Laura Clifford Barney - Schooling

Schooling

She attended Les Ruches, a French boarding school founded by feminist Marie Souvestre. While continuing her studies in Paris, Laura met May Bolles (later Maxwell), a Canadian Bahá'í, and was converted to the faith in about 1900. Her mother converted soon afterward. In 1911, she married Hippolyte Dreyfus (married name Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney).

Laura Barney financed the visit of the Persian Bahai scholar Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání to the United States in 1901-04, in order to propagate the faith there, and helped to publish the translation of his Ḥojaj al-bahīya (Cairo, 1342/1925; tr. Ali-Kuli Khan as The Bahá’í Proofs, New York, 1902; 2nd ed., ed. J. R. I. Cole, Wilmette, Ill., 1983). In 1904 she visited `Abdu'l-Bahá in ʿAkkāʾ, Palestine, where she remained about two years, acquiring a working knowledge of Persian and becoming an intimate of his household. During that time she arranged to have `Abdu'l-Bahá’s answers to her questions, mainly on philosophy and Christian theology, recorded by his secretaries. She collaborated with her future husband, Hippolyte Dreyfus, on the editing and translation of this work (al-Nūr al-abhā fīmofāważāt `Abdu'l-Bahá, Leiden, 1908; tr. L. C. Barney and H. Dreyfus as Some Answered Questions, London, 1908; tr. H. Dreyfus as Les leçons de Saint Jean d’Acre, Paris, 1909). In 1905-06 she visited Persia, the Caucasus, and Russia with Dreyfus. After their marriage in April 1911, when they both adopted the surname Dreyfus-Barney, she traveled extensively with him.

Both Laura and Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney played a vital role in `Abdu'l-Bahá’s successful visits to the West. Their intimate and personal relationship with him is unquestioned. Even thought Hippolyte accompanied `Abdu'l-Bahá more so than Laura and translated many of his speeches to French. Nonetheless, Laura’s role is unique in her special bond she developed through her travels to Akka during her youth and later as his host in Paris. Her proficiency in Persian language is another aspect that was unique at the time for a woman. `Abdu'l-Bahá’s first visit to Paris in September 1911 was hosted by Laura and her husband. They also traveled to London and acted as his interpreters. They were his “confidantes.” `Abdu'l-Bahá’s next visit to the west and the US took place in 1912. Laura was present again in New York. New Jersey and Washington, DC. Upon his return to London, both Laura and Hippolyte were present. Their last visit to Akka to visit `Abdu'l-Bahá was in 1921, the same year that he died.

Laura was active in social causes including world peace, women’s rights, education. She was a member of different committees with the League of Nations and latter UNESCO. During World War I, Laura Dreyfus-Barney served in the American Ambulance Corps (1914-15), and the American Red Cross (1916-18) in France, and helped to establish the first children’s hospital in Avignon (1918). The remainder of her life was devoted to international humanitarian and philanthropic activities, most connected with the League of Nations and the United Nations. For her services she was named chevalier (1925) and officer (1937) of the French Légion d’Honneur. There is a copy of her unpublished memoirs in the Bahai national archives in France.