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.
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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.

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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.
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-- Dunn, Clara and John Henry Hyde (Used by permission of the curator)