When I lived in Wilmette, I served on the Local Spiritual Assembly for a few years and also served as the Wilmette Archivist. This title was more of an honorary acknowledgement of my natural interest in old things and my organizing ability as the Wilmette community had to move its boxes and books to a storage unit when the Baha’i Home was turned into an office for the Baha’i National Center. I often regretted not taking more photos and spending more time with the papers in those files. I would love to have the time to completely digitize them and allow people to search through them.
One day I found a guestbook that had a few names on the first page that I recognized. As a child I heard stories about these individuals, and it looks like they came for a visit on the same day from opposite ends of the country. They were both serving as members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada at that time (it split into two different Assemblies in 1948), so I’m guessing they were in town for a National Spiritual Assembly meeting. It was really special to come across this and imagine them in town, attending some Baha’i gathering, and signing that guestbook.
January 11, 1943: Amelia E. Collins; Phoenix, AZ
January 11, 1943: Louis G. Gregory; Eliot, ME
