Mary Hanford Ford
Mary Hanford Ford | |
|---|---|
 Mary H. Ford, circa 1898, 42 years old | |
| Born | Mary Hanford Finney November 1, 1856 |
| Died | February 2, 1937 (aged 80) |
| Other names | Mary Hanford Finney Ford, Minnie Finnie |
| Known for | Lecturer, author, art and literature critic, a leader in the women's suffrage movement |
| Notable work | Which Wins?, Message of the Mystics trilogy, The Oriental Rose |
| Spouse | Moses Smith Ford |
| Children | 3 |
Mary Hanford Ford (née Finney; November 1, 1856 – February 2, 1937) was an American lecturer, author, art and literature critic and a leader in the women's suffrage movement. She reached early notoriety in Kansas at the age of 28 and soon left for
In addition to work as an art critic and speaker she wrote a number of books, most prominently a trilogy Message of the Mystics. Circa 1900 to 1902 Ford found the
Ford was blamed for a fiasco among UK suffragists but it was their own violence that got them in trouble. Ford spent the years of World War I in California following the first Baháʼí International Congress at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, and then moved back to New York where she spent almost the next 20 years. Often she traveled to Europe for some months of the year and during this period introduced the religion to Ugo Giachery, later a prominent Baháʼí. Also in this period she was censored off a radio broadcast, helped develop the religion's community both in meetings she supported and literary efforts, before reducing her travels and speaking engagements in the early 1930s. She died with her daughter by her bedside in 1937.
Early days
Before 1884
Mary Hanford Finney was born on November 1, 1856,[1][2] (though 1857 is often mentioned,)[3][4] to a mercantile/banker family[5][6] near Meadville, Pennsylvania. The family was noted a year later in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.[7] The Kansas City Times obituary noted she had a brother, A.M. Finney, known from Charleston, West Virginia.[7] That would make her father Asahel Clark Finney, who spent the last working decade of his life as a partner in a Pennsylvania lumber company before moving to Kansas City.[5] Ford's mother was Elizabeth Mary Hanford Edson.[8][3] In 1860, the US Census had the family in nearby Clearfield, Pennsylvania, where Finney was a banker with personal assets of about $2000 in 1860 dollars, and he was not the richest man on his block, though also not the poorest. Mary had an older brother Elmer, and a younger sibling Cynthia, and a live-in servant. Mother Mary was 11 years younger than A. C.[9] By 1870, father A. C. was a cashier at a bank with mother and siblings with two livein servants, one a black man, Daniel Owen, from Virginia.[10] Ford attended a private school[8][11] or seminary and studied art and languages in Burlington, Vermont.[8] It is not clear how or when Mary moved to the Kansas area ahead of her father in 1882.[5] She married Smith Moses Ford about October 8, 1878, when she was known as Minnie Finnie and was living in Winfield, Kansas.[12] She was his second wife.[13] S.M. Ford was a former alderman, teacher, newspaper writer and eventually newspaper publisher.[14] Their first child, Roland Ford, was born circa 1879.[15][2]
It was after this that Mary Hanford Ford became visible as a member of clubs. Circa 1880, Ford was among a circle of women who formed the Friends Council Club in Kansas City, of an intentionally limited number of members, and focused on reviewing the history, literature, philanthropy, and art of early civilizations.[14] For the June 4, 1880, US Census, the family was living on 7th St in Kansas City, Missouri, with her parents and siblings and their own children.[16] Father Asahel C. and husband Smith M. were in real estate, as was her brother Elmer. There were also three black servants in the house and five boarders. Circa 1882, Ford was visible entertaining visitors.[17] Another early club Ford was involved in was the Social Science Club; she was visible speaking at a regional conference in 1884.[18] Ford's daughter Lynette was born on 1886.[2]
Rising tide of visibility
1884 and 1885 was Ford's first known writing appeared in print. A short article, "What is Wanted", was fairly widely published including Illinois,
In July 1888, Ford published the instructive article "Mrs. Diaz and the Woman's Exchange Idea" in a periodical.[27] Her last child was born in September 1888,[2] the same month an article in the The York Daily describes her as being "recognized in the west as an authority on literary matters", and she was quoted saying, of the role of the US President's wife, "...By countenancing the suffrage movement she could make it more fashionable ..."[28] In October, she was the only woman, among four vice presidents, elected for a newly founded Missouri and Kansas authors' organization.[29] That year was also Ford's last birth.[30]
In 1889 she was an officer of the Western Authors and Artists Club (WCCA) of Kansas City,[31] writing various articles including a series for Edward Bellamy's The Nationalist,[32] an article reviewing a book on artists for The Dial,[33] and then a series of stories for Wide Awake,[34] a children's magazine, a series that continued in 1890.[35]
In 1891, now a member of the Kansas City Art association, she took part in the opening of an exhibit.[36] This same year she wrote the book, Which will win? or Which wins?,[37] and co-wrote a play. "Mary H. Ford ... says in her preface to the book that there are many men, like Wagner's Parsifal, whose eyes turn inward, who feel the sufferings of others so vividly that they will turn their backs upon worldly prosperity and sacrifice all worldly profit for the good of their fellow-creatures. With such men lies the possibility of the race for real reform, and they represent a proportion of humanity much larger now than at any other time, she thinks. ... "[38] The book was dedicated to the Farmers' Alliance and covers life on farms and the effect mortgage systems had on it,[39] and specifically examined the ways a woman's inheritance could be taken away.[40] It was well reviewed locally, in Chicago and beyond.[41] From a Boston review: "although the work of an unknown author, is regarded ... as likely to arouse attention. Nothing is known of Mrs. Mary H. Ford of Kansas City, ... (but) a woman of extended acquaintance both in political and social circles. ... The didactic moral of the book is interwoven with a love-tale, the idea evidently being to reach the story reading public in the same way that Bellamy reached the public with his 'Looking Backward'."[42] However another reviewer said "If the 'labor question' could be settled by writing weak or sensational novels concerning it, all difficulties would speedily vanish ... Which Wins, by Mary H Ford ... would be likely to interest the farmer more if it had less about Parsifal in it."[43] A letter-to-the-editor campaign by George Ward supported it in several newspapers.[44]
One reviewer profiled Ford herself:
Mrs Ford is an Eastern woman by birth, and has spent a great deal of her life in Boston, where she is well known and esteemed for her superior capabilities. ... She possesses one of the finest libraries west of the Mississippi, which is rich in art works, rare translations from the Sanscrit, and the choicest editions of the poets. Her education is thorough to a remarkable degree ... Aside from her literary ability, Mrs. Ford is a practical newspaper woman, and can pen a political editorial with the crisp conciseness of a vertebral chief-of-staff. When that historical attempt to run all the emancipated slaves into Kansas was made, Mrs. Ford accepted a commission from the New York Tribune to investigate the matter, and her series of caustic and exhaustive letters attained a national importance.[45]
The new play was called The Syndicate and it opened in November 1891.[46] It was a local success by early 1892 and positives review were carried in various places[47] but its sympathies with farmers and the Farmers' Alliance were controversial to some.[48]
That spring Ford hosted a tent of her own at a local fair.[49]
Transition to Chicago (1893–1894)
In March 1893, a man sued Ford's husband $50,000 for having "alienated the affections of his wife and caused her to desert him in 1887" and also for having abducted the couple's daughter in 1888.
In January 1894, she presented "Art and the Revolution" to the
Chicago and a new career
1895 – A powerful year
In early January, Ford gave lectures on Honoré de Balzac, Édouard Manet,[80] and on Trilby, a recently published novel.[81] She initiated a series of classes on "English Art",[82] and a second series on Shakespeare, meeting about every two weeks.[83] Meanwhile, individual talks continued into mid-January (even naming one of the rooms after her) for the Arché club.[84] A few days later she gave a talk on George Sand,[85] and Trilby,[86] and another talk in the next week.[87] There are yet three more talks noted before the end of January: Millet before the Chicago South Side Women's club,[88] Édouard Manet and impressionism for the Arché club,[89] and Rosa Bonheur for her class.[90]
February continued the pace. She began a series before the new Chicago Culture Club at the
In August, Ford presented on Wagner's trilogy at Green Acre, in Eliot, Maine.[114] This was an early link in events that would become important for Ford in 1901.
In September, with the Arché club, she launched a series for the Winter on "Modern German Art, Literature, and Music",[115] and directly after announcing the series she did a talk at a Wagner recital.[116] Two other Clubs, the Harvard Club and Home Club, announced she would lead a literature group of each.[117] A rather large crowd of women listened to her for a talk entitled "The Colonial Painters, West, Trumbull, Copley, and Stuart" in early October,[118] while the recitals on German art and talks continued.[119] A free series of classes was then opened up for working-class ladies taught by Ford.[120]
The Chicago Culture club was back from the summer break as well with Ford giving the kick off talk for the Fall, all before the end of October.
In November, Ford gave another talk on Wagner,
December opens with the art critic of the Inter Ocean quoting Ford analysing the difference between
At least by the end of the year she was living at 3747 Langley Ave.[138]
1896 – Diversified topics and places
In January, Ford introduced a weekly lecture series via the Chicago Culture Club on the subject of French literary figures,
March continued presentations among an ensemble,[152] and Ford again presented a talk at a theatre,[153] with two more talks lined up the second week.[154] Then a break of a week before "Fifteen minutes with Eugene Field" was presented at the Matheon Club reception.[155] In a few days another new topic of ceramics in art was presented.[156] At the Chicago Culture Club reception a couple days later she gave two talks.[157] That was followed by a talk on "The New Woman" a week later.[158]
In April, Ford again traveled to Sterling, Illinois.[159] She then pressed on to Bloomington, Illinois,[160] and returned to the Chicago area for a talk in Oak Park, Illinois,[161] and Evanston, Illinois.[162] Then there seems to be a break to mid-May before assisting with a benefit exhibition.[163]
That summer, Ford took part in a Chautauqua, another venue previously untapped, and rather farther afield, out of Lincoln, Nebraska.[164] About a month later she gave a talk on culinary choices for the heat of the summer in Chicago,[165] and then a talk at a recital.[166] Then she assists with an exhibition from artists in the public school system.[167]
Following the breakup scandal in Kansas City and moving to Chicago several years before her husband filed for divorce claiming alienation of affection in September.
Wider travels, book series and Spiritualist topics
1897 – Message of the Mystics
Ford introduced the topic of vegetarianism,[181] and then in a couple days on an English novelist.[182] A lecture was announced for April in Sterling, Illinois.[183] A week later she was talking on "American Religious Painters".[184]
During this year, Ford published her three books, The Holy Grail: The Silent Teacher, Goethe's Faust: Its Ethical Symbolism and Balzac's Seraphita: The Mystery of Sex, a series known as Message of the Mystics.
Still in January, she gave a talk for the Independent Penwomen's Club,[188] as well as at a private home.[189] A week later she gave a talk for the Arché club.[190] In February she was scheduled for a short series of talks in Goshen, Indiana.[191] A week later a retired friend from the Chicago Daily Tribune committed suicide, naming her as one to receive the news of it at her request.[192] She gave a series of lectures at the Masonic Temple,[193] on variations of "The Universal Ministry" subjects.[194] Still she kept up individual talks for the Arché club,[195] one for a benefit,[196] as February drew to a close and another as March opened.[197] Minding of the pending divorce in Kansas City, instead articles noted tickets for a talk of hers there were sold starting mid-March.[198] Meanwhile, she launched another series of talks for the Arché club,[199] a talk on color,[200] and a week later in Goshen, Indiana again,[201] going back to Chicago the next day for a talk.[202] At the beginning of April, Ford was in Kansas City giving her series of talks including the "Holy Grail" and other recent topics,[203] as well as receptions held in her honor,[204] and individual talks for a benefit,[205] and otherwise.[206] She gave her last talk,[207] and notes of her talks were reported,[208] while she went back to Chicago.[209]
The divorce was granted, noting she didn't even appear in court.[210] She returned anyway in another month - a quiet month considering her usual pattern - announcing a series and a summer appearance,[211] and still the individual talks here and there, over in Leavenworth, Kansas,[212] before the Kansas City Chautauqua (as an advertised lead attraction),[213] speaking in the "Hall of Philosophy".[214] Still she squeezed in individual talks in June,[215] including a benefit,[216] before heading back to Chicago. However, after a month plus she appears giving talks in Ludington, Michigan on the social mission of Christianity,[217] and then in Waterloo, Iowa initiating a series of talks.[218] The next day still in Waterloo she gave two talks.[219] Later in August she returned to the Chicago area.[220]
The Arché club had Ford as the "club lecturer" for the season and noted two talks specifically in October,[221] and then a talk at the Menoken Club.[222] Later in October at a conference of women's clubs Ford spoke of promoting arts with the group letting her talk twice the allotted time.[223]
November began with a talk at the Arché club,[224] with another in a couple weeks.[225] Her book series Message of the Mystics was noted for sale in Kansas City.[226] A series of conferences on social development were announced by the Forward Movement and Ford was among the speakers.[227] She closes out November with a talk for the Arché club.[228]
Ford starts another series of talks in December featured in a home.[229] The Forward Movemnent's speakers for the conferences in the second week of December were announced including Clarence Darrow and Ford (on "The Artist's Aristocracy").[230] Her talk focused on John Ruskin (also a Spiritualist), and William Morris.[231] She returned to the subject of Ruskin two weeks later.[232] Meanwhile, her books continued to be noticed,[233] and received some summary in the publication of it as the year closes.[234]
1898 – More personal coverage
The new year began the same "Holy Grail" talk from her books, first before the "Noonday Rest" Club - reportedly with some 300 present - and broaching a
March began with a talk before the Arché club on
In April she was visible giving a talk before the "Twentieth Century Sanitary Home and Bulsson Institute" in Chicago,[250] and then the Æolus club.[251] Just a couple days later she spoke before the Society of Art on "Israel and His Followers".[252] A week later she was in Marshall, Michigan giving a talk.[253] She gave a series of talks in Topeka, Kansas before mid-May, the first program of the federated clubs,[254] before returning to Chicago, just days later, speaking on James Whitcomb Riley and Eugene Field.[255] A week later Ford was set to be one of the speakers before a conference of clubs across the city along with artists and instructors.[256] A wider regional conference was set in Denver in June and Ford went representing the Aloha club.[257] In early July she was in the Waterloo Chautauqua.[258] Ford was recognized as a key figure in Arche club and Chicago Culture Club history.[259]
In August, the Ford family made the news with their picnics on the beach of Lake Michigan. Mary, her children and a few other families, with their several youths, are noted as attending.[260] The family's home also made the news with Ford talking about a ghost in her home (housekeeper, children, and herself speaking of it).[261] Another ghost reference briefly referred back to this coverage later in September.[262]
In September, Hull House announced a series through the Fall, Winter and into the Spring, with Ford giving a talk once a month from October to March.[263] The Arché club similarly announces a series of talks including Ford every other week into about January.[264] The Arché coverage was noted in Nebraska.[265]
The Chicago Times-Herald did a profile of Ford in November and it was echoed widely through December.
And December's talks began on Ralph Waldo Emerson,[277] followed by others,[278] including Percy Bysshe Shelley.[279] She made it to New York City in mid-December[280] and ended the year in Dixon, Illinois.[281]
1899 – A slower pace, and reaching Boston
Ford began the year reviewing American decorative art with reproductions from the Boston Public Library.
In February, after two weeks, she spoke again,
In later April she was named an associate director of the Illinois Art league,[299] and closed out the month at a home based talk "The reality of psychic vision".[300]
After taking off near two weeks she gives a talk on
In August she goes from a talk in Dubuque, Iowa,[303] to a talk in the Alice Breed home in Lynn, Massachusetts where she did a series of some ten of her lecture subjects[304] - and this noted in the Kansas City area as well.[305] The Breed family would be one she would have many interactions with in coming years. From September to October is there a gap in coverage. She is next noted in Dubuque, Iowa in mid-October in the midst of a series of talks.[306] She was announced in the season's talks of the Chicago Culture Club as well.[307] She presented a talk for the Arché club later in October,[308] among a larger list of speakers.[309] A month later she spoke on Harriet Beecher Stowe for the Arché Club.[310] In a few days she gave a talk in Kansas City,[311] and was scheduled for a series in Dixon, Illinois in late November.[312] Two weeks later in near mid-December she was listed as a guest at a breakfast while another presents a talk for the meeting.[313]
1900 – Fewer talks, more distance
January 1900 began with a longer version, and more in her own words, of the ghost story in Ford's home - and carried in the New York Tribune.[314] A little more than a week later Ford gave a talk on Bret Harte for the Arché club.[315] In a couple days she shared a stage with another speaker on the Fabian Society,[316] and another on Bret Harte.[317]
In February a poem of hers was published in the New York Times echoed from the Chicago Post - "The song unsung".
The next talk, still on color, was in late May, in Freeport, Illinois,[327] and she returned a week later to repeat,[328] and was the center of a reception June 5[329] directly before going to Ottumwa, Iowa before the second week of June where she accomplished two series of lectures.[330] That summer US Census, Ford and three Missouri-born children lived on 7th St, Hyde Park, IL.[2] Ford was listed as widowed, having born and had 3 children, not marking lost any in infancy, was noted as a lecturer, son Roland as an artist, while the other two were students at school.
The earliest newspaper coverage of the Baháʼí Faith, a religion she was about to adopt, in the Chicago area - the first group of Baháʼís in the country - occurred from mid-October 1900.[331][332][333] However Ford was out of town - in mid-October Ford began a series of talks in Oak Park, Illinois,[334] mid-November successively in Kansas City,[335] Bloomington, Illinois,[336] and then Sedalia, Missouri.[337]
She wrote the introduction to The story of Abraham Lincoln; or, The journey from the log cabin to the White House by Eleanor Gridley.[338]
Finding the Baháʼís
1901 – A year of changes
Like the recent Januaries, Ford's ghost-story home was referred to by another newspaper story; this time someone was seeking to live in one like hers. It turned out that Ford's family was no longer living there.[339] Her household was noted as an eclectic mix of family and boarders - her three children, Roland, Lynette and Gareth; a Germon woman and her young child; of an American woman and her son; of a young African or African American student of Shakespeare.[26]
In the Winter of 1900-1901 Ford took a comparative religion class and encountered the Baháʼí Faith.[26] This could have been, for example, through the University of Chicago, through "Vesper Services" lectures,[340][341] or academic classes (for example "Religions of ancient India and Persia").[342] John Henry Barrows was a staff member and had been deeply involved in the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, where the Baháʼí Faith was mentioned,[343] and that winter Charles Cuthbert Hall had been hired by the university,[344] being appointed to an endowed lectureship based on the enthusiasm of the Parliament of Religions.[345][346] It wouldn't be the only such series to be undertaken.[347] However, in addition, whether Ford knew it or not, Baháʼís had arrived in Chicago who were sent by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and began public presentations on the religion in December 1900 and January 1901.[348]
Ford's ex-husband, Smith Moses Ford, died April 10.[349]
The New York Times noted her selling an apartment in New York to her son in July.[350]
After the comparative religion class in Chicago, Ford heard that more about the religion was to be learned at
Abu'l-Faḍl had accompanied Anton Hadded, the first Baháʼí to live in the United States, on his return trip to America.[356] They too had been sent by then head of the religion, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.[357] The later well known Baháʼí Agnes Baldwin Alexander was there.[361] It was at these classes with Abu'l-Faḍl that Ford is considered to have joined the religion,[26][356]
In Arches of the Years Alice Breed's granddaughter
In November there was also more coverage of Baháʼís in New York highlighting Lua Getsinger.[357]
The Boston community
In January news of Farmer's involvement in the religion continued to spread[371] as well as of the religion in general,[372] and Ford was known to have moved to Boston - Ford and the Breed family invited Ali Kuli Khan to move to Boston and together form the first active community of Baháʼís there.[356]
News that Ford was working on translating Charles Paul de Kock's began to be noted in 1902,
In March 1904 someone gave a talk on Ford's books in Kansas,[382] while news of another book of Ford's came out - Legends of Parsifal[383] - and news of it continues progressively over the year.[384] Her Kock books also came out.[385] Still news on her "The Holy Grail" appears.[386]
In October Khan and Florence Breed were married.[387]
In December Ford gave her Grail talk to the Lethren club in Boston.[388]
In the Spring, Ford gave a talk in Springfield on art.[389] Ali Kuli Khan and perhaps others passed most of the summer of 1905 in Green Acre.[390] Ford was listed as an honorary member of the Arché Club that year.[391]
In April 1906 Ali Kuli Khan gave a talk at the Breed home and then he and his new wife left for Persia.[390] During their trip they first went on pilgrimage to meet ʻAbdu'l-Bahá where Mrs. Ali Kuli Khan later recalled these words of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá - "It is true that Mrs. Ford has served humanity long and faithfully. Now tell her, if she will arise to serve the Cause of Baháʼu'lláh with equal zeal and fidelity, her name will be mentioned in all the worlds of God."[6]
The August issue of Brush and Pencil had an article "American Art Eminently Distinctive" by Ford.[392] The December issue of Success (magazine) had a short story by Ford: "Love enough for all".[393] The story began with a husband swearing about "modern club-woman" with contrary ideas on raising children, but as the story continues the impatient mother gets in an accident who did not deal well with the child that adored her yet kept her from clubs. While recuperating she marvels at the housewife who can hold a conversation with guests and husband, children entertained, house well kept, and she well loved. The recuperating lady dreams and sees marvels all giving gifts to this one who loves all and is loved.[394] In the Fall of 1906 Ford had a story published in the Overland Monthly.[395]
By the Winter of 1906 Louis Bourgeois, later architect of the Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, and his wife had joined the religion after having "come into association with the Baha'i Faith through Marie Watson and Mary Hanford Ford."[396] But by late December 1906, Ford and her son had moved back to Kansas City.[397]
Back to Missouri and pilgrimage
A week after her arrival in Kansas City Ford gave two lectures.[398] Then she spoke on Ibsen at Frazer Hall at the University of Kansas in January 1907 and she noted she was going abroad.[399] In February Ford addressed comments on each of the artists showing at a university art exhibit,[400] and had an article published in The Public.[401] In April Ford was on the program of a Kansas state meeting of women's clubs.[402]
Ford wrote that she went on pilgrimage to meet ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in 1907 traveling over land through Europe, Turkey, and down through Syria,[403] at the age of 50. She connected with Baháʼís in Paris on the way to Switzerland/Italy.[362] Ford later wrote of getting passed "plague and quarantine" and of hearing of fresh Baha'i martyrs while staying in Paris.
The house occupied by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Palestine then was the House of ʻAbdu'lláh Páshá.
January 1908 began with notice that Ford's talks were the first priority of the federated clubs of Topeka,[404] while she was visible in Kansas City,[405] but it was still an open question in early February what would happen.[406] A week later the news is clear - Ford was to come in March for a short series of lectures.[407] It is said she gave some talks in Kansas City in late February or early March.[408] The topic of her Topeka talks announced is Chateaux de Touraine. Final preparations are taken,[409] and the upcoming talks are praised suggesting it has been previewed.[410] The first talk centers on "Chinon and Loches" and mentions Joan of Arc,[411] a mention she would later use to example love in religion.[412]
Overall the Baháʼís in Chicago heard that Ford was active in Kansas City.[413]
In September Ford was living in Kansas City,[414] and by November she was noted giving "parlor talks".[415] In December she attended, and her comments are reported for, an exhibition there.[416]
In January 1909 Ford was still drawing on her pilgrimage experience referring to descriptions in Turkey and Syria in a talk she gave in Leavenworth, Kansas – and a series of talks was also announced,[417] followed by another focused on Italian cities.[418] But in February she offers an individual talk as well - "Social adjustment, family relation and revival of neighborship",[419] and offers follow-up talks on the religion.[420] After a month another talk was visible,[421] which were then called weekly talks (the next one on American art and craftsman guild,[422] then on called "books as dangerous things").[423]
Up until mid-June Ford had been a vice president of the Women's Dining Club but on the resignation of the president noting that the club had "... formed among the women who have accomplished things in Kansas City to solve the problems which confront women in this city", Ford was elected president.[424]
Later in December Ford spoke for a women's group on strike or worked in a sweatshop in New York.[425] She was in fact in suffrage meetings with Alva Belmont.[426]
A book, abroad, and troubled in Britain in absentia
1910 starts out noting Ford's daughter Lynette lived in New York by February and Ford was noted visiting over the previous winter finishing work on a book.
A July issue of Post Magazine included the article "On the Equivocation of 'Matter'",[433] which was also published in the Buffalo Courier.[434]
Starting in 1910, the head of the Baháʼí Faith, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, was on various stages of a journey once freed from arrest. During the period in Paris there is record of a phone call – the caller may have been Ford.[435] Ford was in Paris and was happy to see him free.[436][437] She left a description and recorded some of the talks and described the atmosphere of how being around him was for people. She spent two weeks there with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.[26]
A month before ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's arrival in America, Ford wrote an article profiling the history of the religion, its presence in parts of the world, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá himself, which covered over half a page in the New York Sun.[438] ʻAbdu'l-Bahá left America for Britain in December, France in January, Germany in April. In February 1913 Ford's book Oriental Rose was being read and commented on by Marshall Black in prison in California.[439]
Before ʻAbdu'l-Bahá left America he commented in the progress of women's equality, noting "Demonstrations of force, such as are now taking place in England, are neither becoming nor effective in the cause of womanhood and quality".[440] A few months later, in March–April 1913, a suffrage women's organization, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Britain, was broken up by Scotland Yard.[441][442] Led by Flora Drummond the group tried Ford in absentia in April for the failure of their plans.[443] Arrests and releases took place in February and March and some of the incidents were coordinated by WPSU itself.[444] Ford was present and acting for a release, and coverage did appear in American newspapers,[445] but she claimed she knew nothing of any of the charges the group had brought against her. Newspapers covered the report in many places,[446] including places Ford had given talks - Independence, Kansas,[447] Fort Wayne, Indiana,[448] and Boston, Massachusetts.[449] There had in fact been some tensions among suffrage workers in Britain because some had attempted an arson and bombing campaign and the group had been infiltrated by women working for Scotland Yard[450] who passed on warnings of the violence of the group.[441][442] Late April coverage vindicated Ford and that her involvement had been through diplomatic channels only.[451] While this news unfolded in later April Ford attended and addressed the national convention of Baháʼís in New York.[452] Later in June she was noted speaking on "Abdul Baha's teaching on Immortality", her first known talk on the religion to a general audience, to the "Negro Society for Historical Research" cofounded by John Edward Bruce and Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.[453]
After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá returned to Egypt almost ending his travels outside of Palestine he sent a tablet/letter responding to a letter from Ford on October 23, 1913.[454]
War years
In California
In 1914 Ford, mentioning she had been to
In January through March 1915 Ford gave a series of talks in Kansas City.
