With the help of Messrs George Ronald, Publisher, Oxford and others we have
created a gallery of pictures of early British (and British-connected)
Bahá'ís. They are in medium quality JPEG format - good enough to
download for your own use while not being so large as to make this an overlong
procedure. [Note: this was written in 1998, bandwidth was limited. -J.W.]
DISPLAY ONE
(Above) Mary Virginia Thornburgh Cropper
Photograph of Mary Virginia Thornburgh-Cropper, an American living in London
who became, in 1898, the first person in the British Isles to enrol in the
Bahá'í Faith.
(Above) Ethel Rosenberg
Photograph of Ethel Rosenberg, who declared her faith in 1899 - the second
person in the U.K. to do so, and the first native believer.
(Above) Thomas Breakwell
Photograph of Thomas Breakwell, who became a Bahá'í in Paris
in 1901, the first Englishman to accept the Faith. Breakwell died young and was
beloved of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
(Above) Portrait, detail, Mrs Thornburgh-Cropper as a
young woman.
Detail from a portrait of Mrs Thornburgh-Cropper as a young woman.
DISPLAY TWO
(Above) Lady Blomfield
Photograph of Sara Louisa, Lady Blomfield. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's host when
He visited London in 1911, and author of "The Chosen Highway", Lady
Blomfield has another claim to fame. Née Ryan, she was, as far as we
know, the first person of Irish birth to become a Bahá'í.
(Above) George Townshend
Photograph of George Townshend, Church of Ireland cleric and later Hand of
the Cause of God, whose writings on the Faith remain essential study.
(Above) John Esslemont
Photograph of John Esslemont, Scottish physician and later secretary to
Shoghi Effendi. Author of "Bahá'u'lláh and the New
Era", he was named a Hand of the Cause posthumously.
DISPLAY THREE
(Above) HM Queen Marie of Romania
(Above) HM Queen Marie
Photographs of HM Queen Marie of Romania in later life (as Queen Mother)
around the time she accepted the Bahá'í Faith, and younger, as
Queen Consort of Romania. She was the first crowned head to become a
Bahá'í. Originally the Princess Marie of Edinburgh, she was
grand-daughter to Queen Victoria, the only ruler among those addressed by
Bahá'u'lláh who did not give a wholly negative response to His
message.
(Above) HH the Malietoa Tanumafili II of Western Samoa
To complement these, a picture of HH the Malietoa Tanumafili II of Western
Samoa, the first reigning monarch to accept the Faith. There is a British
connection - Western Samoa, an independent nation, is a member of the
Commonwealth.
(Above) Edward Granville Browne
Picture of Edward Granville Browne in Persian dress. Professor Browne
qualified as a physician but spent his life pursuing the studies he really
loved - the Middle East, and particularly Persia. It is sometimes said he is
the only Westerner to have met Bahá'u'lláh. This is not true, but
he did leave the only detailed account of such a meeting, and it shows how
moved he was by the experience.
DISPLAY FOUR
(Above) Lady Blomfield
(Above) Mrs S. V. Thornburgh-Cropper
Colour portraits of Lady Blomfield and of Mrs M. V. Thornburgh-Cropper as a young woman - these are on display at the U.K. national Bahá'í centre in London.
DISPLAY FIVE
(Above) Likeness of 'Abdu'l-Bahá by Kahlil
Gibran
(Above) Likeness of 'Abdu'l-Bahá by Miss Souley-Cambell
Two likenesses of 'Abdu'l-Bahá not often seen, one by Kahlil Gibran,
the other (the compiler's personal favourite) by Miss Souley-Cooper.
Bahá'ís are reminded of the respect and appropriate care they
should exercise in using the likeness of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
DISPLAY SIX
click for larger image
Resting Place of Shoghi Effendi, New Southgate, London
An evocative picture of the
Resting Place of the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, in North London. This picture
was scanned at higher resolution for better printing after download, so the
file size is larger than the others, around 85k.
DISPLAY SEVEN
click for larger image
click for larger image
click for larger image
Two larger JPG colour graphs of the grave of Hand of the Cause
John Esslemont, in the Bahá'í Cemetery in Haifa, and a smaller
one showing its inscription "By all who knew him, he was loved."
DISPLAY EIGHT
click for larger image
Mishkin-Qalam
A miniature by Ethel Rosenberg, the first native Believer in the United
Kingdom, of the noted Bahá'í calligrapher Mishkin-Qalam. A large
file, of print quality. This picture is on display in the Mansion of
Bahá'u'lláh at Bahji. We are grateful to the Universal House of
Justice for permitting us to use it.
DISPLAY NINE
click for larger image
Zaynu'l-Muqarrabin
A miniature by Ethel Rosenberg of Zaynu'l-Muqarrabin, "apostle of
Bahá'u'lláh . A large file, of print quality. This picture is on
display in the Mansion of Bahá'u'lláh at Bajhi. We are grateful
to the Universal House of Justice for permitting us to use it.
DISPLAY TEN
E. G. Browne
Edward Granville Browne in later life.
DISPLAY ELEVEN
J. E. Esslemont, Hand of the Cause of God
Dr John E. Esslemont - a hitherto unpublished photograph.
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