Agnes Baldwin Alexander

Agnes Baldwin Alexander (1875–1971) was an American author and leader of the Bahá'í Faith.

Life

Agnes Baldwin Alexander was born July 21, 1875 in Honolulu when it was the Kingdom of Hawaii. Her father was educator William DeWitt Alexander (1833–1913) and mother was Abigail Charlotte Baldwin. Both sets of her grandparents were Christian missionary couples: Dwight Baldwin and Charlotte Fowler Baldwin, and William Patterson Alexander and Mary Ann McKinney Alexander.

She became a Bahá'í in 1900 while visiting Italy. In November 1914 she moved to Japan, at the request of `Abdu'l-Bahá, where she lived most of her life except during WWII and the last few years of her life when she retired to Hawaii. There she studied Esperanto also at his request, and became a member of the Universal Esperanto Association. The rest of her life, she used her ties to Esperanto to pierce language barriers and talk to others about the Bahá'í Faith.

She was appointed a Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi on March 27, 1957. She died January 1, 1971 in Hawaii.

Books

Alexander wrote one book on the history of the Bahá'í Faith in Japan and was covered in detail by a number of other books.

By Alexander

Alexander, Agnes Baldwin; editing and end notes by Barbara Sims (1977). History of the Bahá'í Faith in Japan 1914-1938. Osaka, Japan: Japan Bahá'í Publishing Trust. http://bahai-library.com/alexander_history_bahai_japan. 

Covering Alexander

• R. Sims, Barbara (1989). Traces That Remain: A Pictorial History of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Faith Among the Japanese. Osaka, Japan: Japan Bahá'í Publishing Trust. http://bahai-library.com/sims_traces_that_remain. 
• R. Sims, Barbara (1992). Japan Will Turn Ablaze! Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá, Letters of Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice, and Historical Notes About Japan (Revised Edition). Osaka, Japan: Japan Bahá'í Publishing Trust. http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/JWTA/. 
• R. Sims, Barbara (1994). Selected Communications from the Universal House of Justice Concerning the North East Asia Area Including Japan. Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo: Japan Bahá'í Publishing Trust. http://bahai-library.com/uhj_communications_north-east_asia. 
• R. Sims, Barbara (1998). Unfurling the Divine Flag in Tokyo: An Early Bahá'í History. Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo: Japan Bahá'í Publishing Trust. ISBN 4938975068. http://bahai-library.com/sims_raising_divine_flag. 

See also

• Bahá'í Faith in Japan

Family tree

William P. Alexander (1805–1884)

Mary Ann McKinney (1810–1888)

Amos Starr Cooke (1810–1871)

Juliette Montague (1812–1896)

Dwight Baldwin (1798–1886)

Charlotte Fowler (1805–1873)

J. W. Smith (1810–1887

David Dwight Baldwin (1831–1912)

W. O. Smith (1848–1929)

William D. Alexander (1833–1913)

Abigail Baldwin (1847–1912)

Samuel T. Alexander (1836–1904)

Martha Eliza Cooke

Ann Elizabeth Alexander (1843–1940)

Henry P. Baldwin (1842–1911)

Emily Whitney Alexander (1846–1943)

Agnes Alexander (1875–1971)

Annie Montague Alexander (1867–1950)

C.W. Dickey (1871–1942)

Belle Dickey (1880–1972)

James Dole (1877–1958)

Henry Alexander Baldwin (1871–1946)

Ethel Frances Smith (1879–1967)

J. Walter Cameron (1895–1976)

Francis Baldwin (1904–1996)

Colin C. Cameron (1927–1992) (Kapalua)