Bahai Story Library
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Compare versions: No Golden Trowel

The same event, told by different sources. The canonical version below is what we publish; the alternate accounts are preserved for scholarly comparison and for noticing where retellings differ.

Canonical version

No Golden Trowel

Secondary RetellingVarious · bahaistories.com archive

‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the cornerstone of the House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, on 1 May 1912. A temporary tent covered a spot of prairie overlooking Lake Michigan. People from different nationalities were on hand to ceremoniously turn over a bit of soil. Miss Irene Holmes of New York presented the Master with a golden trowel for the ground-breaking. He handed it back and asked instead for ordinary tools.

Star of the West reported at the time: “Restoring the precious emblem to its leather case, Abdul-Baha next called for the implements necessitated by the gravelly nature of the soil, and in response there was brought to Him first an axe and then a shovel. With these tools of the every-day life of the workers of the world Abdul-Baha and friends from every race present, excavated a resting place for a stone which had been brought to the spot as a loving contribution of material and labor by earnest Bahais from both east and west.”

He then laid the cornerstone.

Source: Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Annamarie Honnold), pp. 18–19; Star of the West, vol. 3, no. 4 (17 May 1912), p. 6.

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: corner-stone).

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Alternate account · 91% similar

‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the cornerstone of the House of Worship in Wilmette

Various · bahaistories.com archive

‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the cornerstone of the House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, on 1 May 1912. A temporary tent covered a spot of prairie overlooking Lake Michigan. People from different nationalities were on hand to ceremoniously turn over a bit of soil. An ordinary spade was used, but when the Master’s turn came He was handed a golden trowel. He handed it back and used instead the same spade as the others. He then laid the cornerstone.

Source: Honnold, Annamarie, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: humility).

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Why are alternate accounts kept? Different retellings of the same event often vary in emphasis, detail, and tone. Scholars and devotional readers can notice these differences and trace the trustworthiness of each retelling.