Last Photograph of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Taken in America

JULIET THOMPSON’S words on the departure of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá aboard the S.S. Celtic:

“It was death to leave that ship. I stood on the pier with May Maxwell, tears blurring my sight. Through them I could see the Master in the midst of the group of Persians waving a patient hand to us. It waved and waved, that beautiful patient hand, till the Figure was lost to sight.
…Because of those blurring tears I could not see the look on His face, the look of profound agony, as though He were on the cross, as He bade His immature children farewell, foreseeing for us so many sorrows, so many failures, and a world gone to pieces because of our failures.
This look I have seen ever since in a photograph taken at that last moment.”

—The Diary of Juliet Thompson, 393-395
The photograph was published on page 394 of Thompson’s diary.