a lake to admire "the greenness of the landscape, the translucence of the water and the purity of the air".  Along Route 9 there are 3 significant lakes, coming from Boston they are Lake Cochituate (in Natick), Foss reservoir, known then as No. 3(in Framingham) , and Sudbury reservoir (in Southborough).  On Route 20 there is only one significant lake, Williams pond in Marlborough  (there are hundreds of little ponds  along both routes, but they rarely cross the roads, so it would be very hard to spot from the roads).  There's also Quinsigamond lake between Shrewsbury and Worcester that both routes cross (although at the route 9 crossing it's much wider and deep).

These maps were made with current data, the surroundings have changed from 1912, but the actual locations of routes 9 and 20 haven't changed much for what I've been able to find in old maps, and the lakes/reservoirs already existed in 1912.

Landsat image of Massachusetts. Water bodies show up black, cities in magenta
Source: http://geology.com/county-map/massachusetts.shtml

9- Discussion/thoughts I

Well, that pretty much concludes the current body of original information I have.  I need to start analyzing what I got and putting together "the story".

The points that I need to complete are:

1- Timeline of the trip
2- Route taken in the trip
3- Environment at Worcester/Clark University
4- Who was Prof. Blakeslee? Why did he invite 'Abdu'l-Bahá?
5- Was there any Baha'i in Worcester in 1912?
6- anything else?

Stay tuned.

8- Magazine article - After

Clark College Monthly. Vol. 1 No. 10 (June 1912). Page 544

 Source: Clark University's Archives and Special Collections Department, Robert H. Goddard Library. Worcester, MA. May 26, 2011.

Abdul Baha's Address

On the afternoon of Thursday, May 23, Abdul Baha, otherwise known as Abbas Effendi, leader of an extensive religious movement which was started in Persia over fifty years ago by "the Bab," gave an address in the gymnasium under the auspices of the history department. He spoke of science and its achievements in enabling man to solve mysteries and make intellectual progress, and expressed the hope that science will one day cement together by uniting the various religions, which are all ultimately based on one reality.