Julia Lynch Olin
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Julia Lynch Olin (1882-1961) was an American author and Bahá'í who co-founded the New History Society in New York city, and was later expelled from the religion by Shoghi Effendi around 1939.
Her parents were Stephen Henry Olin (1847-) and Alice W Barlow (-1882).
Julie first married J Philip Benkard, of New York, a financier, sometime before 1911, and had two daughters: Phyllis and Elsie. About 1920, they divorced and she then married Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, the ex-Lieutenant Governor of New York and a former Democratic candidate for Governor.
Julie was first introduced to the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith about 1925, as she states in her auto-biography. Becoming intimately associated with Mirza Ahmad Sohrab they together with her second husband, started the New History Society. This Society, based in the home that Julie and Lewis owned in New York, (later called Caravan House), published several books, into the late 1950s. It apparently became defunct after Ahmad or perhaps after Julie had died.
In 1929, he and Julie formed an educational organization called Caravan of East and West with a quarterly magazine called The Caravan. This magazine is where Sohrab's partial autobiography first appeared, also in 1929.
The New History Society was addressed by several luminaries, including Albert Einstein in 1930:
- Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding
- :Albert Einstein in translation of speech to New History Society, December 14, 1930
In 1936, Julie translated the French version of Seven Valleys into English.
She was expelled from the Bahá'í community in 1939 along with Lewis and Sohrab after they refused to allow the Local Spiritual Assembly of New York oversight over the operations of the New History Society. They went on to support the efforts of Mírzá Muhammad `Alí, and at one point petitioned the President of Israel for Muhammad `Alí's property rights when he tried to assert his control over the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh.[link]
As part of it's mission, the New History Society, for many years sponsored an essay-contest. At least one of the winners of this, Jaja Wachuku, became famous in his own right, for his essay "How Can the People of the World Achieve Universal Disarmament?" written while at the New Africa University College.
Works
- [Living Pictures. In the Great Drama of the 19th Century]. (with Ahmad Sohrab) New York: The New History Society, 1933. Reprinted. H-Bahai: Lansing, Michigan, 2004. (this link includes her picture)
- Seven Valleys, by Bahá'u'lláh (trans. Julie Chanler), 1936
- Brand, & Sohrab [libretto Max Brand, and Julie Chandler; Music Max Brand]. The Gate: Scenic Oratorio for Soli, Chorus, and Orchestra in Two Parts (19 Scenes). 61. New York: Associated Music Publishers, 1944.
- Ioas, Chanler, & Sohrab. Three Letters. [11] leaves. New York: Caravan of East and West, 1954.
- From Gaslight to Dawn, New History Foundation, NY 1956
References
- Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. New York, NY: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911.
- [Summary of "From Gaslight to Dawn"] by Julie Chanler
- Living Pictures (see Works above)
External links
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