# Dunn, Clara and John Henry Hyde

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Graham Hassall, Dunn, Clara and John Henry Hyde, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Dunn, Clara (1869–1960), and
> Dunn, John Henry Hyde (c. 1855–1941)
> Couple who went to Australia in 1920 in response to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call for
> worldwide expansion of the Bahá’í Faith and firmly established it in the
> antipodes; both designated Hands of the Cause of God by Shoghi Effendi—Clara
> among the second contingent in February 1952, and Hyde in a posthumous
> appointment announced in April 1952.
> 
> ARTICLE OUTLINE:                                     LIFE IN ENGLAND AND NORTH
> AMERICA
> Life in England and North America
> Arrival in Australia                            John Henry Hyde Dunn, the youngest of twelve
> Growth of the Bahá’í Faith in Australia and     children, was born in London. Details of his early
> New Zealand                                     life, including the date of his birth, are scarce or
> Clara Dunn after Hyde Dunn’s Death              unreliable. Several different dates for his birth are
> ARTICLE RESOURCES:                                   recorded; the one used on his tombstone is 5
> March 1855.
> Notes
> Other Sources and Related Reading               In his later years, Hyde, as he was known
> throughout his adult life, preferred not to talk
> about his childhood, which seems to have been difficult. His mother died when he was young. When his
> father, a consulting pharmacist, remarried, strains between Hyde and his stepmother evidently led to a
> loosening of Hyde’s family ties.
> 
> As a young man, Hyde worked for a London firm as a sales agent in England and France. Later, after
> emigrating to the United States (possibly by way of Canada), he was employed as a traveling sales
> representative for the Borden milk company. He lived on the West Coast with his first wife, Fannie, and
> had a stepdaughter, Hattie Oliver Periard.
> 
> In a tinker’s shop in Seattle in 1905, Hyde overheard Nathan Ward Fitz-Gerald, a spirited and colorful
> Bahá’í teacher, quoting the words of Bahá’u’lláh: "Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country;
> let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind." 1 Attracted by these words, Hyde soon became a
> Bahá’í. In the process, he later told friends, he gave up smoking and drinking and experienced a
> personal transformation. Such outstanding early American Bahá’ís as Thornton Chase, Lua Getsinger,
> and Ella Cooper assisted Hyde in his close study of the Bahá’í teachings.
> 
> Hyde’s searching and earnest letters to Thornton Chase, inquiring into the deeper teachings of the
> Faith, prompted his mentor to write several pages addressing such themes as the nature of fear, the
> station of the Persian Bábí and Bahá’í martyrs in comparison with the American Bahá’ís, the
> resurrection of Christian teachings through the Bahá’í revelation, and the mistaking of the holy spirit for
> the spirit of man. "Your letters are such a pleasure to me," Chase wrote. "I see shining through them
> the earnest soul, which has tasted of heavenly food and found it so delicious that it ever hungers for
> the Table of the Lord." 2
> 
> Hyde taught the Bahá’í Faith enthusiastically in California, Oregon, and Washington and was among the
> first to teach it in Nevada. For a time, he traveled with Fitz-Gerald to share the new religion with
> others. In 1905 Hyde met Clara Davis when he entered the medical office where she worked in Walla
> Walla, Washington, to post an advertisement for a Bahá’í meeting that he and Fitz-Gerald were holding
> that evening. Hyde asked Clara if she was interested in spiritual things. She replied that she would be if
> she knew of any. After Hyde told her a little about the Bahá’í teachings, she asked whether the new
> religion was "for everybody."3 On being assured that it was for the whole world, she agreed to attend
> the meeting. After the meeting, perceiving that the two men had not eaten, she insisted on giving them
> supper. Over the meal, they told her more about the Bahá’í Faith. She began to investigate the new
> religion and, some time later, became a Bahá’í.
> 
> Clara was born in London, England, on 12 May 1869. She was
> the sixth of eight children of Thomas Holder and Maria McHugh,
> who married in 1857 in Dublin, Ireland, and later settled in
> London. Thomas Holder, who had served in the Crimean War,
> became a farmer, then joined the police. In 1870, when Clara
> was a year old, the Holder family left England for Ontario,
> Canada, where Thomas found employment in a railway workshop
> in Allandale, near Barrie.
> 
> Clara’s childhood was marred by poverty and domestic tension;
> her father, a Methodist, and her mother, an Irish Catholic,
> constantly argued over religion. At the age of sixteen, Clara left
> her unhappy home, marrying William Allen Davis in Toronto on
> 24 December 1885. Yet happiness eluded her. In close
> succession she gave birth to a son, Allen, in April 1887, and lost
> her husband through an accident at work. A widow and the
> mother of an infant while still a teenager, Clara sought to         Hyde and Clara Dunn, Auckland, early 1920s.
> National Bahá’í Archives, United States.
> support herself and her child by training informally as a nurse.
> She found it difficult, however, both to raise her son and to earn a living, especially after she became ill
> with typhoid and was unable to work during a lengthy recovery period. Reluctantly, she put Allen into
> the care of her eldest brother, Henry—a decision that, over the years, was to cause her continued pain.
> In 1902 she moved by herself to the United States, settling in Walla Walla, a town in southeastern
> Washington state, where she obtained work in a medical office devoted to the Viavi treatment, a new
> and unorthodox approach to healing.
> 
> On accepting the Bahá’í teachings, Clara found herself part of a
> small group of Bahá’ís in Walla Walla. The community consisted
> of a "tiny band," described in a contemporary account as "sickly"
> and "very feeble," with some of its members inclined to
> commingle their inadequate knowledge of the Faith with other
> ideas.4 Far from other centers of Bahá’í activity, it lacked the
> strength to deal with demoralizing opposition from local religious
> leaders or to nurture Clara as a fledgling Bahá’í. Alone, unable
> to spark interest in the Bahá’í Faith among her friends, and
> Clara Dunn in Santa Cruz, 1919. National Bahá’í sensitive to criticism from those who called her a quack because
> Archives, United States.
> of her commitment to the Viavi treatment, Clara suffered a
> nervous breakdown. She could not work for some time and only gradually regained her health.
> 
> In October 1912, when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited the San Francisco Bay Area for eighteen days, Clara was so
> short of funds that she almost did not make the journey of some sixteen hundred kilometers (one
> thousand miles) to meet Him. At last, she managed to borrow money for a train ticket. Arriving in San
> Francisco on the final full day of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit, she found herself in a strange city with no clear
> idea of the address she sought. She followed the vague instructions she had been given and somehow
> managed to find the house where He was staying. The first person she saw there was Hyde, who had
> arranged to be in San Francisco for a week to hear as many of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s addresses as he could.
> Although the time that Hyde and, especially, Clara spent in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s presence was brief, He made
> an impact on both of them that lasted for the rest of their lives. Clara often recounted a story—told
> with much laughter by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during dinner—about a woman who took her duck to market,
> claiming that it was the biggest duck. For Clara, the moral of the story was that she should control her
> ego and an inclination to exaggerate. The story, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s radiant smile, and the delicious taste of
> the rice they ate that night remained vivid memories that Clara continued to share with others for
> nearly fifty years.
> 
> After ‘Abdu’l-Bahá left San Francisco, both Clara Davis and Hyde Dunn carried out their activities as
> Bahá’ís with new dedication—Hyde living across the bay in Oakland and Clara in San Francisco. In
> March 1916 Hyde’s wife, Fannie, died, having accepted the Bahá’í Faith shortly before her death. Over
> the next year, the friendship between Clara and Hyde deepened, and they married in July 1917. They
> lived in Oakland, later moving to Santa Cruz, and often hosted Bahá’í meetings or spoke in the homes
> of others. The couple invariably rented a well-appointed apartment or cottage, rather than a simple
> one, to have pleasant surroundings in which to present the Bahá’í Faith. The remainder of Hyde’s
> income was spent almost entirely on their teaching activities—on travel, Bahá’í literature, and the food
> with which they served the many guests who attended meetings in their home.
> 
> ARRIVAL IN AUSTRALIA
> In 1919 Clara and Hyde read ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call, in a series of letters called the Tablets of the Divine
> Plan , for teachers to take the Bahá’í Faith to all the countries of the world, traveling as He longed to
> do, "even though on foot and in the utmost poverty," to promote the Bahá’í teachings. 5 Clara later
> recounted that she looked up from the page she was reading aloud to Hyde and said, "Let us go where
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wished to go," adding "We are almost in poverty." Hyde replied unhesitatingly, "Yes, we
> will go."6 They decided to set out immediately for Australia, where no Bahá’ís resided.
> 
> After Clara suggested that Hyde might proceed alone to save the
> expense of her ticket, they cabled ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, asking whether
> both should go. He replied, "Highly commendable," thus settling
> the matter.7 Some of the San Francisco Bahá’ís expressed
> concern that an "elderly couple"—Hyde in his sixties, Clara fifty—
> intended to travel so far to spread the Bahá’í message. Hyde is
> reported to have replied that he would sooner die than not
> respond to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call. 8 In January 1920 a large group of
> Bahá’ís from the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the Dunns’
> good friends John and Louise Bosch from Geyserville, gathered
> at the dock to see the couple set sail.
> 
> Following a sojourn in Hawaii, Hyde and Clara traveled to
> Sydney, landing on 10 April 1920. They were accompanied by
> Clara’s son, Allen, who had joined them in Honolulu and
> remained with them for a time in Australia. "We arrived in
> Sydney . . . with naught but faith in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá," Hyde recalled
> 'Mother Dunn crossing the desert.' National Bahá’í
> Archives, United States.
> a decade later. 9 Their lack of funds brought distress in the first
> few months. Both Hyde and Allen fell ill, and Clara, finding "very
> little strength left" in Hyde, hoped that she and Allen would be able to earn enough to allow Hyde to
> devote himself wholly to Bahá’í activities. 10 Fortuitously, Clara found work at the Viavi office in Sydney.
> 
> Within the year, however, Hyde regained his health and obtained a position as a traveling
> representative for the Bacchus Marsh Milk Company (soon after acquired by Nestlé), enabling Clara to
> give up her job. Initially, he worked within New South Wales. After he outperformed all other company
> sales agents, the management gave him nationwide responsibilities. In the next decade his work took
> him to every state and major city and town in Australia.
> 
> Typically, when Clara joined Hyde in his travels, they would rent a cottage in the state capital. He would
> then travel to country towns during the week, while Clara remained in the city, making friends,
> involving herself in charitable activities, and inviting people to weekend meetings at which Hyde would
> speak. By July 1923 Hyde had visited 225 towns, an average of one new town for each four and a half
> days of work from the time he started at Nestlé.
> 
> In Australia postwar skepticism, in addition to growing disillusionment with the sectarianism and
> dogmatism of the major churches, contributed to increased interest in alternative religions and
> philosophies. Hyde continued to speak, as he had done in North America, to such religious groups.
> 
> Despite the Dunns’ efforts, progress in attracting new adherents was slow for the first few years. A
> turning point came toward the end of 1922. After Hyde and Clara had spent more than two years
> traveling and meeting scores of people, two Australians became Bahá’ís. First, Sydney optometrist
> Oswald Whitaker, who had been interested in Theosophy, accepted Hyde’s definition of "love" as being
> "THE whole law and power of the Great Universe." 11 Soon after, Effie Baker (See: Bahá’í World
> Center.Development under Shoghi Effendi), a photographer and model maker, accepted the Bahá’í
> message immediately after hearing Hyde talk at Melbourne’s New Civilization Center.
> 
> At the end of 1922 Clara and Hyde, using a month of holiday time that he had accumulated over two
> years, traveled to Auckland, New Zealand. They were unaware initially that a lone New Zealander,
> Margaret Stevenson, had been a confirmed Bahá’í for some years—"holding the fort and waiting for
> reinforcements," as Clara put it in a letter to a friend in California. 12 Hyde’s first talk in Auckland, to
> about twenty people in a private home, was "lucid and satisfying" and made "a deep impression on
> most of those present," according to an account provided some years later by the Auckland Bahá’ís.
> "Other meetings followed, some in private houses, several at the Higher Thought center, then newly
> established, at Spiritualist Churches, and other unorthodox communities."13 These meetings, and other
> gatherings in the afternoons at which Clara discussed the Bahá’í teachings, led to the formation of a
> study group. Clara observed that in Auckland their efforts to teach the Bahá’í Faith achieved immediate
> success: "We seemed to have done more in two weeks here than we did in Australia in two years." 14
> Although Hyde had to return to Australia, Clara stayed in Auckland until April 1923, nurturing the small
> band that became the nucleus of the Auckland Bahá’í community.
> 
> In Melbourne, where the Dunns were based for a time,
> Hyde found a new receptivity. On Friday evenings, he
> spoke in the home of an herbalist to audiences of over
> one hundred. Another visit to Melbourne led to invitations
> to speak at a Theosophical lodge, spiritualist churches,
> an occult church, and the Lyceum Club.
> 
> Clara and Hyde Dunn had complementary personal
> qualities that enabled them to become successful
> promoters of the Bahá’í Faith. Clara combined a
> charitable nature with a gentle but determined manner.
> She often used her nursing skills to care for others. She
> gathered people around her and was able to rally them     The first Bahá’í meeting held in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1923,
> with Margaret Stevenson, the first Bahá’í of New Zealand
> quickly to a just cause. Through her own suffering, she   (standing, left) and Hyde and Clara Dunn (standing, center).
> had developed a sense of compassion for those close to    National Bahá’í Archives, United States.
> 
> her and for others whose plight she came to know.
> Friends have described her as warm, humble but self-assured, graceful, serene, and fun-loving.
> Hyde had a friendly, outgoing disposition and a distinguished, upright appearance. He retained his
> English accent and spoke in an engaging and inspired manner, drawing people to him without ever
> seeming to be overbearing. Those who heard him speak were struck by "the unearthly light that
> suffused his whole personality" when he talked about the Bahá’í Faith.15
> 
> With business acquaintances Hyde was a keen observer of economic and political conditions;
> nevertheless, he felt that, "for want of training and technique," he lacked the ability to express himself
> fully, and he relied to some extent on the intellectual assistance of friends. 16 In conversation and in
> correspondence with Bahá’ís, however, he was both confident and eloquent. He was especially
> enthusiastic in advocating the close study of scripture. Hyde once told Gretta Lamprill, the first Bahá’í of
> Tasmania, that Bahá’u’lláh’s Hidden Words had been to his "thirsty longing soul like a balm or pure
> water on the hot desert of search and longing." 17
> 
> GROWTH OF THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
> During the 1920s the Dunns patiently nurtured individuals and fostered the growth of small and isolated
> Bahá’í communities across Australia and New Zealand. Mother and Father Dunn, as the new adherents
> began calling them, guided the Bahá’ís toward establishing local governing councils, or Spiritual
> Assemblies, in preparation for eventually electing a National Spiritual Assembly (See: Administration,
> Bahá’í.Institutions of Bahá’í Administration.Local Spiritual Assemblies; and Institutions of Bahá’í
> Administration.National Spiritual Assemblies). The first Local Spiritual Assembly was established in
> Melbourne in December 1923, followed by Perth in July 1924 and Adelaide in December 1924. These
> Assemblies lacked firm foundations and declined when the Dunns moved to another city; subsequent
> visits were required to revive them. Assemblies established in Sydney in April 1925 and in Auckland in
> April 1926 proved to be stronger.
> 
> Distinguished Bahá’í travelers from North America assisted the
> Dunns with the process of gaining media attention and
> expanding the Bahá’í communities of Australia and New Zealand
> in their formative years: Martha Root in 1924 and 1939,
> Siegfried Schopflocher twice in the 1920s and again in 1936,
> Keith Ransom-Kehler in 1931–32, and Loulie Mathews in 1934.
> Accounts of their travels appeared in various Bahá’í publications,
> forging links between America and the antipodes.
> 
> In early 1932 Clara Dunn made a pilgrimage to the Bahá’í holy
> places in Mandatory Palestine (See: Bahá’í World Center),
> remaining there for two months. She had hoped until the last
> moment that Hyde might accompany her, but he stayed behind,
> working "to enable her to go."18 Shoghi Effendi received her with
> loving encouragement and revived her spirits. "Since going to
> Haifa," she wrote in 1933, "I find I have fresh courage to go on.
> I was almost in despair as the Cause was not growing."19 Shoghi
> L. to r.: Martha Root, Clara Dunn, Effie Baker, Mrs. Effendi stressed to Clara the necessity of forming a National
> Tapscott (landlady) in Perth, Western Australia.     Assembly in the antipodes. This was achieved in 1934, with
> National Bahá’í Archives, United States.
> delegates to a national Bahá’í convention coming from the
> Adelaide, Sydney, and Auckland Assemblies. Hyde served on the National Spiritual Assembly of
> Australia and New Zealand during its first year.
> 
> Shoghi Effendi had great affection for Hyde Dunn, to whom he referred in God Passes By , his history
> of the first century of the Bahá’í Faith, as "great-hearted and heroic." 20 In The Advent of Divine Justice
> , a long letter addressed to the North American Bahá’ís in 1939, he included the Dunns among a
> small band of distinguished North Americans who had won "eternal distinction" as the first Bahá’ís in a
> number of "highly important and widely scattered centers and territories."21 Those who became Bahá’ís
> after hearing the Dunns speak numbered more than one hundred. They, in turn, assisted in firmly
> establishing Bahá’í communities throughout the South Pacific; such notable individuals as Gretta
> Lamprill, Bertha Dobbins, and Harold and Florence Fitzner became Bahá’ís in the 1920s through Clara
> and Hyde Dunn and later were designated "Knights of Bahá’u’lláh" by Shoghi Effendi for having been
> among the first to take the Bahá’í Faith to goal countries and territories in the Ten Year Plan (1953–
> 63), a worldwide plan of expansion.
> 
> By 1932, when Nestlé retired Hyde, he had worked for some twelve years in Australia. He suffered a
> stroke in 1935 but gradually regained his general health, although his eyesight deteriorated. He
> continued to use his typewriter, however, even after he could no longer read what he had written. He
> died in Sydney on 17 February 1941. Shoghi Effendi eulogized "BELOVED FATHER DUNN"22 as "Australia’s
> spiritual conqueror"23 and observed in a cablegram that "MAGNIFICENT CAREER VETERAN WARRIOR FAITH
> BAHÁ’U’LLÁH REFLECTS PUREST LUSTER WORLD HISTORIC MISSION CONFERRED AMERICAN COMMUNITY BY ‘ABDU’L-
> BAHÁ."24 In 1952 Shoghi Effendi posthumously designated Hyde Dunn a Hand of the Cause of God.
> 
> CLARA DUNN AFTER HYDE DUNN’S DEATH
> Clara had always regarded Hyde as the better speaker; but, after his death, the Bahá’ís turned to her
> and fully expected her to speak in his stead. Rising to the challenge, she invariably began her talks
> with a question often asked by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, "Do you know in what day you are living?" In later years
> her speech was suffused with supplication, as she frequently recited prayers aloud, including her
> favorite by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that began "O Lord, my God and my Haven in my distress!" 25
> 
> When the National Assembly called for pioneer teachers to
> establish the Bahá’í Faith in various locations at the start of a
> new phase of teaching in 1943, Clara settled in Brisbane for
> several months. Subsequently, she recommenced visiting major
> centers, a practice that she and Hyde had been unable to
> continue during the last years of Hyde’s life. She spent a year in
> Adelaide and visited the Bahá’ís in Melbourne, Hobart, and
> Newcastle as well as numerous smaller towns. She always
> suspended her travels in late December and early January to
> participate in summer schools at the Bahá’í property at
> Yerrinbool, south of Sydney. She stayed as the school
> committee’s guest in a room adjacent to the Hyde Dunn Hall.
> Participants at many summer schools in the 1940s and 1950s
> were able to hear her recount how she met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and tell
> of her many years of travel with Hyde.
> 
> On 29 February 1952 Clara Dunn was among a contingent of
> seven individuals appointed by Shoghi Effendi as Hands of the
> Cause of God. Well over eighty and growing increasingly frail,
> Hand of the Cause Clara Dunn (center) with Auxiliary
> she gathered her strength to fulfill her far-reaching spiritual and
> Board members H. Collis Featherstone and Thelma      administrative responsibilities. In 1953, at the start of the Ten
> Perks. National Bahá’í Archives, United States.
> Year Plan, Shoghi Effendi directed her to travel among the Bahá’í
> communities in New Zealand and in Australia, where she settled for a time in Newcastle. In October
> 1953 she attended an intercontinental conference in New Delhi. In April 1954 Shoghi Effendi named her
> Trustee for the Continental Fund for Australasia. At the same time, he requested that she designate
> two individuals as members of the newly established Auxiliary Boards (See: Administration,
> Bahá’í.Foundations of Bahá’í Administration.The "Rulers" and the "Learned" in the Bahá’í Administrative
> Order; and Institutions of Bahá’í Administration.The Institution of the Counselors). On the occasion of
> the national Bahá’í convention, she appointed H. Collis Featherstone, whom Shoghi Effendi subsequently
> named a Hand of the Cause, and Thelma Perks, who was among those first appointed to the
> Continental Boards of Counselors when the Universal House of Justice established that institution in
> 1968 (See: Administration, Bahá’í.Foundations of Bahá’í Administration.The "Rulers" and the "Learned"
> in the Bahá’í Administrative Order; and Institutions of Bahá’í Administration.The Institution of the
> Counselors). Both assisted Clara Dunn greatly in her duties, often writing reports to Shoghi Effendi on
> her behalf. A companion on many interstate visits, Thelma Perks had acted as a daughter to the Dunns
> from as early as the 1940s, even before she became a Bahá’í, and was well equipped to assist Clara in
> her work as a Hand of the Cause.
> 
> Clara received direction from the Hands of the Cause of God
> residing in the Holy Land, who served as liaison between the
> Hands in the continents and Shoghi Effendi. Their letters
> explained which activities Shoghi Effendi felt were most
> important for her and her Auxiliary Board members to undertake
> in the period immediately ahead. In June 1954, for example, she
> was informed that during the second phase of the Ten Year
> Plan, which was to last from 1954 to 1956, the major tasks to
> be accomplished—and to which she and the Auxiliary Board
> members should lend their support—included acquiring sites for
> Bahá’í Temples, called Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs (the Sydney site had
> already been purchased), and for national administrative centers
> (Hazíratu’l-Quds), including one in Auckland and another in
> Suva, Fiji; maintaining current achievements; increasing the
> number of Bahá’í centers; expanding the scope of literature;
> purchasing national endowments; incorporating Assemblies; and
> establishing publishing trusts.
> 
> During the years after she became a Hand of the Cause, Clara
> Hand of the Cause Clara Dunn at the foundation
> Dunn lived in a flat at the National Hazíratu’l-Quds in Sidney.     ceremony for the Bahá’í House of Worship in Sydney,
> Australia, 22 March 1958. She placed in the
> She traveled several times to visit the Bahá’ís of New Zealand.
> foundation plaster from the fortress of Mákú, where
> In 1954 she attended their summer school on the site of the         the Báb was imprisoned for nine months. National
> Bahá’í Archives, United States.
> present National Hazíratu’l-Quds in Henderson, planting a kauri
> tree that still graces the grounds; and in April 1957 she represented Shoghi Effendi when the Bahá’ís of
> New Zealand held their inaugural national convention and elected their first National Spiritual Assembly.
> 
> Physically fragile, Clara remained robust in spirit despite two major losses she suffered in 1957. First,
> her son, Allen, died. His troubled life had been a source of pain to Clara over the years. Shoghi Effendi
> sent his condolences and asked the Bahá’ís of Australia to make every effort to comfort and care for
> "the mother of their community." 26 Then, on 4 November 1957, Shoghi Effendi passed away suddenly.
> As he left no appointed successor, the burden of leadership fell upon the Hands of the Cause. Clara
> insisted on traveling to a meeting of the Hands held in Haifa later that month. Although she was too
> weak to attend the sessions, she participated by signing several major statements that the meeting
> produced.
> 
> A few months later, Clara addressed an intercontinental Bahá’í conference held in Sydney on 21–24
> March 1958, at which some three hundred Bahá’ís from nineteen countries gathered. On the second day
> of the conference, she played a major role in the foundation ceremony of the first Bahá’í House of
> Worship in Australasia, located on a hilltop in nearby Ingleside (See: Mashriqu’l-Adhkár.Houses of
> Worship around the World.Sydney). For the next few years, she continued her activities as her health
> permitted, attending her last summer school at Yerrinbool in 1959 and her last Australian Bahá’í
> convention in April 1960.
> Clara Dunn died in Sydney on 18 November 1960 and was
> buried beside her husband in Woronora Cemetery. The Hands of
> the Cause in the Holy Land, in announcing her death, paid
> tribute to her as a "DISTINGUISHED MEMBER" of the American
> Bahá’í community who responded to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call to take
> the Bahá’í Faith to the antipodes and who "RENDERED UNIQUE
> UNFORGETTABLE PIONEER SERVICE."27
> 
> Graves of Clara and John Henry Hyde Dunn at
> Woronora Cemetery in metropolitan Sydney. National
> Bahá’í Archives, United States.
> 
> Author: Graham Hassall
> 
> © 2009 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Terms of Use.
> 
> .
> 
> Notes:
> 1. Bahá’u’lláh quoted in The Compilation of Compilations, comp. Universal House of Justice, vol. 2
> (Maryborough, VIC: Bahá’í Publications Australia, 1991) 1578: 157.
> 2. Thornton Chase, letter to Hyde Dunn, 1 Feb. 1911, Thornton Chase Papers, National Bahá’í Archives,
> United States, Wilmette, IL [hereafter NBAUS].
> 3. To Follow a Dreamtime: "Father" and "Mother" Dunn, The Spiritual Conquerors of a Continent:
> Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Arrival of the Bahá’í Faith in Australia (Paddington, NSW:
> National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia, 1970) 1–2.
> 4. Isabella Brittingham, letters to Helen Goodall, 8 Oct. and 23 Nov. 1907, Helen S. Goodall Papers,
> NBAUS.
> 5. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan, 1st pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust,
> 1993, 2006 printing) 7.8: 41.
> 6. Conversation quoted in Agnes Alexander, Personal Recollections of a Bahá’í Life in the Hawaiian Islands:
> Forty Years of the Bahá’í Cause in Hawaii, 1902–1942, rev. ed. (Honolulu: National Spiritual Assembly of
> the Bahá’ís of the Hawaiian Islands, 1974) 27.
> 7. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia, "Clara Dunn," The Bahá’í World, vol. 13: 1954–63
> (Haifa: The Universal House of Justice, 1970) 860.
> 8. Alexander, Personal Recollections 27.
> 9. Hyde Dunn quoted in Horace Holley, "Survey of Current Bahá’í Activities in the East and the West," The
> Bahá’í World, vol. 4: 1930–32 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1933) 83–84.
> 10. Clara Dunn, letter to Louise Bosch, 5 May 1919, John D. and Louise Bosch Papers, NBAUS.
> 11. Hyde Dunn, Memoir, MS 16.11.01, National Bahá’í Archives, New Zealand, Auckland.
> 12. Clara Dunn, letter to John and Louise Bosch, 30 Jan. 1923, Bosch Papers.
> 13. Statement by the Auckland Assembly, quoted in Horace Holley, "Survey of Current Bahá’í Activities in
> the East and the West," The Bahá’í World, vol. 4, 85.
> 14. Clara Dunn, letter to John and Louise Bosch, 30 Jan. 1923, Bosch Papers.
> 15. Quoted in "John Henry Hyde Dunn," The Bahá’í World, vol. 9: 1940–44 (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í
> Publishing Trust, 1945) 596.
> 16. Hyde Dunn, letter to Ernest Brewer, 2 Apr. 1926, Brewer Papers, National Bahá’í Archives, Australia,
> Ingleside, NSW.
> 17. Hyde Dunn, letter to Gretta Lamprill, 17 Oct. 1925, National Bahá’í Archives, Australia.
> 18. Hyde Dunn, letter to Ella Cooper, 18 Sept. 1932, Ella G. Cooper Papers, NBAUS.
> 19. Clara Dunn, letter to Elisha and Martha Shaw, 10 Apr. 1933, Elisha D. and Martha L. Shaw Papers,
> NBAUS.
> 20. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, new. ed (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974, 2004
> printing) 308.
> 21. Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice, 1st pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing
> Trust, 1990, 2006 printing) 17: 13.
> 22. Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour: Messages from Shoghi Effendi to the North American Bahá’ís, 1932–
> 1946 (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2002) 80.1: 60.
> 23. Shoghi Effendi, Messages to America (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1947) 41.
> 24. Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour 80.1: 60.
> 25. Bahá’í Prayers: A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 2002 ed.
> (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2002, 2005 printing) 132.
> 26. [Shoghi Effendi], Messages to the Antipodes: Communications from Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá’í
> Communities of the Antipodes, ed. Graham Hassall (Mona Vale, NSW: Bahá’í Publications Australia, 1997)
> 440.
> 27. The Ministry of the Custodians, 1957–1963: An Account of the Stewardship of the Hands of the Cause
> (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1992, 1997 printing with corr.) 245.
> 
> Understanding the Citations
> Citing Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project Articles
> 
> Other Sources and Related Reading:
> An historical account written by Hyde Dunn appears in Horace Holley, "Survey of Current Bahá’í Activities in
> the East and the West," The Bahá’í World, vol. 4, 83–85. Biographies of Hyde and Clara Dunn, respectively,
> appear in The Bahá’í World, vol. 9, 593–97, and vol. 13, 859–62. See also Janet Ruhe-Schoen, "Hyde
> Dunn," in A Love Which Does Not Wait (Riviera Beach, FL, USA: Palabra, 1998), 97–124; and O. Z.
> Whitehead, "Father and Mother Dunn," in Some Bahá’ís to Remember (Oxford: George Ronald, 1983), 153–
> 75. Other accounts of the Dunns’ lives and achievements are found in To Follow a Dreamtime; Madge
> Featherstone and Kaye Waterman, "The Dunns—Keys to Their Success," 75 Years of the Bahá’í Faith in
> Australasia: Proceedings from the 1995 National Bahá’í Studies Conference (Roseberry, NSW: Association
> for Bahá’í Studies Australia, 1996) 29–43; Graham Hassall, "Outpost of a World Religion: The Bahá’í Faith
> in Australia, 1920–1947," Journal of Religious History (1991): 315–38; and Graham Hassall, "The Bahá’í
> Community of Randwick: A Survey of 75 Years,"Australian Bahá’í Studies (1999): 63–83, and available
> online at http://bahai-library.com/asia-pacific/randwick.htm    (accessed 13 Jan. 2009).
> Archival sources include the Dunn Papers in the National Bahá’í Archives in Australia and various collections
> in the National Bahá’í Archives in the United States. Messages to the Antipodes includes many letters from
> Shoghi Effendi to Hyde and Clara Dunn. See also Australian Bahá’í Bulletin, 1934–60.
> Understanding the Citations
> Citing Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project Articles
>
> — *Dunn, Clara and John Henry Hyde (Used by permission of the curator)*