{{short description|Actress, poet and designer}} {{Infobox person | name = Beatrice Irwin | image = BeatriceIrwin1902betrothed.jpg | alt = A grainy black-and-white portrait of Beatrice Irwin, as she appeared in the newspaper announcement about her engagement | caption = | birth_name = Alice Beatrice Simpson | birth_date = {{Birth date|1877|07|16}} | birth_place = Dagshai | death_date = {{Death date and age|1953|03|20|1877|07|16}} | death_place = San Diego | other_names = | occupation = Actress, poet, designer and Baháʼí advocate | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }}
'''Beatrice Irwin''' (July 16, 1877, Dagshai, India - March 20, 1953, San Diego, California,) was an actress, poet, designer and promoter of the Baháʼí Faith. Born '''Alice Beatrice Simpson''', she took Beatrice Irwin as her stage name and later adopted it as her real name.
After her family moved to Scotland and then to England, she attended Cheltenham Ladies' College where she graduated 1895 and took the Associate in Arts test in which she placed 5th for that year. She went on through a series of careers starting with being an actor in stage theatre which took her to Cape Colony, as it was known then, touring America, briefly in the then young country of Australia, and performed in Shanghai. Next she published a book of poetry and some poems were published in different venues. Neither careers were very successful but some of her work was considered pioneering particularly when she blended them with an intentional use of colored illumination. She met, admired, and was encouraged by, the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Having had some contact with theosophists before 1910 she then also encountered a Sufi leader, Inayat Khan, and then head of the Baháʼí Faith, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, a religion she increasingly identified with. Her success with color led to a specialization and burgeoning career she named as an Illuminating Specialist including patenting a specific lighting fixture and writing a text ''The New Science of Colour'' partly relating to color psychology. After her Baháʼí pilgrimage in 1930 to see then head of the religion Shoghi Effendi, and his initiation of plans to implement the Tablets of the Divine Plan by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá for which she had already shown actions, she devoted much of her later years to promoting the religion in Central and then South America before going on to Mallorca in her last years before returning to San Diego where she died. While she was increasingly occupied with those endeavors, her work in color, particularly from the ''New Science of Colour'', was taken in with great interest by some Australian artists - Roy de Maistre and most particularly Grace Cossington Smith - though largely from a theosophist understanding.
==Biography==
===Early life=== Beatrice Irwin's maternal grandfather John Hall married Lucy Campbell Hackshaw in 1847.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson>{{cite web| title =Alice Isabel Simpson |first= Sally |last=Davis| url =http://www.wrightanddavis.co.uk/GD/SIMPSONALICEI.htm| website =The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn| date = 15 September 2014| access-date =Sep 24, 2019 }}</ref> Hall was in the British Army and was a freemason.<ref name="SiddaBio">{{cite book|author=Siddha Mohana Mitra|title=The Life and Letters of Sir John Hall ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3pBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA544 |year=1911|publisher=Longmans, Green and Company}}</ref>{{rp|p540-1}} Their youngest daughter Alice, was born 1852 in what was then called Bombay, India, and she grew up and married Anglican minister Rev. William Simpson, then serving in India, in 1873.<ref name="SiddaBio" />{{rp|544}} Simpson was born in Dublin perhaps 1829 and was thus over 20 years older than Alice. After several previous placements as a minister Simpson applied to serve in India in 1857.<ref>{{cite web| title =New annual army list, militia list, and Indian civil service list-1878| url =https://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/archive/120769965 | website = National Library of Scotland| date = 2018| access-date =Sep 26, 2019 }}</ref> Together they served in several locations ultimately in Dagshai, India, in the far north in the border range of mountains before the Himalaya where both daughters were born. This was during the British Raj amidst the period of the Great Famine of 1876–1878 which began in regions to the south and west and spread north. Their second daughter, Alice Beatrice Simpson, later known as Beatrice Irwin, was baptized in nearby Kasauli in August, 1877, born July 16.<ref>{{cite web| title = Alice Beatrice Simpson India Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FG4X-MRJ| website =FamilySearch.org| date = 27 Aug 1877| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{registration required}} * {{cite web| title =Alice Beatrice Simpson India Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGXN-VD4 | website =FamilySearch.org| date = 27 Aug 1877| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{registration required}}</ref> Around the time of her birth William was appointed to serve in Roorkee,<ref>{{cite book|title=The New Army List Militia List and Indian Civil Service List|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z_ENAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA5-PA362|year=1877|page=5|chapter= Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z_ENAAAAQAAJ|last1 = Hart|first1 = H. G.}}</ref><ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/> out of the foothills along the Himalayas and then in 1879 he retired though it is not clear where the family lived until they are known in Scotland in 1886 towards the end of the Victorian era with the birth of their last child Arthur John Simpson. In 1888 William came out of retirement to serve a church near Glasgow. In the winter holidays of 1891 they and Lucy Hall were all living in Glasgow.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/> About then Alice Beatrice met Ellen Terry who recommended she consider the theatre after finishing her schooling.<ref name="March1910Interview">{{cite news| title =A poet clubwoman, She| newspaper =The Sun| location =New York, New York| page =38| date =20 Mar 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315929/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_pictured/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019 }} * {{cite news| title = Is a poet club woman| newspaper =Omaha Daily Bee| location =Omaha, Nebraska| page =20| date =20 Mar 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316087/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019 }} * {{cite news| title =Is a poet club woman| newspaper =Omaha Daily Bee| location =Omaha, NE| page =21| date = Mar 20, 1910 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C202DC737BFA%40GB3NEWS-16646C332031F30B%402418751-16646CF4D448C6D0%4020-16646CF4D448C6D0%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019 }}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =A poet clubwoman, She | newspaper =Sun and New York Press| location =New York, NY| page =29| date = Mar 20, 1910 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C2420EAC1E92%40GB3NEWS-166FB28E793F21EF%402418751-166FB39667C16C20%4038-166FB39667C16C20%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019 }}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name=BioApr1910>{{cite news| title = Miss Terry's predictions guide for young actress| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =28| date =24 Apr 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316206/interview_of_soon_bahai_beatrice/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019 }}</ref> William Simpson may have died {{circa|1894}}.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/> The family then moved to London and the sisters finished their education at Cheltenham Ladies' College,<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/><ref name=March1910Interview/><ref name=Minibio>{{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News| location =London |volume= 59 |issue= 1,548| page = 387| date =May 16, 1903| url =https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001857/19030516/020/0011| access-date = Oct 3, 2019 }}{{subscription required}}</ref> and lived on investments trusts for the ladies who then bought a house together and all the family lived there.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/>
Mother Alice became a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn on 12 July 1895, and advanced a degree in 1899,<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/> followed by elder daughter Elaine in 1897 and Beatrice in 1899.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/> Mother Alice met Aleister Crowley after his initiation in 1898. The organization was about to splinter and Crowley's actions involved mother and daughter Elaine, sister to Beatrice, and various expulsions took place in 1900 following which daughter Elaine was to be wed but their communications continued between them.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Kaczynski|title=Perdurabo, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Life of Aleister Crowley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_A23t1hGFwUC&pg=PA583 |date=10 April 2012|publisher=North Atlantic Books|isbn=978-1-58394-576-6|pages=65, 178, 583}}</ref>
Meanwhile Beatrice had finished her education at Cheltenham<ref name=BioApr1910/><ref name=Minibio/> by passing the "Senior Local, or A.A. Examination" for Oxford University held at Cheltenham<ref name=CheltenhamMagazine>{{cite magazine| title =Examination list; University of Oxford; Senior Local, or A.A. Examination| magazine =The Cheltenham Ladies' College Magazine |number=32 |editor1=Dorothea Beale |editor2= Miss Hay| location = Cheltenham, UK| pages =357–8| publisher =Thomas Hailing, Oxford Press| date =<!--Autumn-->1895|oclc= 221502227 }}</ref> when she was about 18 years old, which granted her the official title of Associate in Arts from Oxford University, but which was not a degree directly based on attending it.<ref>{{cite web| url =https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/194960/Associate-in-Arts,-A-History.pdf | title =Associate in Arts: a history| date =2019 |orig-year=Nov 18, 2015| website =Frequently Asked Questions| publisher = Oxford University Archives, Bodleian Libraries| access-date =Oct 14, 2019}} * see also {{cite web| url =http://www.victorianweb.org/history/education/trehub/4.html | title =Women at the University of Oxford | author=Elaine D. Trehub The Victorian Web| date = 18 March 2013| website =Elaine D. Trehub The Victorian Web| access-date =Oct 14, 2019 }}</ref> In fact of those who took the exam by the fall of 1895 she placed 5th overall and 65th in English.<ref name=CheltenhamMagazine/> It remains unknown if she attended further work possibly with St. Hilda's College; Girton is also mentioned as thought of but not tried.<ref name=Minibio/> But for 1897 she is remarked to have chosen theatre over further college and picked up the stage name "Beatrice Irwin".<ref name=Minibio/> Perhaps as a beginning of her career Beatrice is visible with her stage name on a boat trip November 1897 from London to Canada.<ref>{{cite news| title = Per Dominion Line RMS "Labrador" from Liverpool Oct 28, for Quebec and Montreal | newspaper =Saloon, The Colonies and India| location =London, UK| page =28| date =6 Nov 1897| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307104/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_i/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She had definitely entered theatre productions in England and then went to what was then called Cape Colony, a decade or so before becoming the Union of South Africa, under the productions of Henry Irving and Ellen Terry in some comedies<ref name=Minibio/> and visible there as early as April, 1898,<ref>{{cite web| title =Your results for: "beatrice irwin" AND "south africa"| url =https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1894-01-01/1899-12-31?basicsearch=%22beatrice%20irwin%22%20and%20%22south%20africa%22&exactsearch=false&retrievecountrycounts=false&sortorder=dayearly | via =British Newspaper Archive| date = 1899| access-date =Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> on into November<ref>{{cite news| title =South African Stage | newspaper = The Stage| location =London, UK | page =17| date =Sep 29, 1898 |issue= 915 |oclc= 5589689 |issn=0038-9099 }} * {{cite news| title =South African Stage| newspaper =The Stage| location = London, UK| page =11| date =Nov 17, 1898 |issue= 922 |oclc= 5589689 |issn=0038-9099 }}</ref> with a good review in August in the play "The Importance of Being Earnest".<ref>{{cite news| title =Amusements in South Africa; Maritzburg, Natal| newspaper =The Era | location =London, uK| page =14| date = 6 August 1898| url =https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000053/18980806/042/0014| access-date =Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref>
===Theatre=== Irwin was returned to London by June 1899 in a theatre production.<ref>{{cite news| title =London Theatres| newspaper =The Stage| location =London, UK| pages =14–17| date = Jun 8, 1899 |issue= 951 |oclc= 5589689 |issn=0038-9099 }}</ref> In October she was in the Irving-Terry theatre company from London coming to New York, during the presidency of William McKinley, (before his re-election and subsequent assassination,) performing with a set of plays.<ref>{{cite news| title =Sir Henry Irving's Tour. Cities which he will visit in America--The members of his Company| newspaper =New York Tribune| location = New York, NY| page =9| date = Oct 10, 1899| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1284B46450E6EE32%40GB3NEWS-12EC2C6117288B08%402414938-12EA30A13858A6F0%408-13195D90724C320E%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Bram Stoker was the company manager. Most of the company and material came over on the steamer Marquette shipping with sets for the suite of plays while a few came on the RMS Etruria.<ref>{{cite news| title = Irving and Terry here| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =3| date =26 Oct 1899| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307127/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_theatre/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Irving is Robespierre| newspaper =The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =5| date =31 Oct 1899| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10312791/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> As the company productions moved to Washington, D.C., there were brief positive statements of Irwin's acting.<ref>{{cite news| title =After all this;…| newspaper =Washington Times| location =Washington, DC| page =4| date =26 Dec 1899| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10312820/positive_brief_review_of_beatrice_irwin/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry in "Robespierre"| newspaper = Times | location =Washington, DC | page =5| date =Dec 26, 1899 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16161378E3538DB5%40GB3NEWS-167BB751783558FA%402415015-167BB77D6CFAAAA7%404-167BB77D6CFAAAA7%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> The company continued performances touring into May, 1900.<ref>{{cite news| title = Irving in new play| newspaper =The Inter Ocean| location =Chicago, Illinois| page =5| date =13 Feb 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10312853/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Irving-Terry Plays| newspaper =Chicago Daily Tribune| location =Chicago, Illinois| page =8| date =2 Mar 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23322757/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Sir Henry and Miss Terry| newspaper = Kansas City Star| location =Kansas City, MO| page =4| date =Apr 17, 1900 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1126152C152E4978%40GB3NEWS-115B7FFB73DF9E08%402415127-115B7FFD96E4E6A0%403-115B800352F3B328%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title = Tuesday night …| newspaper =The Saint Paul Globe| location =Saint Paul, Minnesota| page =28| date =29 Apr 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10312933/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Entertainments| newspaper =Star Tribune| location =Minneapolis, Minnesota| page =8| date =5 May 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10312966/review_of_irvingterry_productions/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> While Irwin was touring America her sister and family moved to Hong Kong.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofElaineMarySimpson>{{cite web| title = Elaine Mary Simpson |author= Sally Davis| url =http://www.wrightanddavis.co.uk/GD/SIMPSONELAINEM.htm| website =The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn| date = 26 May 2017| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> By October in America the company had returned to London and Irwin was acting in another play, "Mrs Dane's Defence” in Wyndham's Theatre.<ref name="Wearing2013">{{cite book|author=J. P. Wearing|title=The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o5JWAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |date=5 December 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-9294-1|pages=31–2, 38, 90, 103–4}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title =Wyndham's Theatre (advert)| newspaper =The Observer| location =London, UK| page =4| date =7 Oct 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10312988/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_london/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite book| title = Mrs. Dane's Defense: A Play in Four Acts| publisher =The Macmillan company| location =New York, New York| page =9| date = 1905| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t7wm1tv9v;view=1up;seq=9 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Wyndham's theatre (advert)| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =6| date =22 Oct 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313066/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Reviews were somewhat mixed: "Good acting one expects to find at Mr. Wyndham's theatre; and finds. Saving the impossible Scotch accent of Miss Beatrice Irwin, which is less characteristic of Miss Janet Colquhoun's reputed race than her general air of sense and steadiness,…"<ref>{{cite news| title =The Week at the Play|author=B. Y.| newspaper =The Outlook |volume= 6 |number=141 | location =London, UK| pages =340–341| date =Oct 13, 1900 |issn=2043-5568 |oclc= 222000564 }}</ref> though her acting was again positively commented on as well.<ref>{{cite news| title =New play at Wyndham's theatre| newspaper =The Guardian| location =London, UK| page =10| date =11 Oct 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313020/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_positive/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =At the Play| newspaper =The Observer| location =London, UK| page =6| date =14 Oct 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313048/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_positive/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Irwin was also in another play "Still Waters Run Deep" in December.<ref name="Wearing2013" /> As the Victorian era ended with the death of Queen Victoria and the Edwardian era began, Irwin was in "Mrs. Dane's Defence" staged in London through May, 1901.<ref>{{cite news| title =Wyndham's Theatre| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =8| date =13 Nov 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313078/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Wyndham's theatre| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =8| date =6 Dec 1900| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307877/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_london/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Wyndham's theatre| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =6| date =9 Jan 1901| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313108/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Wyndham's theatre| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =24| date =12 Feb 1901| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313130/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Wyndham's theatre| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =6| date =15 Mar 1901| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313151/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Wyndham's theatre| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =8| date =17 Apr 1901| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313181/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Wyndham's theatre| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =8| date =6 May 1901| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313217/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Many of the Simpson family including Beatrice gathered for the winter of 1901 in London,<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/> The play was then staged in New York but Irwin did not perform.<ref>{{cite news| title ="Mrs. Dane's Defense"…| newspaper = Democrat and Chronicle| location =Rochester, New York| page =16| date =1 Dec 1901| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307957/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_london/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
[[File:BeatriceIrwinandJamesErskine.jpg|thumb|Selection of a photo including Beatrice Irwin in the Garrick Theatre in 1902 for "There's Many a Slip".]] In February, 1902, Irwin was in another London play "The New Clown” in London<ref name="Wearing2013" /> with positive comments of her acting,<ref>{{cite news| title ="The new clown" at Terry's theatre| newspaper =The Observer| location =London, UK| page =5| date =9 Feb 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313247/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_postive/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Terry's theatre, Strand| newspaper =The Observer| location =London, UK| page =4| date =9 Feb 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313256/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> though by March she was not in the play.<ref>{{cite news| title =Dramatic Gossip| newspaper =The Athenaeum |issn=1747-3594 |number= 3883| page =412| date =March 29, 1902 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=6eo4AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA412| access-date =Sep 29, 2019| last1 =Buckingham | first1 =James Silk | last2 =Sterling | first2 =John | last3 =Maurice | first3 =Frederick Denison | last4 =Stebbing | first4 =Henry | last5 =Dilke | first5 =Charles Wentworth | last6 =Hervey | first6 =Thomas Kibble | last7 =Dixon | first7 =William Hepworth | last8 =MacColl | first8 =Norman | last9 =Murry | first9 =John Middleton | last10 =Rendall | first10 =Vernon Horace }}</ref> She also returned to "Mrs. Dane's Defence" for performances.<ref name="Wearing2013" /> In July Irwin was noted in a forthcoming work "There's Many a Slip" to be produced by Charles Frohman coming from London to New York to start touring.<ref>{{cite news| title =Mr. Frohman returned…| newspaper =The St Louis Republic| location =St. Louis, Missouri| page =8| date =25 Jul 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313287/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_noted_in/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Hilda Spong and…| newspaper =Cleveland Leader| location =Cleveland, OH | page =4| date = Aug 18, 1902 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A125C1B91E57C8E0A%40GB3NEWS-12670D9954C1A6B3%402415980-125F8F5E41BFB688%403-125F8F5E41BFB688%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> The play had been staged in London - at the Haymarket Theatre - and there was a picture published of the play including Irwin in the Garrick Theatre.<ref>{{cite web| title =Byron Company (New York, N.Y.) Plays, "There's Many a Slip"| url =https://collections.mcny.org/CS.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWDBD45RK | website =Museum of the City of New York| date = 1902| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Irwin arrived in America on the SS Philadelphia (as it was called then) in late August.<ref>{{cite news| title =Prominent persons aboard Philadelphia| newspaper =Evening Times | location =Washington, DC| page =6| date =Aug 23, 1902 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1616125452AD402D%40GB3NEWS-167A224379F458E8%402415985-167A22716678B718%405-167A22716678B718%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Prominent persons aboard Philadelphia| newspaper =The Washington Times| location =Washington, DC| page =11| date =24 Aug 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313414/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_arrives_in/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Jessie Millward, Hilda Spring and Beatrice Irwin…| newspaper = The Star Press| location =Muncie, Indiana| page =10| date =31 Aug 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308385/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_among_move/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> The play continued to make news in September partly with notice of the debut of the Earl of Rosslyn as an actor<ref>{{cite news| title =Along Broadway| newspaper = The Evening World| location =New York, New York| page =5| date =13 Sep 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313435/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play_on/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =The theatres last night; The performance revealed two actors…| newspaper =The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =9| date =16 Sep 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313502/positive_review_of_later_bahai/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Another English play…| newspaper =The Saint Paul Globe| location =Saint Paul, Minnesota| page =4| date =16 Sep 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313520/positive_comment_on_role_of_beatrice/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Charles Forhman has put forward…| newspaper =The Decatur Herald | location =Decatur, Illinois| page =3| date =21 Sep 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307903/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Green room gossip about comedy, tragedy, opera and Vaudeville; Charles Frohman has…| newspaper =Sacramento Bee| location = Sacramento, CA| page =14| date =Sep 27, 1902| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A144FDEA786229ACC%40GB3NEWS-14E91511829E9C32%402416020-14E8649839A8192C%4013-14E8649839A8192C%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =There's many a slip| newspaper =The Atlanta Constitution| location =Atlanta, Georgia| page =9| date =28 Sep 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10314692/brief_positive_review_of_play_with/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title ="There's Many a Slip", a new play…| newspaper =Great Falls Tribune| location =Great Falls, Montana| page =15| date =4 Oct 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10314709/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_noted_from/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> with positive comment of Irwin's acting by Kate Carew and others.<ref>{{cite news| title =Actor Earl can act and can win hearts, too - Kate Carew |author=Kate Carew| newspaper =The Evening World| location =New York, New York| page =7| date =16 Sep 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313566/brief_positive_comments_on_roll_of/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = The New York Stage| newspaper =The Times-Democrat| location =New Orleans, Louisiana| page =30| date =21 Sep 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10313621/brief_positive_comments_of_role_of/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> And there were other plays of the troupe.<ref>{{cite book| title = Book-plates of today |editor= Wilbur Macey Stone| publisher = Tonnelé & company| date =1902| location = New York, NY| pages =77–8| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034553613;view=1up;seq=78}}</ref>
In mid-October came news of Irwin's engagement to James Francis Harry St Clair-Erskine, that Earl of Rosslyn. Early coverage of the betrothal noted Beatrice Irwin was her stage name and her father was the former Rev. William Simpson of Scotland.<ref>{{cite news| title =Actress wins Earl| newspaper =The Fort Wayne News| location =Fort Wayne, Indiana| page =7| date =16 Oct 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10314751/first_news_of_betrothal_of_later_bahai/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Rosslyn will wed for love| newspaper = Evening World | location = New York, NY| page =6| date =Oct 16, 1902| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C22E0C28168C%40GB3NEWS-1634518C15DF531F%402416039-1634519EE3E4299B%405-1634519EE3E4299B%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Rumors of another suitor who left the play at the time also circulated.<ref>{{cite news| title =Rosslyn's rival quits the cast| newspaper =Evening World | location =New York, NY | page =7| date = Oct 17, 1902 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C22E0C28168C%40GB3NEWS-163451CF45F53372%402416040-163451E7EC47B853%406-163451E7EC47B853%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> thumb|left|Selection of photo published in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' Oct 19, 1902 of Beatrice Irwin News of the betrothal was widespread,<ref>{{cite news| title =Rosslyn to wed| newspaper =Arkansas Democrat| location =Little Rock, Arkansas| page =7| date =17 Oct 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307453/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_involved/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Beatrice Irwin may be a countess| newspaper =Wilkes-Barre Weekly Times| location =Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania| page =3M| date =18 Oct 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307664/echo_of_involvement_of_later_bahai/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Lord Rosslyn will soon be married| newspaper = The Philadelphia Inquirer| location =Philadelphia, Pennsylvania| page =30| date =19 Oct 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307774/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_pictured/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Mainly about people; The engagement of Lord Rosslyn…| newspaper =The Daily News| location =Perth, WA| page =1| date =14 Nov 1902| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/81320843 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Untitled; The engagement of…| newspaper =Manawatu Standard| location =Pohangina, New Zealand| page =2| date =5 December 1902 | url =https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19021205.2.9 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and a reception was held.<ref>{{cite news| title =Mr. and Mrs. Weedon Grossmith…| newspaper =The Wilkes-Barre Record| location =Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania| page =8| date =1 Nov 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10314971/reception_for_betrothal_of_later_bahai/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Another play of the time was "His excellency the Governor”.<ref>{{cite news| title =His excellency the Governor| newspaper =The Evening World| location =New York, New York| page =5| date =21 Oct 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10314908/review_of_play_inc_later_bahai/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title ="His Excellency the Governor" Revived| newspaper =The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =9| date =21 Oct 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10314882/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_comedy/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Monday night's other revival| newspaper =Brooklyn Life| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =34| date =25 Oct 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10314937/play_with_later_bahai_beatrice_irwin/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> The troupe continued their tour though by November the Earl had left,<ref>{{cite news| title = The present cast is rather stronger…| newspaper =Democrat and Chronicle| location =Rochester, New York| page =16| date =9 Nov 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307500/review_of_later_bahai_beatrice_irwin/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> while praise for the play and positive comment of Irwin continued.<ref>{{cite news| title =There's many a slip| newspaper = Wilkes-Barre Times Leader - the Evening News| location =Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania| page =2| date =12 Nov 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307711/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_mentioned/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = The attraction having already won the approval…| newspaper = The Wilkes-Barre News| location =Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania| page =5| date =15 Nov 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315043/positive_comment_on_role_of_later/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Next week - Matinees Thursday…| newspaper = Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page =16| date =18 Nov 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315074/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =New National… Tonight…| newspaper =Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page =16| date =26 Nov 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308018/advert_for_play_with_later_bahai/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> There is occasional mention of her as Beatrice Simpson.<ref>{{cite news| title =Plays and players| newspaper =The Daily Journal| location =New Bern, North Carolina| page =4| date =18 Nov 1902| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315055/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_simpson/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> In December the Earl took a trip on the Etruria from Liverpool back to New York at which time he was looking for another play to be in and said the betrothal was not firm.<ref>{{cite news| title =Swindle Earl at Cards| newspaper = New-York Daily Tribune| location = New York, NY| page =3| date = Dec 22, 1902| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C23A44B27396%40GB3NEWS-166B863A1C3A80FE%402416106-166B864314463D68%402-166B864314463D68%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Meanwhile Beatrice's sister Elaine and her family moved to Shanghai during the year.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofElaineMarySimpson/>
In January 1903 Irwin and company returned to New York with the next play - "The Unforeseen” - as part of the Empire Theatre Company,<ref>{{cite news| title =The Unforeseen| newspaper =The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =34| date =11 Jan 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315105/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_of_empire/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =The Unforeseen| newspaper =Chicago Daily Tribune| location =Chicago, Illinois| page =5| date =14 Jan 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23322490/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_empire/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title ="The Unforeseen" produced| newspaper =The Sun| location =New York, NY| page =6| date =January 14, 1903| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C2420EAC1E92%40GB3NEWS-166F114102DB52E1%402416129-166F1198BB94D30A%406-166F1198BB94D30A%40| access-date =Oct 7, 2019 }}{{subscription required}}</ref> which again Kate Carew liked but was not overly impressed by, though it got a standing ovation,<ref>{{cite news| title =Empire company in clever play |author= Kate Carew| newspaper = Evening World | location =New York, NY| page =10| date =Jan 14, 1903 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C22E0C28168C%40GB3NEWS-163453FC2EC92D10%402416129-1634541AF725E0CE%409-1634541AF725E0CE%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> while the company continued touring widely.<ref>{{cite news| title = In many things playwrights…| newspaper =The Times-Democrat| location =New Orleans, Louisiana| page =24| date =18 Jan 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308270/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Fashionable frocks on view in "The Unforeseen"| newspaper =Star Tribune| location =Minneapolis, Minnesota| page =12| date =18 Feb 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315233/review_of_dresses_inc_mention_later/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> But news comes in mid-February Irwin resigned from the company and joined a company established by her beau, sometimes it is even said husband, and the first play is "The Young Miss Pettifer”.<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Sandol Millikin| newspaper = Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page =25| date =14 Feb 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315188/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_left_empire/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Sandol Milliken| newspaper =The Tennessean| location =Nashville, Tennessee| page =13| date =22 Feb 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308048/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_was_in_a/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =The Earl of Rosslyn…| newspaper = Democrat and Chronicle| location =Rochester, New York| page =17| date =22 Feb 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308146/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Lord Rosslyn and Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page =25| date =7 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315259/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =When the Earl of Rosslyn…| newspaper = Pittsburgh Daily Post| location =Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania| page =29| date =15 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308221/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_acting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Lord Rosslyn has just…| newspaper =The Observer| location =London, UK| page =6| date =22 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315356/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_of_american/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> The company made it into Canada and again Irwin was pictured in the newspaper.<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin (photo)| newspaper =The Ottawa Journal| location =Ottawa, Ontario, Canada| page =16| date =21 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315338/photo_of_later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Some newspapers were still taking note of the stage name and family.<ref>{{cite news| title = Before the footlights; The Earl of Rosslyn| newspaper =The Pokeepsie Evening Enterprise| location = Poughkeepsie, NY| page =3| date = March 2, 1903| url =http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn90066261/1903-03-02/ed-1/seq-3.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> However by mid-March she has declined the betrothal. She immediately left the company and sailed to England/Europe actually leaving just after mid-March,<ref>{{cite news| title = Lord Rosslyn's tour closed| newspaper =The Pokeepsie evening enterprise| location =Poughkeepsie, NY| page =3| date = March 21, 1903| url =http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn90066261/1903-03-21/ed-1/seq-3.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Love-lorn Earl stays behind| newspaper =The Evening World| location =New York, New York| page =3| date =25 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307443/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_involved/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> though he soon followed,<ref>{{cite news| title = A "Frost" for Lord Rosslyn| newspaper =The Pokeepsie evening enterprise| location =Poughkeepsie, NY| page =5| date =March 25, 1903| url =http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn90066261/1903-03-25/ed-1/seq-5.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Rosslyn's engagement broken| newspaper =The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =2| date =26 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315408/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_left_for/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Engagement is off| newspaper = Democrat and Chronicle| location =Rochester, New York| page =1| date =26 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315385/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_left_for/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =The Earl of Rosslyn has "went"| newspaper =The Indianapolis News| location =Indianapolis, Indiana| page =9| date =28 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315484/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_left_and/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Earl of Roslyn sails for England| newspaper =The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =11| date =29 Mar 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308469/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_involvement/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> while word of the engagement was still spreading west.<ref>{{cite news| title =American actress to wed an English Earl| newspaper =The Spokane Press| location =Spokane, Washington| page =2| date =16 Apr 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307530/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_involved/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Countess weds| newspaper =The Pokeepsie Evening Enterprise| location =Poughkeepsie, NY| page =6| date = August 13, 1903| url =http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn90066261/1903-08-13/ed-1/seq-6.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Lord Rosslyn's new role| newspaper =Examiner| location =Launceston, Tasmania| page =3| date =7 Apr 1903| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/35541225 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Items of social news; Possibly…| newspaper =New Zealand Herald| location = Auckland, NZ| page =13| date = 7 March 1903| url =https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19030307.2.87.59| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Come August Irwin returned from Europe now in another play “The Admirable Crichton”.<ref>{{cite news| title =Beatrice Irwin| newspaper =The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =5| date =25 Aug 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315531/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_to_return/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette| location =Fort Wayne, Indiana| page =18| date =30 Aug 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308407/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_back_from/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> There was a break and then the return of Irwin in mid-October,<ref>{{cite news| title = Arrivals by the American liner…| newspaper =The Sun | location = New York, New York| page =7| date = 11 Oct 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36490186/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_arrives/| access-date = Sep 29, 2019 }}</ref> and production of the play resumed.<ref>{{cite news| title =Admirable Crichton| newspaper =Chicago Daily Tribune| location =Chicago, Illinois| page =13| date =7 Nov 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23322444/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Everything is admirable…| newspaper =Brooklyn Life | location =Brooklyn, New York| page =46| date =21 Nov 1903| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315602/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =A Free-Hand Talk About the Stage and Stage Folk| newspaper =Boston Journal| location =Boston, Massachusetts| page =12| date =November 29, 1903| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A11CE74B6F9A6E5CC%40GB3NEWS-11F01F59443C4638%402416448-11F01F5A9FAA79D0%4035-11F01F5E2DA11F30| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> But she fainted twice in productions at the end of 1903 and early 1904,<ref>{{cite news| title = Beatrice Irwin faints again| newspaper =New York Herald| location =New York, NY| page =14| date =Jan 3, 1904| url =https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201904/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201904%20-%200059.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and resigned from the performance in February.<ref>{{cite news| title = Marie Doro…| newspaper = Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page =25| date =13 Feb 1904| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315619/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_was/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> In March and April 1905 that Earl announced being wedded to someone else.<ref>{{cite news| title = Earl of Rossyln weds actress| newspaper = Boston Herald| location =Boston, Massachusetts| page =7| date =March 22, 1905| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1386BF60B4F67060%40GB3NEWS-13A3CA5285621361%402416927-13A38A6A3A16B693%406-13A38A6A3A16B693%40| access-date = Sep 29, 2019 }}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title = Rosslyn was then…| newspaper =The Washington Times| location =Washington, DC| page =33| date =2 Apr 1905| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308488/later_bahai_beatrice_irwins/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
Where Irwin was from spring 1904 to spring 1906 is as yet unstated. In later April 1906 Irwin was briefly mentioned seeking information on an Irvine family history from a home in eastern London.<ref>{{cite book|title=Notes and Queries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aGYEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA328 | date=April 28, 1906|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=328 |volume= s10-V|issue=122 |doi=10.1093/nq/s10-V.122.328k}}</ref> In June she is noted in the cast of a jubilee performance for Ellen Terry in London.<ref>{{cite book| title =Souvenir Programme…| publisher=J. Miles & Co | location =Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London| date =June 12, 1906| page = 26 <!-- of the scan -->| url = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t1dj5d99j&view=1up&seq=21 }}</ref> Again a year passes without detail - until her grandmother Lucy died.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/> News comes that July 1907 of Irwin joining a theatre troupe to perform in the young nation of Australia in the play "Brewster's Millions",<ref>{{cite news| title =The Drama; Mr. J. C. Williamson's Plans| newspaper = The Daily Telegraph| location =Sydney, Australia| page =9| date =20 Jul 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/238081358 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Upon his arrival in London…| newspaper =The Sydney Morning Herald| location =Sydney, New South Wales, Australia| page =4| date =20 Jul 1907| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315668/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_joining/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Footlight flashes| newspaper = Evening Star| location = Otago, NZ| page =5| date = 27 July 1907 | url =https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19070727.2.38 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and the first performance does take place in mid-September in Sydney.<ref>{{cite news| title = At the Princess' theatre| newspaper =The Sydney Morning Herald| location =Sydney, New South Wales, Australia| page =4| date =14 Sep 1907| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315706/approaching_opening_of_later_bahai/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =In Melbourne…| newspaper =The Sydney Morning Herald| location =Sydney, New South Wales, Australia| page =4| date =21 Sep 1907| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315722/briefly_opening_of_play_with_later/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She may well have traveled with her mother.<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|p198-9}} Irwin went on to Melbourne having given some interviews and giving more. It was said from one that this was her first time in Australia, arriving on the RMS Victoria, was fluent in German and French and learning Italian, had some knowledge of Latin and enjoyed horse-riding.<ref>{{cite news| title = Miss Beatrice Irwin at Fremantle| newspaper = The West Australian| location =Perth, WA| page =9| date = 4 Sep 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/25712013| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She also mentioned being in Paris the previous Christmas (thus late 1906.) About then she also says she has some knowledge of French, German, Chinese and Japanese theatre, (during some trip home to Britain from America via Asia at some point, perhaps in 1904-6) - of which she preferred French first, but also noted the Japanese style favorably.<ref>{{cite news| title = On and Off the Stage; Miss Beatrice Irwin much prefers the French…| newspaper =Table Talk| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =21| date = 19 Sep 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145913754/17403102| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Indeed she actually later claimed to have done a performance in Shanghai,<ref name=BioApr1910/> where her sister also lived at the time,<ref name=SallyDavisBioofElaineMarySimpson/> during the late Qing dynasty. She also said she preferred plays that were more 'costume and character' though she longed to sing in a Gilbert and Sullivan style comedy, and that she loathed pantomime.<ref>{{cite news| title = Miss Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = The Argus| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =5| date =11 Sep 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10153222| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> thumb|Beatrice Irwin while on tour in Australia, 1907 She had kin in Sydney,<ref>{{cite news| title =Personal| newspaper =The Evening Telegraph| location =Charters Towers, Qld.| page =2| date =16 Sep 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/214923500 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Society; Miss Beatrice Irwin…| newspaper = Punch| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =21| date =13 Feb 1908| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/176013948 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and her picture was published.<ref>{{cite news| title =Literature; An Indian Statesman| newspaper = Leader| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =23| date = 21 Sep 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/198098442/21516577 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Her first performance in Melbourne was positively reviewed,<ref>{{cite news| title =Shows in Melbourne| newspaper = Critic| location =Adelaide, SA| page =18| date =18 Sep 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/211418952 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> but by early October there rumors of problems,<ref>{{cite news| title =On and Off the Stage| newspaper =Table Talk| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =22| date = 10 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145914058| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> limited roles even if she was judged successful by some and not by others or just publishing her picture.<ref>{{cite news| title = Brigadier Gerard| newspaper = The Herald| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =4| date =14 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/243287544| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = Punch| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =19| date =17 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175798105 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Entertainments| newspaper =The Australasian| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =28| date =19 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/139279559 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Caufield Cup| newspaper =Punch | location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =32| date =24 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175798194 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> By the end of October it is clear she is ill, by one report a nervous breakdown, or also described as fainting on stage during a performance,<ref>{{cite news| title = On and Off the Stage| newspaper =Table Talk| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =24 | date =31 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145914407/17403315| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> sought medical advice,<ref>{{cite news| title =Fact and Rumour| newspaper = Punch| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =24| date =31 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175798458| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and returned to England in November.<ref>{{cite news| title =Princess Theatre| newspaper =Table Talk| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =22| date =24 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145914316 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =On and Off the Stage| newspaper =Table Talk| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =24| date = 31 Oct 1907| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145914407| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin,…| newspaper =The Sydney Morning Herald| location =Sydney, New South Wales, Australia| page =6| date =31 Oct 1907| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308449/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_ill_in/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Music and drama| newspaper =The Sydney Morning Herald| location =Sydney, New South Wales, Australia| page =4| date =23 Nov 1907| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307923/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_didnt_do/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Another actress from the same company lasted only a little longer.<ref>{{cite news| title =Society; Miss Beatrice Irwin…| newspaper =Punch| location =Melbourne, Vic.| page =21| date =13 Feb 1908| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/176013948 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> There is nothing visible of Irwin in 1908 as yet identified and in 1909 the only mention yet found is on a list of professional and stage names.<ref>{{cite news| title =Professional and real names of stage people| newspaper =The Pokeepsie Evening Enterprise| location = Poughkeepsie, NY| page =3| date =March 6, 1909| url =http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn90066261/1909-03-06/ed-1/seq-3.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Stage and real names of actresses and actors| newspaper =The Pokeepsie Evening Enterprise| location =Poughkeepsie, NY| page =3| date = March 20, 1909| url =http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn90066261/1909-03-20/ed-1/seq-3.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> It may be during this time that Charles Webster Leadbeater had an influence on Irwin's future work through his and Annie Besant's 1901 ''Thought-Forms'', reprinted in 1905, that has a chapter "The Meaning of Colours" and several colored paintings and attributed meanings.<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|p198,201}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production|editor1=Carole M. Cusa|editor2=Alex Norman|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5QEyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA146 |chapter=Agency of the object: Leadbeater & the Pectoral Cross |author=Jenny McFarlane|date=28 March 2012 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-22648-7 |pages=146–7}}</ref>
=== Poetry and theatre === In March, 1910, Irwin makes her first known appearance publishing a poem in America:<ref>{{cite magazine| author= Beatrice Irwin| title = Sympathy| magazine = Smart Set - a magazine of cleverness |volume= 30 |number=3| location =New York, NY| page =40| publisher =Ess Ess Publishers | oclc= 960073951| date =March 1, 1910| url =https://library.brown.edu/cds/repository2/repoman.php?verb=render&id=1236638113921875&view=pageturner&pageno=46| access-date = Sep 29, 2019}}</ref><blockquote><poem>Out into the world of men Let me go; Love and pity dwell not there - That I know. What wouldst find, then, in the world - Renown? To its heartbeat Iʼd tune Mine own</poem></blockquote> Irwin is again listed in a review of stage names in March in America.<ref>{{cite news| title = Real names of some of the most prominent actors and actresses in America| newspaper = The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =64| date =13 Mar 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10315759/later_bahai_beatrice_irwin_is_beatrice/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Her first poem is soon echoed.<ref>{{cite news| title =Short Flights |author= R. W. Thompson| newspaper = Freeman| location =Indianapolis, Indiana| page =2| date = April 16, 1910| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A12B28495A8DAB1C8%40GB3NEWS-12C4FA6955223F70%402418778-12C4FA6980011170%401-12C4FA6A71141258%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref>
This new publicity starts noting her activity when a London literary club elected her an honorary member and hoping to expand its presence in the US.<ref name="March1910Interview" /> She mentions she is preparing a book of poems of her own. Though clearly starting a literary career by April it is also clear she was also in a new play in New York.<ref>{{cite news| title =To try play on Brooklyn| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =5| date =11 Apr 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316116/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_up_coming/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title = Next week - Her Son| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =22| date =17 Apr 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316137/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_a_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title =Thursday night| newspaper =Trenton Evening Times| location = Trenton, NJ| page =25| date = Apr 17, 1910| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1236872C1F6A0AE3%40GB3NEWS-123BDCBCE4DDF530%402418779-123B88A79F570688%4024-1254C9B1E3AC367D%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{Cite news| title = Her Son| newspaper =Trenton Evening Times| location =Trenton, NJ| page =4| date = Apr 21, 1910| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1236872C1F6A0AE3%40GB3NEWS-123AF3EA04747120%402418783-12374BD3C64967D0%403-13ECED084FB8A5EB%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{Cite news| title ="Her Son" here tonight| newspaper = The Courier-News| location =Bridgewater, New Jersey| page =11| date =Apr 22, 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308167/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title ="Her Son" is a "play of to-day"…| newspaper = The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =30| date =Apr 24, 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307573/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title =A stage record which…| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =19| date =Apr 25, 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307792/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_new_play/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title =Beatrice Irwin (picture)| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =19| date =Apr 25, 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307782/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_picture/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She was again interviewed, this time noting her education and recalled meeting Terry.<ref name="BioApr1910" /> She speaks of having a volume of poems and seeking a publisher, "but few of them have seen the poems, for Miss Irwin is a trifle timid about her new venture."<ref>{{cite news| title = Miss Terry's predictions guide for young actress| newspaper = The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location = Brooklyn, New York| page =28| date =24 Apr 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316206/interview_of_soon_bahai_beatrice/| access-date =Sep 29, 2019 }}</ref> She is noted favorably in a production in the Ben Greet Players at the Garden Theatre from April,<ref>{{cite magazine| title =The Morals of the Drama Ladies|author=George Jean Nathan| magazine =Smart Set |volume= 31 |number= 1| location =New York, NY| page =152| date =May 1, 1910| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=GXlHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA152| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> while a poem appeared in print in May.<ref>{{cite news| author = Beatrice Irwin| title = Youth| newspaper = The Scrap Book| volume = 9| number = 5| location = NY and London| page = 735| date = May 1910| url = http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t6430.htm#A159710| access-date = Oct 7, 2019| archive-date = May 26, 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190526093932/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t6430.htm#A159710| url-status = dead}}</ref> After a break over the summer Irwin returns to the newspapers in September with a poem<ref>{{cite news| author = Beatrice Irwin| title = Alchemy| newspaper = The Scrap Book| volume = 10| number = 3| location = New York and London| page = 552| date = September 1910| url = http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t6431.htm#A159714| access-date = Oct 7, 2019| archive-date = June 7, 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190607093750/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t6431.htm#A159714| url-status = dead}}</ref> and then in November with mention she will be in the play “The Scarecrow” back in DC in December.<ref>{{cite news| title = Beatrice Irwin…| newspaper = The Washington Herald| location =Washington, DC| page =12| date =16 Nov 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316253/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_named_for/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title =Henry B. Harris…| newspaper = The Gazette Times| location =Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania| at =Sec. 6, p. 2| date =20 Nov 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316303/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>thumb|Beatrice Irwin in her "Color Poem" published in newspapers in later 1910.
However, the same week that news is announced, she has a one-woman performance in New York with the quality of color illumination featured as a key part of the performance appearing in perhaps 21 costumes of women from around the world.<ref>{{cite news| title =Hudson Thea… Beatrice Irwin's Color-Poem afternoon…| newspaper = The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =18| date =17 Nov 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316281/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwins/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title ="Color poems" at the Hudson| newspaper =New-York Daily Tribune| location =New York, NY| page =8| date =Nov 19, 1910| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C23A44B27396%40GB3NEWS-166CF6AEB16CD6F4%402418995-166CF6F0D3B83FF2%407-166CF6F0D3B83FF2%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> The most widespread review included a black and white picture and lurid commentary.<ref>{{cite news| title =Finds fame in skimpy skirts| newspaper =The Pittsburgh Press| location =Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania| page =1| date =26 Nov 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307557/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_color/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title =Skimpy skirts bring fame| newspaper =Kentucky Post| location =Covington, KY| page =8| date = Nov 30, 1910| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A147EF59901F561CF%40GB3NEWS-1682EB7356953F65%402419006-168074D141ECCB46%407-168074D141ECCB46%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{Cite news| title = Finds fame in skimp skirts| newspaper =Evansville Press| location =Evansville, Indiana| page =3| date =3 Dec 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316496/echo_of_poor_review_of_onewoman/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> However Richard Le Gallienne wrote a favorable defense of her performance piece in a letter to the editor of the ''New York Times''. He also revealed he has reviewed Irwin's forthcoming book of poetry.<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Irwins's "Color Poems" |author= Richard Le Gaillenne| newspaper = The New York Times| location =New York, NY| page =8| date =26 Nov 1910| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316343/review_of_soon_bahai_beatrice_irwins/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{Cite news| title =in the play The Scarecrow: "Coming attractions"| newspaper =Boston Herald| location =Boston, Massachusetts| page =23| date =December 25, 1910| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034805963;view=1up;seq=862| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
===Baháʼí Faith=== Timed with Irwin's coming visibility her mother Alice requested the book ''The Life and Letters of Sir John Hall '' be published.<ref name=SiddaBio/>{{rp|p544}} In January 1911 Irwin was visible still touring with the play troupe in America.<ref>{{cite news| title =Edmund Breese in The Scarecrow| newspaper =Boston Herald | location = Boston, MA| page =23| date = Jan 1, 1911| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1386BF60B4F67060%40GB3NEWS-143DC5C15FD61228%402419038-143DC12D91BD5F01%4022-143DC12D91BD5F01%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =The production of…| newspaper =Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page =16| date = Jan 1, 1911 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A13D5DA85AE05A305%40GB3NEWS-162696948CCCF1B1%402419038-16269704149FAFA2%4015-16269704149FAFA2%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Witch and devil in Tremont play| newspaper =Boston Herald| location =Boston, MA | page =5| date =Jan 3, 1911 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1386BF60B4F67060%40GB3NEWS-143DC5C88D4685D6%402419040-143DC15F4FCBDC10%404-143DC15F4FCBDC10%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Henry B Harris will…| newspaper =Baltimore American | location =Baltimore, MD| page =8| date =Jan 5, 1911 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A11DF9354DC3283FB%40GB3NEWS-11E63BBBE0D424F0%402419042-11E3F59B43E36450%407-1231D68E529E6FCF| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> She performed into later January,<ref>{{cite news| title =Morning show in the Plaza| newspaper = New York Press| location =New York, NY| page =6| date = Jan 21, 1911| url =https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2018/New%20York%20NY%20Press/New%20York%20NY%20Press%201911/New%20York%20NY%20Press%201911%20-%200300.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> but a few days before February she resigns from the London performance of "The Scarecrow” for reason of illness.<ref>{{cite news| title =Fola la Follette…| newspaper =Evening Post| location = Charleston, SC | page =7| date = Jan 26, 1911| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A13E3762B9393175B%40GB3NEWS-13E90CAAEF666714%402419063-13E902D576E4D697%406-13E902D576E4D697| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title = Fola La Follette…| newspaper = Omaha Daily Bee | location =Omaha, Nebraska| page =2| date =27 Jan 1911| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316553/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_resigns_from/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Flo LaFollette…| newspaper =Sacramento Bee | location =Sacramento, CA| page =25| date =Jan 28, 1911 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A144FDEA786229ACC%40GB3NEWS-14F1585236199C4F%402419065-14F157BC5F969102%4024-14F157BC5F969102%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref>
Mention of her poetry surfaces again in May,<ref>{{cite news| title =Two men with sharp and naughty pens…| newspaper =The Times-Democrat| location =New Orleans, Louisiana| page =36| date =7 May 1911| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316617/soon_bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_poet/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite book|editor1=George Jean Nathan|editor2=Henry Louis Mencken|title=The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3pHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA48 |date=May 1911|publisher=Ess Ess Publishing Company|page=48}}</ref> and October.<ref>{{cite magazine| title =The Aeroplane| author =Beatrice Irwin| magazine =The Pall Mall magazine| issn =2043-4944| page =559| date =October 1911| volume =48| issue =222| url =http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t5241.htm#A133945| access-date =Oct 7, 2019| archive-date =June 5, 2019| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20190605051752/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t5241.htm#A133945| url-status =dead}}</ref> Amidst this period, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then head of the Baháʼí Faith was known in his first journeys to the West and already in communication with theosophical circles while in Britain.<ref name=theosophyconnections>{{cite web| url =https://bahai-library.com/tags/Theosophical%20Society | title =Search for tag "Theosophical Society"| date =2019| website =bahai-library.com| access-date = Sep 28, 2019}}</ref>
How she became connected with the Baháʼís is unclear. She writes of her second interview with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá:<ref name=IrwinFirst>{{cite magazine| author=Beatrice Irwin| title = The Bahai(sic) Movement| magazine =The Occult Review |editor=Ralph Shirley | location =London, UK| pages =280–286| date = Nov 1913 |volume=18 |number=5| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v18_n5_nov_1913.pdf| access-date =Sep 23, 2019}}</ref><blockquote>On this occasion I asked for Abdul-Baha's opinions upon psychic development, which (ed - within her understanding then,) is so essential a feature of Hindu and Sufi philosophies. His reply was guarded, but on the whole he was not in favour of mystic experiments, as he pointed out that, in order to be valuable, such experiments must be profound, and that the practical conditions of life in the West did not usually afford the time and patience necessary to such researches. Again, it was the practical note that dominated the discourse of this Eastern seer, for he insisted that, at the present juncture, general spiritual development was more needed than individual psychic culture, and that those who could grasp and spread the Bahai teachings would be paving the way to conditions whose outcome will be the universal psychic unfoldment towards which humanity is trending.</blockquote>
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was in Paris August to December, 1911.<ref name=BalyuziBio>{{citation |last = Balyuzi |first = H. M. |author-link = Hasan M. Balyuzi |year = 2001 |title = ʻAbdu'l-Bahá: The Centre of the Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh |edition = Paperback |publisher = George Ronald |place = Oxford, UK |isbn = 0-85398-043-8 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/abdulbahacentreo0000baly/page/159 159–397, 373–379] |url = https://archive.org/details/abdulbahacentreo0000baly/page/159 }}</ref> By December she is credited with being in audience of presentations of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Paris.<ref name=BWBio>{{cite book| author= Marion (Holley) Hofman | author-link =Marion Holley | title = Baháʼí World |volume=13 |chapter=Beatrice Irwin (1877-1956) | publisher =Universal House of Justice | date =1980 |orig-year=1970 |edition=reprint | location =Binghamton, NY | pages =882–4 | chapter-url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Volume13.pdf&page=923 | oclc = 933759422 |isbn= 9780853980995 }}</ref> She was described by early Baháʼí Laura Clifford Barney saying: "Beatrice Irwin, a blond, young intellectual, had come to Paris to study her profession…. She had an unusual gift for color and for the use of light and shadow…. To her, beauty was an expression of spirituality. When ʻAbdu'l-Baha came to stay in Paris he held small gatherings…. Beatrice Irwin was often present."<ref name=BWBio/> Many years later Irwin recalled how she spent six months with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Paris,<ref name=Pilgrimage/> "privileged to meet Him daily. .. and to marvel at the universality of His knowledge... and the breadth and depth of His sympathy with the realities of existence."<ref name=BWBio/> Irwin is called a Baháʼí by Robert Stockman by 1912<ref>{{Cite book |last = Stockman |first = Robert |author-link=Robert Stockman |title = Early Expansion, 1900–1912 |volume=2 |series= The Baha'i Faith in America |publisher = George Ronald |place = Wilmette, Ill. |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Xo_uAAAACAAJ |isbn = 978-0-87743-282-1 |page =156|date = May 1995 }}</ref> and others.<ref>{{cite book| author=Jan Teofil Jasion | title =Abdu'l-Baha in the West - a biographical guide of the people associated with his travels | publisher = Librairie Baha'ié | date =2012 | location =Paris| page =216 | oclc = 849607591 | isbn = 9782912155276 }}</ref><ref name=BWBio/>
====Writing==== In January, 1912, Irwin published her book of poetry as ''Pagan Trinity''<ref name="Irwin1912">{{cite book|author=Beatrice Irwin|title=The Pagan Trinity|url=https://archive.org/details/pagantrinity00irwigoog |year=1912|publisher=John Lane the Bodley Head|location= London, UK}}</ref> and it was advertised in Britain.<ref>{{cite magazine| title =Four new stars; A new poet of passion| magazine =The Athenæum| location =London, UK| page =25| date =Jan 6, 1912| url =https://archive.org/details/p1athenaeum1912lond/page/24| access-date = Oct 3, 2019 }} * {{cite news | title =Unindexed Back Matter| newspaper = Nation| location =London, UK |volume= 10 |number=14| page =606| date =Jan 6, 1912}} * {{cite news | title =New and Forthcoming Books| newspaper = The Academy and Literature |number=2073| page =120| date =January 27, 1912| url =https://archive.org/details/TheAcademy82/page/n127| access-date = Oct 7, 2019}}</ref> It has sections "Plastic poems", "Colour poems", "Tone Poems", "The Music of Japan", and "Songs of the Elements".<ref name="Irwin1912" />
She also then worked with Inayat Khan - a Sufi leader.<ref>{{cite web| url =https://wahiduddin.net/mv2/bio/Autobiography_2.htm | title =Autobiography; England, 1912 - 1913| author=Inayat Khan| publisher =Richard Shelquist (wahiduddin)| access-date = Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> He credits her with introducing him to literary circles “at Monico by the Port's Club<ref>note - a café in Paris. See [https://www.sohohouse.com/restaurants/cafe-monico Cafe Monico] Inspired by the original Cafe Monico, established nearby in 1877</ref>… (and) Lord Dunsany… who was very much interested in the symbology of Sufi poetry.” She, in turn, referenced Sufi ideas about color in 1915 saying "the Persian Sufis had four 'Schools of Color,' in which they developed their perceptions. Gold was devoted to development through the understanding of beauty, green was dedicated to piety, black to intellect and wisdom, white to ecstasy and inspiration. So, through varying ages and lands, we find man possessing a subconscious and a conscious knowledge of the value of color, and modern science is daily proving the truth of the ancient hermetic teachings."<ref name="Irwin1915" />{{rp|p28}} This also may be when she worked with Axel Wachtmeister, a Swedish composer who was living in Paris, on some projects in a Theosophical light including the lyrics she wrote for a work of his published in 1914.<ref name=McFarlanePhD>{{cite thesis |last=McFarlane |first= Jenny |date=April 2006 |title=A visionary space: theosophy and an alternative modernism in Australia 1890-1934 |type= PhD |publisher=Australian National University |doi=10.25911/5d763205aac37 |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/11007 |access-date=Sep 26, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|p186,200}}<ref>{{cite book| author1= Theodore Baker |author2= Nicolas Slonimsky| title =Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians | publisher = G. Schirmer| date =1958| location = New York| page =1728| url =https://archive.org/stream/bakersbiographic1958bake#page/1728/mode/1up}}</ref> Irwin mentions "I have also met a composer who has entered into the color thought in relation to music, and with whom I have collaborated on as score which is now complete"(ed: by 1915).<ref name="Irwin1915" />{{rp|p9}}
In February a poem "L'Éternelle Idole" of Irwin's was published in a French newspaper in early 1912:<ref>{{cite news| title =L'Éternelle Idole |author= Béatrice Irwin| newspaper =NuméroLa Lanterne: journal politique quotidien| location =Paris, France| page =2| date =8 February 1912| url =https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k7528398d/f2.item.zoom | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref><blockquote><poem>O comble neigeux de mon désir, Eternelle Aube que je respire, Je suis ton soleil.
Je cherche lon sein aveugle de joie Tu es le repos. Inspire-moi Mon surprême réveil!
Laisse-toi te fondre sous ma chaleur Eteins ma fievre dans ta pâleur
Terrestre merveille</poem></blockquote>
In April ''Pagan Trinity'' was also available in New York. She dedicated it to Auguste Rodin and included several poems about Rodin pieces and was reviewed in a number of literary venues with mixed appreciation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Beatrice Irwin|title=The Pagan Trinity|url=https://archive.org/details/pagantrinity00irwigoog|year=1912|publisher=John Lane}} * {{cite news| title ="Pagan" and otherwise| newspaper = The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =182| date =31 Mar 1912| url =http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D02E3D7133AE633A25752C3A9659C946396D6CF | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =The Pagan Trinity| newspaper =The Observer | location =London, UK| page =5| date =21 Jan 1912| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316761/pagan_trinity_by_bahai_beatrice_irwin/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =The Pagan Trinity| newspaper =The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =106| date =7 Apr 1912| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307514/brief_advert_for_bahai_beatrice/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite magazine| title =List of new books; Irwin (Beatrice), The Pagan Trinity| magazine =The Athenæum| location =London, UK| page =223| date =Feb 24, 1912| url =https://archive.org/details/p1athenaeum1912lond/page/223| access-date = Oct 3, 2019 }} * {{cite book|title=The American Review of Reviews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GHDrUuHtKnQC&pg=PA636 |date=May 1912|volume=45|issue=5|publisher=Review of Reviews|page=636}} * {{cite book|title=The Bookman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aK9MAAAAYAAJ|year=1912|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|pages=33, 187}} * {{cite book|title=To the Cambridge Magazine Vol 1-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oh46AQAAMAAJ|year=1914|page=161}} * {{cite magazine | title =Fiction - Reading the Stars| magazine = The English Review |volume= 10 | pages =731–732| date =March 1912| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924065539409&view=1up&seq=865| access-date = Oct 9, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Poems and Rhymes - Icarus| newspaper =The Register| location =Adelaide, SA| page =4| date = 20 Apr 1912| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59059244| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = A literary corner; Icarus - to the pioneers of aviation| newspaper = New Zealand Times| location = Wellington, NZ| page =10| date =25 May 1912| url =https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19120525.2.89| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She had met Rodin at some point, perhaps {{circa|1910}}–1912, in a spring day, of which she wrote after his death.<ref name=IrwinonRodin/>
While that news coverage was proceeding she was in a play through John Lane “Four New Stars” production with "The Shadow of Power", "Hector Graeme" and the "Story of a Ploughboy".<ref>{{cite magazine| title ="Orestes" at the Boudoir Theatre| magazine =The Academy and Literature |volume= 82 |number=2088| location =London, UK| pages = 590–1| date =May 11, 1912| url =https://archive.org/details/TheAcademy82/page/n596| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Then she reprised her ''Color Poem'' performance in London in May, also relating her book.<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin…| newspaper =The Observer| location =London, UK| page =14| date =12 May 1912| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316843/bahai_beatrice_irwin_reprise_color/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite book|author=Robert H. Ross|title=The Georgian Revolt: Rise and Fall of a Poetic Ideal, 1910-22|url=https://archive.org/details/georgianrevoltri0000ross|url-access=registration|year=1967|publisher=Faber| page=[https://archive.org/details/georgianrevoltri0000ross/page/88 88]}}</ref> That performance is followed by another this time with harp accompaniment<ref>{{cite magazine| title =Notes and News| newspaper =The Academy and Literature |volume=82 |issue= 2089| location =London, UK| pages = 632–633| date =May 18, 1912| url =https://archive.org/details/TheAcademy82/page/n637| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and that gives rise to another performance and indeed a few are done into June.<ref>{{cite news| title = At the Crosby Hall…| newspaper =The Times| location =London, UK| page =12| date =20 May 1912| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10316960/bahai_beatrice_irwin_reprise_color/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite magazine| title = Miss Beatrice Irwin at Crosby Hall| magazine = The Academy and Literature |volume= 82 |number=2094| location =London, UK| page =689| date =June 1, 1912| url =https://archive.org/details/TheAcademy82/page/n694| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin| newspaper =The Bookman |volume=42 |number=251| location =London, UK| page =187| date = Aug 1912| url =https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55534/page/n455 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> There is a reference to a brief negative review of her performance originally in June, 1912.<ref>{{cite book|author=Joy Grant|title=Harold Monro and the Poetry Bookshop |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F_I6z2zf8tIC&pg=PA73 |date=1 January 1967|publisher=University of California Press|page=73}}</ref>
The year closes with a review of her book of poems in the ''Occult Review''.<ref>{{cite magazine| title =The Pagan Trinity (Review) |author= Meredith Starr| magazine = The Occult Review| location =London, UK| page =303| date =November 1912 |editor= Ralph Shirley |volume=16 |number=5| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v16_n5_nov_1912.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
====1913 with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Paris==== Early in 1913 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá returned to Europe and spoke with theosophist-connected painter John Duncan while in Scotland.<ref name=theosophyconnections/> Irwin is known to have visited with him in London in late January, 1913.<ref>{{cite book| author=David-Müzeyyen Merrick| title =DRAFT VERSION - Abdu'l-Baha in Britain, 1913| date =June 11, 2018| location =Liverpool, UL| page =36| url =http://www.paintdrawer.co.uk/david/folders/spirituality/bahai/abdulbaha/sohrab-diary-uk-1913.pdf}}</ref> Early Baháʼí Fanny Knobloch remembered Irwin in 1913 in Paris among 80 present at a talk of his first translated by Hippolyte Dreyfus into French and then ʻAbdu'l-Bahá asked spontaneously the surprised Irwin to present the translation in English for the Americans present.<ref>{{cite book| author=Viola Ioas Tuttle| title = Baha'i World |chapter=Fanny A. Knobloch (1859-1949)| publisher =Baha'i Pub. Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =11| edition =reprint| date =1981 | orig-year=1953| location =New York, NY| page = 475| url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_11 |chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Volume11.pdf&page=499 | oclc= 25161466 }}</ref> She was daily with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá from March 23.<ref>{{cite book| author=Jan Teofil Jasion, p| title =ʻAbdu'l-Baha in the West: A biographical guide of the people associated with his travels, by | publisher = Librairie Baha'ié| date =2012| location =Paris, France| page =216| oclc= 849607591|isbn= 9782912155276}}</ref> He had been there from late January for a couple months.<ref name=BalyuziBio/> Irwin herself wrote about the Baháʼís the following November in ''Occult Review''.<ref name=IrwinFirst/> The article summarizes Bábí-Baháʼí history, refers to Laura Clifford Barney's work and the early magazine produced in the West called ''Star of the West'', the start of building the House of Worship near Chicago, Baháʼí communities that met often in London and Paris, of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and the trips and her earlier visit with him. She then went on to do a review of the teachings and literature of the religion as she understood them then. She then reviews, for the audience reading the ''Occult Review'' the trends and trials of western mystical encounter: <blockquote>The West has never known an epoch more fruitful than the present in cults and philosophies for the development of man's psychic powers, and for the explanation of laws which relate the visible to the invisible realities. The first wave of these ethereal inquiries was embodied in the sciences of hypnotism and animal magnetism; these were succeeded by spiritualism with its trickeries, its truths and its sensational phenomena. This somewhat imbalanced manifestation was superseded by the Theosophical movement, which, though not devoid of phenomena, expounded the austere philosophy of the Buddha through its teachings, and through a literature which is considerable and full of interest.
Then followed the Psychical Research Society, which aims at testing and verifying psychic progress along scientific lines. One might almost call the New Thought, Higher Thought, and Christian Science movements the practical aftermath of hypnotism, spiritualism, and theosophy, since these latest, and essentially practical, western cults have concerned themselves with the tangible results of occult force upon the material plane.
Along with these movements there came to us, from the East, an influx of Yogi philosophers, who taught that the secret of truth and psychic development lay in the science of breathing after certain methods of which they had the knowledge. And so we find the Bahai[sic] Movement coming to the West amidst a veritable Babel of beliefs! The rapid succession and diversity of these various movements clearly indicates that we are athirst for a wider horizon, for some spiritual certitude that shall have a profound bearing not only upon individual, but upon universal growth and jurisdiction. The conflicting cries of these various cults have left us bewildered and restless. Can the Bahai[sic] Movement give us what we need? Is it, as it were, the root of the tree that we are becoming conscious of, the tree of which these other movements have been but waving branches that have cast a grateful shadow upon the heat and burden of our quest? Since we are clamouring for spiritual certitude and repose, it will do our tired eyes no harm to rest awhile upon the self-poised serenity of this majestic Cause, for it has an outlook that is penetrating and vast enough to answer all our needs.</blockquote> A letter to the editor responded critiquing her history and tried to distinguish theosophic efforts and those with devotion to Jesus, though the writer credits "The Bahai[sic] movement is undoubtedly ethically valuable, and all its main points are excellent. It is still, as far as one can tell, on a so-called spiritual, which is really a material basis. The leaders may, however, be on a truly spiritual basis. If so, directly they have the key to the miracles of Jesus they will at once begin to get wonderful results themselve." before proceeding on his ideas on the science behind the mystic.<ref>{{cite magazine| title =To the editor of the Occult Review |author=F. L. Rawson| magazine =The Occult Review |editor=Ralph Shirley |volume= 19 |number=1| location =London, UK| pages =49–51| date =January 1914| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v19_n1_jan_1914.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
She later said: "Abdul-Baha, the great Persian seer and the present leader of the Bahi(sic) movement, has said that we should live in our bodies as in a crystal case, through which we can see clearly on all sides; but, he pithily adds, 'No one can dust the outside of this case but ourselves!'"<ref name="Irwin1915" />{{rp|p13}}
A poem of Irwin's is used in a book ''Wild honey'' by Cynthia Stockley published in 1914.<ref>{{cite book| author=Cynthia Stockley| title =Wild honey: stories of South Africa| publisher =G. P. Putnum's Sons| date =1914| location =New York and London| type= Cover and Title pages| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t5x63cq16;view=1up;seq=10}}</ref>
====War, London, and America; the New Science of Colour==== In early 1914 Irwin's brother was sent to West Africa, returned in 1915 and was a soldier fighting in Belgium and France but from May 1917 he a gunnery instructor and then in November he was sent to Italy.<ref name="SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson" />
A three page letter from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to Irwin in London in October was published in ''Star of the West'' in December 1914 in response to a letter she wrote earlier.<ref>{{cite magazine| title =No sane person can at this time deny the fact that war is the most dreadful calamity in the world of humanity |author= Abdu'l-Bahá |author2=translated by Ahmad Sohrab| magazine = Star of the West |volume=5 |number=16| pages =243–5| date = December 31, 1914| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File%3ASW_Vol5_No16.pdf&page=3 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> It speaks of encouraging her to publish the letter he wrote saying in part about the burgeoning war: "O people!… Hasten ye, hasten ye, perchance ye may become able to extinguish with the water of the new-born ideas of spiritual democracy and celestial freedom, this many-flamed, world-consuming fire, and through your heaven-inspired resolution you may usher in the golden era of international solidarity and world confederation."<ref name="BWBio" />
A poem was also published during the year.<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Stephen Phillips|editor2=Galloway Kyle|title=Poetry Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=208rAQAAIAAJ |year=1914|publisher=Poetry Society|page=26}}</ref> In January 1915 a poem "Lotus" was published in New York state,<ref>{{cite news| first=Beatrice| last=Irwin| title = Lotus| newspaper =South Side Signal| location =Babylon, NY| page =8| date =January 1, 1915| url =http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031038/1915-01-01/ed-1/seq-8.pdf| access-date =Oct 13, 2019}}</ref> and another poem of hers was also published in Sacramento in April,<ref>{{cite news| title = The artists and "good fellows"…| newspaper =Sacramento Bee | location =Sacramento, CA| page =6| date = Apr 16, 1915 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A144FDEA786229ACC%40GB3NEWS-14F350A2A03EBC6E%402420604-14EF251252689337%405-14EF251252689337%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> and May.<ref>{{cite news| author =Beatrice Irwin| title =The Cry of Mars| newspaper =All-Story Weekly| volume =45| issue =3| pages =?| date =May 29, 1915| url =http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t345.htm#A6447| access-date =Oct 7, 2019| archive-date =May 20, 2019| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20190520013345/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t345.htm#A6447| url-status =dead}}</ref>
By July 31 she was among several writers invited from wide geographies for a reception in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite news| title =Mrs. Milton S. Eisner says…| newspaper = San Francisco Chronicle| location =San Francisco, California| page =20| date =8 Aug 1915| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10317319/bahai_beatrice_irwin_at_tea_of_mrs/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> This was followed in October–November by notices that she was giving demonstrations of her studies on the art and science of color at the Norway pavilion of the San Francisco Panama–Pacific International Exposition across 3 days and included promoting her new book ''The New Science of Color''. She won a bronze medal for her presentations.<ref name="GatesofLight" /><small>{{rp|facing p128}}</small> This is the beginning of many presentations and reaching engineers and technicians and marketing people with her work on color technology.<ref>{{cite news| title = Conference on science of color| newspaper =San Francisco Chronicle| location =San Francisco, California| page =8| date =29 Oct 1915| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307537/bahai_beatrice_irwin_book_and_lecture/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Lotta Day (advert)| newspaper = Oakland Tribune | location =Oakland, California| page =13| date =9 Nov 1915| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10317355/bahai_beatrice_irwin_presents_at/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news | title = Let 'er go!!| newspaper = The San Francisco Examiner | location = San Francisco, California| page =5| date = 11 Nov 1915| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36414063/bahai_beatrice_irwin_amidst_exhibition/| access-date = Sep 27, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Liberal arts exhibitors' gift day…Beatrice Irwin will present her third conference on the New Science of Color - Norway Pavilion - Tonight 8:30| newspaper = San Francisco Chronicle| location =San Francisco, California| page =9| date =November 12, 1915 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40GB3NEWS-14EB14CF71CE60E6%402420814-14EB111E95C7A74D%408-14EB111E95C7A74D%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =The New science of color| newspaper =San Francisco Chronicle| location =San Francisco, California| page =23| date =12 Dec 1915| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308317/bahai_beatrice_irwin_review_of_new/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> By this time she could say she was "Born in India, the nomadic spirit of the Orient is strong in my veins. I have lived in England, America, Africa, China, and France successively, and I have visited Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Belgium, so I can claim fairly an international area of observation."<ref name="Irwin1915">{{cite book|author=Beatrice Irwin|title=The New Science of Color|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nCUaAAAAIAAJ |year=1915|publisher=Union Lithograph}}</ref>{{rp|p14}}
In 1916 coverage of Irwin's ''The New Science of Color'' began first locally following her appearance to the south now in San Diego where she aided in relief fundraising due to a flood,<ref>{{cite news| title =New Color Science panacea for human ills, says advocate… Miss Beatrice Irwin, Blazer of trails in field, expects to remain here indefinitely| newspaper =San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page =1| date = January 8, 1916| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU19160108.2.16&srpos=4&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =First 1916 session of woman's press club| newspaper =San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page =5| date = January 12, 1916| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU19160112.2.85&srpos=5&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Poet will lecture for food sufferers| newspaper = San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page =6 | date =February 5, 1916| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU19160205.2.98&srpos=9&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Lecturer will give aid to floor fund| newspaper =San Diego Union| location =San Diego, CA| page =30| date = Feb 13, 1916 | url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU19160213.2.77&srpos=12&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> (see Charles Hatfield,) and a poem of hers was included in ''The Architecture and the Gardens of the San Diego Exposition'' program of the Panama–California Exposition.<ref>{{cite book| title =The Architecture and the Gardens of the San Diego Exposition| publisher =Pau Elder and Co| date =1916| location =San Francisco, CA| page =15 <!-- of the scan -->| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044033418351&view=1up&seq=15 }}</ref> National publicity specifically on ''The New Science of Color'' occurred in March and carried on into early 1917.<ref>{{cite news| title =Notes by the way; In a recent Address…| newspaper =Light: A Journal of Psychical, Occult, and Mystical Research| volume =36| number =1834| page =1| date =Mar 4, 1916| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/light/light_v36_mar_1916.pdf| access-date =Sep 26, 2019| archive-date =November 26, 2020| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20201126152858/http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/light/light_v36_mar_1916.pdf| url-status =dead}} * {{cite magazine| title =The Pick of the Publishing Season| magazine =Nation |volume= 18 |number=24| location =New York, NY| page =848| date =March 11, 1916|issn=0027-8378 |oclc=440821089 }} * {{cite news| title =Interesting and Instructive| newspaper = The Review of Reviews |volume= 53 |number= 317| location =New York, NY| page = 487| date =May 1916|issn=2643-9476 |oclc=1781574 }} * {{cite magazine| title =The New science of Colour (Review)| author =R.M.B.| magazine =The Occult Review| location =London, UK| pages =177–8| date =March 1916| editor =Ralph Shirley| volume =23| number =3| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v23_n3_mar_1916.pdf| access-date =Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite magazine| title = Notes of the month| magazine = The Occult Review| volume = 23| number = 4| location = London, UK| pages = 181–186| date = April 1916| editor = Ralph Shirley| url = http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v23_n4_apr_1916.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite magazine | title = The occult relationship between sound and colour | author = Cyril Scott | magazine = The Occult Review | editor = Ralph Shirley | volume = 23 | number = 5 | location = London, UK | pages = 268–72 | date = May 1916 | url = http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v23_n5_may_1916.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019 }}</ref> Some time between February and November Irwin went to Central America for a time promoting the Baháʼí Faith,<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|p200}} in response to some of the early parts of the ''Tablets of the Divine Plan'' by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá which had been published about promoting the religion around the world. In June a poem was published<ref>{{cite news|author=Beatrice Irwin|title=Wild Cyclamen|newspaper=All-Story Weekly|volume=59|number=1|page=147|date=June 10, 1916|url=http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t349.htm#A6501|access-date=Oct 7, 2019|archive-date=May 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520013351/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t349.htm#A6501|url-status=dead}}</ref> and by November she was in Paternson, New Jersey, presenting at a silk convention.<ref>{{cite news| title =American dyes as good as foreign| newspaper =The Rome Daily Sentinel| location =Rome, NY| page =8| date =Nov 23, 1916| url =https://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%2023/Rome%20NY%20Daily%20Sentinel/Rome%20NY%20Daily%20Sentinel%201916/Rome%20NY%20Daily%20Sentinel%201916%20-%203002.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Coverage continued sporadically of her work and calling her a "Color Scientist" and of her "… she doesn't merely do the usual things in a different way. Instead she has chosen a whole field of her own",<ref>{{cite news| title = Beatrice Irwin, color scientists, pioneer of her art| newspaper = New York Herald| location =New York, New York| page =58| date =17 Dec 1916| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307399/bahai_beatrice_irwin_profile_work_in/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =A Priestess of Color New Science is Evolved by Beatrice Irwin of New York. Problems More | newspaper =Kansas City Star | location =Kansas City, MO | page =8| date =Dec 25, 1916 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1126152C152E4978%40GB3NEWS-11AE21E8774093B8%402421223-11AE21E894FBD380%407-11AE21E9362A7098%40A | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title = Color Scientists, pioneer in her art| newspaper =San Bernardino News| location =San Bernardino, CA| page =8| date = 27 December 1916| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBN19161227.1.8&srpos=14&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1| access-date = Sep 26, 2019}}</ref> even while some of Irwin's poetry was published in various places.<ref>{{cite news| title =Maya sonnets| newspaper = Albuquerque Journal| location =Albuquerque, New Mexico| page =2| date =December 17, 1916| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A11C7D0596D228BB9%40GB3NEWS-1426F186879160C0%402421215-1426E7F385F5ECB8%4017-142C40FBB010E8E3 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Color scientists, pioneer in her art| newspaper =San Bernardino News| location =San Bernardino, California| page =8| date =27 Dec 1916| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10317582/bahai_beatrice_irwin_pictured_and/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite magazine| title = (poems on Maya monolith)| magazine =Art and Archaeology |volume=4 |number=6 | editor1=D. M. Robinson|editor2=Mitchell Carroll|editor3=R. V. D. Magoffin| location =Washington, DC| pages = 290, 306| date = December 1916| url =https://archive.org/stream/artarchaeology04archuoft#page/255/mode/1up/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Coverage of Irwin's work on color continued,<ref>{{cite news| title =Color used to treat disease; woman has worked out a scale| newspaper =Star Tribune| location =Minneapolis, Minnesota| page =44| date =7 Jan 1917| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307845/bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_color_studies/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> but she sold her rights to the book in later January, 1917.<ref>{{cite news| title =The selling rights in New York…| newspaper = The New York Times| location =New York, New York| page =72| date =21 Jan 1917| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10317613/bahai_beatrice_irwin_sells_rights_of/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
====Old work and new work==== Her earlier work in “Color Poem” was more often called pioneering in spring 1917 and thereafter.<ref>{{cite news| title =Motet choir will sing color music| newspaper =The Washington Times| location =Washington, DC| page =6| date =26 Jan 1917| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10317696/color_music_and_performances_mentions/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Haskin letter, Color-Music appeals to its audiences |author= Fredoria J Haskin| newspaper = Times-Picayune| location = New Orleans, LA | page =16| date = Mar 4, 1917| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1223BCE5B718A166%40GB3NEWS-122BB11545076E08%402421292-12291149F8B72E28%4015-124DBD5175B8E000 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =The Motet Choral Society…| newspaper =The Washington Post| location =Washington, DC| page =5| date =29 Apr 1917| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318333/color_performances_notes_bahai/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Some of her written poems were published too.<ref>{{cite news| author =Beatrice Irwin| title =Handalali| newspaper =Young's Magazine| volume =33| number =1| page =125| date =January 1917| url =http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t8270.htm#A200550| access-date =Oct 7, 2019| archive-date =September 24, 2020| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20200924215855/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t8270.htm#A200550| url-status =dead}} * {{cite news| author =Beatrice Irwin| title =Shadows| newspaper =All-Story Weekly| volume =70| number =4| page =639| date =May 5, 1917| url =http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t353.htm#A6548| access-date =Oct 7, 2019| archive-date =October 24, 2020| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20201024160712/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t353.htm#A6548| url-status =dead}}</ref> She presented at the New York Eclectic Club for women on "Color Hygiene in the home" in mid-February,<ref>{{cite news| title = Resolutions of support and offers of service sent to President Wilson by numerous Clubs| newspaper =New York Herald| location =New York, NY| page =4| date =Feb 18, 1917| url =http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/viewer/?file=http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252014%2FNew%2520York%2520NY%2520Herald%2FNew%2520York%2520NY%2520Herald%25201917%2FNew%2520York%2520NY%2520Herald%25201917%2520-%25201361.pdf&highlightsFile=http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2Fhighlighter%2Fhits%2F8889f79cee8834619210dd97869836b7&nativePrint=1#page=1| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and by later April advertised for students of her work,<ref>{{cite news| title =(Advertisement) Miss Beatrice Irwin…| newspaper = New York Herald| location =New York, NY| page =14| date =Apr 22, 1917| url =https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201917/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201917%20-%203159.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and gave a Baháʼí talk<ref>{{cite news| title =Church services tomorrow; The Baha'i Movement| newspaper = New York Times| location =New York, NY| page =20| date =Apr 21, 1917| url =https://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%207/New%20York%20NY%20Times/New%20York%20NY%20Times%201917%20Apr%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Times%201917%20Apr%20Grayscale%20%28637%29.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> about timed with the Baháʼí observance of Ridván. While some coverage of her work associated her book with occultists and clairvoyants<ref>{{cite book| title =The philosophy of modernism (in its connection with music) |author= Cyril Scott| location =London |publisher= K. Paul, Trench, and Trubner| page =114| date =1917| oclc= 4123510| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009446694;view=1up;seq=126 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> others commented about her showing up in the summer technical/engineering meetings,<ref>{{cite journal| title =Societies and Associations| journal = American Gas Engineering Journal |volume= 107 |number= 3| page = 72| date =July 21, 1917| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=yLk-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA415| access-date = Oct 7, 2019}} * {{cite book|title=Cartoons Magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_nok3AQAAMAAJ |date=July 1917|publisher=H. H. Windsor.|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_nok3AQAAMAAJ/page/n153 142]}} * {{cite journal| title =Plans for Illuminating Engineering Society correspondence convention: Tentative Program of Papers to be Published and Discussed by Correspondence| journal = Electrical Review |volume= 71 |number=5| page =190| date =Aug 4, 1917| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=tEFOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA190 | access-date = Oct 7, 2019 }} * {{cite journal| title =Societies and Associations| journal =American Gas Engineering Journal | volume= 107 |number= 15| page = 343| date =1917| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=dwA-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA343 | access-date = Oct 7, 2019}} * {{cite book|title=Engineers and Engineering |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_bPmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA190 |date=April 1918|publisher=Engineers Club of Philadelphia|pages=190–3}}</ref> which then became specific applied technologies of hers for which she had applied for patents that were eventually granted refining the technology of Chinese and Japanese colored lanterns.<ref>{{cite patent| inventor-last =Irwin| inventor-first =Beatrice <!-- attorney Gohram Crosby -->|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1351756| publication-date = 12 Nov 1918| issue-date =1920-09-07| title =Light-filter| country-code = US1351756A| description =Elements for modifying spectral properties, polarization or intensity of the light emitted, e.g. filters| patent-number = 1,351,756}}</ref> Others picked up her concern about color in the treatments of disease in Britain,<ref>{{cite book|title=The British Journal of Inebriety (alcoholism and Drug Addiction)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JPgMAQAAIAAJ |year=1917|page=29}}</ref> as well as further coverage in the news back in California.<ref>{{cite news| title = Miss Irwin introduces theory in East| newspaper = San Diego Union and Daily Bee| location =San Diego, CA| page = 8| date = 27 September 1918| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU19180927.2.109&srpos=15&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1| access-date = Sep 26, 2019}}</ref> Irwin debuted her (patent pending) Colour Filter Illumination at the Color Symposium in New York on October 11, 1917,<ref name=GatesofLight/>{{rp|p21}}<ref name="OctoberSympisium">{{cite journal| title =A Color Symposium <!-- A series of papers prepared for the 1916-17 Correspondence Convention of the Illuminating Engineering Society…. This series was also presented before the New York Section October 11, 1917.… -->| journal =Transactions Illuminating Engineering Society| volume =13| issue =1| date =Feb 11, 1918| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=KdFLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1| access-date = Sep 30, 2019}} * {{cite journal| author= Beatrice Irwin| author-link =Beatrice Irwin| title =Color in Illumination| journal =Transactions Illuminating Engineering Society| volume =13| issue =1| pages =14–20| orig-year=October 11, 1917| date =Feb 11, 1918| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=KdFLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA14 | access-date = Sep 30, 2019}} * {{cite journal | title =A color symposium; Discussions| journal =Transactions Illuminating Engineering Society| volume =13| issue =1 | pages =61–82| orig-year=October 11, 1917| date =Feb 11, 1918| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=KdFLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA61| access-date =Sep 30, 2019 }}</ref> Papers collected for the symposium were later published. And these included a panel of the contributors to share comments about various aspects of the field including Color psychology. In particular there was an exchange between Matthew Luckiesh and Irwin:<ref name="GatesofLight" /> * Luckiesh: "… I am quite in accord with Miss Irwin's hopes for the future of color in a field which she has discussed. I have expressed my views regarding this field in my paper and elsewhere but would like to sound a caution. In the first place Miss Irwin appears to believe that she is dealing with a 'new' subject, but, in fact, this aspect of color is perhaps the oldest of all the many aspects in which man has become interested. The first savage who placed a red feather in his hair recognized the impressiveness of color in a slight degree at least. I believe it is well to experiment radically in this direction discussed by Miss Irwin but before some of her conclusions are generally accepted among scientists - the discovers and organizers of facts - more adequate proof must be submitted. I have contended that no more interesting and fruitful field is open to the psychologist than that of color.…" * Irwin: "I am sorry that Mr. Luckiesh objects to the term 'New Science,' but as I said in my paper it is based upon the fact of specialization in color. In the past we have had generalizations, but my work aims at specialization and I claim that red can be a sedative and a recuperative color as well as a stimulant, by which term only it has been recognized hitherto. This specialization was challenged by physicians in San Francisco who attended my lectures at the International Exposition there, and I was invited to test my claims in the laboratory of Dr. Abrams by means of two instruments, the energeimeter and the pneumograph. I took the nine colors, three reds, three greens, and three blues, respectively called sedatives, recuperatives and stimulants. It was found that the tests justified my classification, and so it is in connection with this specialization that I apply the word 'new' to my work."
In March, 1918, after Rodin's death she had published an article "Rodin as Colourist and Mystic" in a periodical ''The International Studio'', the American edition of The Studio.<ref name=IrwinonRodin>{{cite journal| author=Beatrice Irwin| title = Rodin as colourist and mystic| journal = The International Studio| volume =64| issue =253| pages =9–12| date = March 1918| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044108094301&view=1up&seq=165| access-date = Oct 2, 2019}}</ref> Irwin wrote of his art experienced partly from her visit to his home, specifically his Man with the Broken Nose, Monument to Balzac, and The Gates of Hell but mentioned others as well, "all massed together in diversity whose underlying unity was overwhelming, complete, the unity of new art, of spiritual beauty.… It is the balanced expression of these seemingly divergent qualities, the saintly fervour and the pagan calm, that constitutes the keynote, the power, the wonder of Rodin's art, and that reveal the man himself as a great pagan mystic."<ref name=IrwinonRodin/> She went on to note her sense of what creativity does: "The materialisation of anything, be it sculpture, poem, song or scientific discovery, in measure the result of the impact of man's consciousness with the universal ether. In other words, the result of vibration, and the accomplished work of art or of science man's remembrance of that vibration, or set of vibrations, which he has experienced vividly. These formless messages of light, or vibration, he then imprisons in the forms that delight our eyes, and which we call works of art.… he (Rodin) translated his perceptions of occult truth so forcefully in many of his works…"<ref name="IrwinonRodin" /> She sees his work both in pagan and Christian thinking and herself was encouraged in her work by Rodin whom she quotes saying: "This is certainly a thing that we should study and know more about. Doubtless there are healing and hidden properties in colour."<ref name=IrwinonRodin/> She speculates that wings might be the symbol that most represents the new appreciations in art. Irwin's speaking out for the need of new symbols for new age was quoted at the time,<ref>{{cite news| title = Impressions in the field of Art |author= Janet Flanner| newspaper =The Indianapolis Star| location =Indianapolis, Indiana| page =41| date =21 Apr 1918| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307610/review_summary_of_bahai_beatrice_irwin/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and it has been mentioned many decades later.<ref name="RodinCantorGift">{{cite book|author1=Lynne, Ambrosini |author2= Michelle Facos| title =Rodin : The Cantor Gift to the Brooklyn Museum| publisher =Brooklyn Museum | date = 1987| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =12| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015016832902;view=1up;seq=20 | oclc= 890170758|isbn= 0872731111}}</ref> Meanwhile her work on color also was being picked up by others.<ref>{{cite news| title = Miss Sanders chooses color for her subject| newspaper = The Tennessean | location =Nashville, Tennessee| page =60| date =11 May 1919| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318400/talk_on_color_cites_bahai_beatrice/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite book|author=George Starr White|title=A Lecture Course to Physicians on Natural Methods in Diagnosis and Treatment: Aids to Human Helpers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6BFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA424 |year=1918 |publisher=Phillips printing Company|pages=424–434}} * {{cite news| title = Giving lectures| newspaper = Evening Tribune| location =San Diego, California| page =2| date = September 27, 1918| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6CB81C5E443C%40GB3NEWS-13999408737CCC1A%402421864-139505F25941E1F0%401-139505F25941E1F0%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref>
Irwin was a "special lecturer" with the Chalif Normal School of Dancing in New York, (see Louis Harvy Chalif,) since May 1918 and on through December 1919.<ref>{{cite magazine | title =Chalif Normal School of Dancing | magazine = The terpsichorean; newsy technical journal for dancing instructors, students, ballroom owners | location =Chicago, IL | publisher = American Dance Pub. House | date = 1918 | url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt/search?q1=beatrice%20irwin;id=nyp.33433085741795;view=1up;seq=7;start=1;sz=10;page=search;orient=0 | access-date = Oct 2, 2019 | type= {{bulleted list | May 1918, p. 294 of the scan | Jun 1918, p. 362 of the scan | Jun 1918, p. 386 of the scan | Oct 1918, p. 448 of the scan | Nov 1919, p. 498 of the scan}}}} * {{cite magazine | title =Chalif Normal School of Dancing | magazine =The terpsichorean; newsy technical journal for dancing instructors, students, ballroom owners | location =Chicago | publisher =American Dance Pub. House | date = 1919 | url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt/search?q1=beatrice+irwin&id=nyp.33433085741803&view=plaintext&seq=9 | access-date = Oct 2, 2019 | type= {{bulleted list | Jan 1919, p. 9 of the scan | Feb 1919, p. 61 of the scan | Mar 1919, p. 119 of the scan | Apr 1919, p. 165 of the scan | May 1919, p. 217 of the scan | Jun 1919, p. 270 of the scan | Sep 1919, p. 322 of the scan | Oct 1919, p. 373 of the scan | Nov 1919, p. 429 of the scan | Dec 1919, p. 481 of the scan }} }}</ref> Irwin also appeared photographed in the ''Ladies Home Journal'' in a staged piece entitled "the after-the-war woman in a new field".<ref>{{cite magazine| title =(picture published) ('the After-the-War Woman in the New Field')| magazine =Ladies' Home Journal |volume= 36 |number=2| page =119| date =February 1919| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=_igLmrpvfl0C | access-date = Sep 30, 2019}}</ref> There was also coverage in San Diego that she had opened a studio in New York,<ref>{{cite news| title = Miss Irwin opens New York studio| newspaper =San Diego Union | location = San Diego, CA| page =16| date = Feb 19, 1919| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-139B976975FF2115%402422009-13979E37C56CA168%4015-13979E37C56CA168%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> and the repeat of a talk referencing her work was noted too.<ref>{{cite news| title = Miss Sanders chooses color for her subject| newspaper =The Tennessean| location =Nashville, Tennessee| page =60| date =11 May 1919| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318400/talk_on_color_cites_bahai_beatrice/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
In 1919 she noted she had done lighting for a couple events: an unnamed event at the Ritz-Carlton Ballroom and another at the Hotel McAlpin which hosted the Baháʼí Convention using her "Irwin Color Filter System".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Irwin Color Filter System| magazine=Color Trade Journal and Textile Chemist: Devoted to the Interests of the Manufacturers and Users of American Dyestuffs and Processors of Textile Fibers and Fabrics ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1SIxAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA23|date=January 1920|volume=6|issue=1|page=23|editor1=J. Merritt Matthews | editor2=Mary Bothmer}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Color Trade Journal| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2RCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA23 |date=January 1920|publisher=Color Trade Journal, Incorporated|page=23}}</ref> This would have been the convention that hosted the presentation of the whole set of the Tablets of the Divine Plan to the Baháʼí community in America. Irwin also joined in the mass August letter to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá for a return to America where she is noted from Brooklyn.<ref>{{cite magazine| title =Supplication to Abdul-Baha from the American friends; Brooklyn, NY| magazine =Star of the West| editor1 =Albert Windust| editor2 =Gertrude Buikema| editor3 =Zia M. Bagdadi| page =156| date =Aug 1, 1919| url =http://starofthewest.info/viewer.erb?vol=10&page=156| access-date =Sep 27, 2019| archive-date =March 4, 2016| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160304041301/http://starofthewest.info/viewer.erb?vol=10&page=156| url-status =dead}}</ref> Her work advancing into the profession of lighting including coverage of her work and another presentation at an Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) conference in October.<ref>{{cite book |first=A. L. |last=Powell |title=Home Lighting - how to Make it Comfortable and Effective. By A.L. Powell and R.E. Harrington | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYAVAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA409 |year=1919|pages=394, 409}}</ref>
In January 1920 she attended a reception in her honor in Washington, D.C., by early DC Baháʼí Louise Dixon Boyle,<ref>{{cite news| title =Mrs Eldridge Roger Boyle…| newspaper =Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page =10| date = Jan 29, 1920 | url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A13D5DA85AE05A305%40GB3NEWS-1627444DACF52D39%402422353-1627447339F1C1C5%409-1627447339F1C1C5%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Mrs. Eldridge Roger Boyle…| newspaper = The Washington Post| location =Washington, DC| page =7| date =30 Jan 1920| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318444/bahai_beatrice_irwin_house_guest_and/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> wife of building engineer Eldridge Roger Boyle.<ref>{{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWM6-NJL| title =Louise Dixon District of Columbia Marriages, 1830-1921| date = 16 Sep 1902| website =FemilySearch.org| access-date = Dec 25, 2018 }}{{registration required}} * {{cite news| title =Eldridge Roger Boyle, building engineer, dies at home here| newspaper =Evening Star Tuesday| location = Washington, DC| page =12| date =May 28, 1946| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A13D5DA85AE05A305%40GB3NEWS-1485A1239A917310%402431969-14859136FAA979CD%4011-14859136FAA979CD%40| access-date =Dec 25, 2018 }}{{subscription required}}</ref> Irwin also joined in a women's chapter of the American Association of Engineers meeting in New York at the Cosmos Club in the spring.<ref>{{cite news| title = Speaks on illumination| newspaper = Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page =26| date = May 15, 1920| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A13D5DA85AE05A305%40GB3NEWS-143D67EEF75D5700%402422460-143D03E8C3034550%4025-143D03E8C3034550%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Later in October she was visible among a select few Baháʼís meeting on the question of the incorporation of the Spiritual Assembly, the local governing unit of the community, in New York.<ref>{{cite news| title =First Emanuel Church| newspaper =The New York Age| location =New York, New York| page =2| date =9 Oct 1920| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318609/first_emmanuel_meeting_of_rainbow/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> This was held amidst a series of Baháʼí meetings held from December 1920 to October 1922 or so, with among others Mary Hanford Ford. She may have found a kindred spirit on the importance of color, and in general in painting, in Ford as well as a circumstance of community engagement. Ford had joined the religion some 20 years earlier and long been a speaker on paintings and the use of color. Another early American Baháʼí who explored interests in color, and also one using a stage name, was Orcella Rexford.<ref name="Aug151926">{{cite magazine| author=Orcella Rexford| title =The science of names and numbers| magazine = Aquarian Age |editor1= Louise Brownwell | editor2= George Brownell| date =1921| url =https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.39970/page/n37 | access-date = Feb 24, 2019}}: *: Jan 1921, n34, pp7-14 *: Feb 1921, n35, pp13-9 *: Mar 1921, n36, pp27-30 *: Apr 1921, n37, pp4-9 ** indicates series began Dec 1920 *: May 1921, n38, pp12-17 ** indicates series began Dec 1920 *: The Law of Cycles, by Orcella Rexford, Oct 1921, n42, pp18-22 ** indicates series began 1920 and to be continued *: further issues not available * {{cite news| title =Won health, wealth, live with her "mental radio"| newspaper =The Philadelphia Inquirer| location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | page =127| date =15 Aug 1926| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27996363/bahai_orcella_rexford_profile_pictures/ | access-date =Feb 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Won health, wealth, love with her "mental radio"| newspaper =Detroit Free Press| location=Detroit, Michigan | page =38| date = 15 Aug 1926| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27996458/echo_of_bahai_orcella_rexford_profile/ | access-date =Feb 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Won health, wealth, love with her "mental radio"| newspaper =The Ogden Standard-Examiner| location=Ogden, Utah | page =30| date =15 Aug 1926| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27996537/echo_of_bahai_orcella_rexford_profile/ | access-date =Feb 25, 2019}}</ref><ref name="BWBioOrcella">{{cite book| first=Willard P. |last=Hatch | title = Baháʼí World|chapter= In Memoriam; Orcella Rexford| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Trust| volume =11| date =1981 |orig-year=1950| location =Wilmette, IL| pages =495–8| url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_11 |chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Volume11.pdf&page=519 |oclc= 25161466 }} * {{cite book| first=Orcella| last=Rexford| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=Alaska, our new frontier| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee| volume =9| date =1945| pages =918–22| chapter-url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Volume9.pdf&page=947 }} * {{cite magazine| title =A pilgrimage to Green Acre |author=Orcella Rexford| magazine =Star of the West |editor1=Stanwood Cobb |editor2= Mariam Haney |editor3=Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick| volume=23 |number=3| pages =89–91| date =Jun 1932| url =https://bahai.works/Star_of_the_West/Volume_23/Issue_3 | access-date =Feb 25, 2019 }}</ref> Irwin could have also been aware of or met the early and prominent Baháʼí Lua Getsinger who also had had a profound interest in color.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Armstrong-Ingram | first = R. Jackson | title = Written in Light; ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and the American Baháʼí Community | publisher = Kalimat Press | year = 1998 | location = Los Angeles, USA | page = 22 | url = http://www.kalimat.com/Written.html | isbn = 1-890688-02-9 | access-date = 2019-10-19 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101101045422/http://kalimat.com/Written.html | archive-date = 2010-11-01 | url-status = dead }}</ref> In July a newspaper covered Irwin's color technology.<ref>{{cite news| title = Color in Illumination!| newspaper =The Inquirer | location = Lancaster, Pennsylvania| page =6| date = 24 Jul 1920| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36412386/coverage_of_bahai_beatrice_irwins/| access-date =Sep 27, 2019}}</ref>
Meanwhile she wrote an article published in ''The Occult Review'' reviewing her own work in the engineering societies, her thoughts on the medical applications of colored illumination, and the importance of it in hospital settings.<ref>{{cite magazine| title = The new science of colour in illumination; or, colour hygiene in illumination |author=Beatrice Irwin| magazine =The Occult Review |editor= by Ralph Shirley |volume=22 |number=5| location =London, UK| pages =286–9| date =November 1920| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v32_n5_nov_1920.pdf | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> By late 1920 her book was being promoted on a wider scale and she was presenting light fixture models in ''The Atlanta Constitution''.<ref>{{cite news| title = Secrets revealed by colors and perfumes| newspaper =The Atlanta Constitution| location =Atlanta, Georgia| page =3| date =26 Dec 1920| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308207/bahai_beatrice_irwin_cited_as_color/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
==== Baháʼí circles and color demonstration==== In 1921 her activity in New York in Baháʼí circles is noted a couple of times working with Urbain Ledoux and others,<ref>{{cite magazine| title = Bahai Activities| magazine = Reality| page =41| date =January 1921 |volume=3 |number=1 |editor1=Wandeyne Deuth |editor2= Eugene J. Deuth| url =https://bahai-library.com/pdf/r/reality_magazine_3-4.pdf| access-date =Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite magazine| title = Speech |first=Shahnaz |last=Waite | magazine = Reality| pages =16–22| date =February 1921 |volume=3 |number=2 |editor1=Wandeyne Deuth |editor2= Eugene J. Deuth| url =https://bahai-library.com/pdf/r/reality_magazine_3-4.pdf| access-date =Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and her book advertised,<ref>{{cite book|first=Ellen|last=Conroy|title=The symbolism of colour|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t6n012d79;view=1up;seq=79 |year=1921|publisher=W. Rider|oclc= 983402016|page=76}}</ref> while she presented "Color Effects in Lighting" to the Buffalo electrical illumination convention and announced a brand of lighting fixtures she was promoting in February which was then covered in a trade journals and newspaper.<ref>{{cite magazine| title = A woman illuminating engineer discusses lighting: Advantages of various Light Intensities in Combination with Color Demonstrated before Contractor-Dealers at Buffalo| magazine =Electrical Review |volume= 79 |number= 5| page = 176| date =July 30, 1921| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=f2g-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA176| access-date = Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Electrical men see falls sights| newspaper =Buffalo Courier| location =Buffalo, NY| page =5| date = July 23, 1921| url =https://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%2021/Buffalo%20NY%20Courier/Buffalo%20Ny%20Courier%201921/Buffalo%20Ny%20Courier%201921%20-%203620.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> [[File:BeatriceIrwinColorExpert.jpg|thumb|upright|Beatrice Irwin in 1922 as a color expert and member of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.]]This presentation was noted especially: "For the first time in the history of the Association a convention was addressed by a woman when Miss Beatrice Irwin, an Associate in Arts of Oxford University in England, a member of the IES and the author of several books, one of which is entitled ''The New Science of Color'', spoke on 'Color Effects in Lighting.' Miss Irwin has made a scientific study of all forms of color and is now applying the results of her knowledge to electric lighting. The main features of her talk appear elsewhere in this issue."<ref>{{cite news| title =This week's news; Review history of Association at Buffalo Convention; Adequate wiring for proper resident lighting| newspaper =Electrical Review | volume= 79 |number=149| page =175| date =July 30, 1921| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=f2g-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA175| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Irwin was introduced to the convention by William L. Goodwin, a major figure in the National Electric Light Association and the resulting crowd at her demonstrations "elbowed their way" to watch.<ref name="NatElect">{{cite magazine|title=New discovery in electric illumination|magazine=The National Electrical Contractor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKw0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA237|date=April 1921|pages=237–8}}</ref> She was credited with an Associate degree of Arts of Oxford and a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society. Her book ''New Science'' was in its fourth edition. Goodwin underscored her work partly because it was a new entry into the discipline and necessarily brought innovation in styles where most practitioners tended to imitate each other. "Miss Irwin's work has reached the point where she now has something definite..."<ref name="NatElect" /> And this kind of coverage was echoed in other trade journals including ones authored by her or quotes from her talk.<ref>{{cite magazine| title=Color effects in lighting|first=Beatrice|last=Irwin|magazine=Electrical Contractor-dealer: Official Journal of National Association of Electrical Contractors and Dealers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2eM9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA455 |date=September 1921|publisher=The Association|pages=455–6}}</ref> By 1922 she was publicized as a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = The Pittsburgh Press| location =Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania| page =32| date =9 Mar 1922| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318707/bahai_beatrice_irwin_pictured_in/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> That and her production of colored light shades was echoed.<ref>{{cite news| title =Decorative lamp shades| newspaper =The Cincinnati Enquirer| location =Cincinnati, Ohio| page =93| date =26 Mar 1922| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318749/bahai_beatrice_irwin_cites_in_lamp/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Blues for the Blues | newspaper =The Pittsburgh Press| location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | page =40| date =13 Apr 1922| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318827/bahai_beatrice_irwin_pictured_in/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Woman member of society is color wizard| newspaper =The Baltimore Sun| location =Baltimore, Maryland| page =84| date =16 Apr 1922| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307479/bahai_beatrice_irwin_tour_of_studio/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite book| first=Louis| last=Weinberg| title =Color in Everyday Life: a Manual for Lay Students, Artisans and Artists| publisher = Moffat, Yard and Co.| date = 1922| location =New York, NY| page =85|oclc= 2561302|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89057189805;view=1up;seq=139}} * {{cite news| title =Color Doctor effects cures through hues. Beatrice Irwin finds that decorations affect nerves | newspaper =Duluth News-Tribune | location = Duluth, Minnesota| page =5| date =Jul 2, 1922| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1156D7F7D713A378%40GB3NEWS-119B0E09E8C38818%402423238-119B0E0A88B23628%4022-119B0E0F9809BB78 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title ="Paint the town red" or orange and keep its criminality down; color affect or create moods| newspaper =The Evening World| location =New York, New York| page =14| date =5 Aug 1922| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318944/bahai_beatrice_irwin_cited_in_color/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Amidst that she also continued to present at meetings like in early April 1922 at an opera trust.<ref>{{cite news| title = Opera Club Trustees met| newspaper = The Daily Argus| location =Mt Vernon, NY| page =6| date =Apr 10, 1922| url =https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2018/Mount%20Vernon%20NY%20Daily%20Argus/Mount%20Vernon%20NY%20Daily%20Argus%201922/Mount%20Vernon%20NY%20Daily%20Argus%201922%20-%201522.pdf| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
That year she also attended some of the later events of Arthur Conan Doyle's work in spiritualism,<ref>{{cite news| title =Spirit radio line to Earth, Doyle forecast| newspaper = New-York Tribune| location =New York, New York| page =7| date =5 May 1922| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10318902/bahai_beatrice_irwin_at_reception_for/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and a book by the Earl's now divorcé notes his persistence and other qualities.<ref>{{cite news| title =The Fifth Earl of Roslyn| newspaper =Evening Public Ledger| location =Philadelphia, Pennsylvania| page =18| date =27 Sep 1922| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10319113/comments_of_involvements_of_earl_of/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Irwin made reference to giving exhibitions in Paris and would have been later 1922 and into 1923.<ref name="GatesofLight" />{{rp|pp35,135}}
In November 1923 Irwin again presented at the IES conference in New York,<ref>{{cite magazine| title =Current Topics and Events| magazine = Nature |volume= 112 |number=2821| pages =768–9| date =November 24, 1923| url =https://www.nature.com/articles/112767a0.pdf| access-date = Oct 2, 2019 }}</ref> her approach on the effects of color were again cited in the newspapers,<ref>{{cite news| title =The new color cure |author= Frederick J. Hasin| newspaper =The Davenport Democrat and Leader| location =Davenport, Iowa| page =24| date =23 Dec 1923| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10319190/color_science_thinking_references/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = The new color cure |author= Frederic J. Haskin| newspaper =The Salt Lake Tribune| location =Salt Lake City, Utah | page =22| date =23 Dec 1923| url = https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36412584/coverage_of_bahai_beatrice_irwins/| access-date = Sep 27, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =The new color cure |author= Frederick J. Haskin| newspaper = The Bristol Herald Courier| location = Bristol, Tennessee| page =16| date = 25 Dec 1923| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36414236/bahai_beatrice_irwin_color_technology/ }} * {{cite news| title =The new color cure |author= Frederic J. Haskin| newspaper =Asheville Citizen-Times | location = Asheville, North Carolina| page =4| date = 31 Dec 1923| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36412659/coverage_of_bahai_beatrice_irwin_color/ | access-date = Sep 27, 2019}}</ref> and again in ''The Occult Review'' in December.<ref>{{cite magazine| first= Ralph |last=Shirley| title =An Interesting Work | magazine = The Occult Review |editor= Ralph Shirley| pages =328–9| date = Dec 1923| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v38_n12_dec_1923.pdf | access-date = Sep 26, 2019}}</ref>
A collection of letters from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to Dr. Susan Moody was given to Irwin in later summer 1924.<ref>{{cite web| url =https://bahai-library.com/lovejoy_dwight_barstow_collection| title =Dwight Barstow Collection; Table of Abstracts |author= compiled by Thellie Lovejoy| date = 2000| website =Bahai-Library.com| access-date = Sep 27, 2019}}</ref> Mention of her "Irwin Color Filter System" had made it to the attention of Wellesley Tudor Pole, another early person with strong Baháʼí and theosophic interests who shared her work with a friend.<ref>{{cite web | url =https://pacific.st-andrews.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27ms38515%2F6%2F20%2F8%27) | title =Collection Papers of Sir David Russell (from) Major Wellesley Tudor Pole | date =2019 | publisher =The University of St Andrews | access-date =Sep 27, 2019 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
On 12 November 1924 Irwin spoke at the founding meeting of the British Electrical Association for Women held at 1 Upper Brook Street, the home of Lady Katharine Parsons, and organised by Caroline Haslett. Attendees were leading figures in the world of engineering and women's organisations, and Irwin is quoted as giving "a delightful picture of the American Labour-saving home" as part of the discussion.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Woman Engineer Vol 2|url=https://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_2a.html|access-date=2020-10-29|website=www2.theiet.org}}</ref>
In 1925 she was noted "of Paris" or "of Greece" now returned and come to California where she gave a few talks through the fall and winter,<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice| newspaper =Oakland Tribune| location =Oakland, California| page =63| date =4 Oct 1925| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10319375/bahai_beatrice_irwin_house_guest_of/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite news| title = Women writers to be honored at November dinner |first=Edna| last=Kinard| newspaper =Oakland Tribune| location =Oakland, California| page =23| date =30 Oct 1925| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10319468/honored_at_writers_group_inc_bahai/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite news| title =Vassos Kanellos| newspaper = Oakland Tribune| location =Oakland, California| page =57| date =6 Dec 1925| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10319643/bahai_beatrice_irwin_recently_from/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> while again a newspaper article reviewed her work in color illumination technology.<ref>{{cite news| title = Aesthetic aspect in lighting homes| newspaper = The Windsor Star | location = Windsor, Ontario, Canada | page =39| date =14 Mar 1925| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36413416/coverage_of_bahai_beatrice_irwins/| access-date =Sep 27, 2019}}</ref> Her activity in California continued the next couple years with various kinds of receptions and talks she gave either as a writer or on her theme of color and its affects.<ref>{{cite news| title =Pen women in first poetry day| newspaper = The Times| location =San Mateo, California| page =2| date =6 Jan 1926| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10319715/bahai_beatrice_irwin_reads_at/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite news| title = Beatrice Irwin| newspaper =Oakland Tribune| location =Oakland, California| page =11| date =13 Jan 1926| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10319867/bahai_beatrice_irwin_speaks_at_meeting/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite news| title = This Beatrice Irwin| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =80| date =23 May 1926| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320274/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite book|title=Bolivia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ggvecq01EEIC |year=1926|page=26}} *{{cite news| title =Color expert to talk| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =27| date =29 Mar 1927| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320332/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite news| title = Studio reception| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =32| date =8 May 1927| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307641/bahai_beatrice_irwin_lectures_on_color/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite news| title =MacDowell club| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =29| date =11 May 1927| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320401/bahai_beatrice_irwin_gives_a_color/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite news| title =Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =47| date =8 May 1927| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10381301/bahai_beatrice_irwin_to_talk_to_art/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} *{{cite book | author= Louis Weinberg| title =Color in everyday life; a manual for lay students, artisans and artists| publisher =Dodd, Mead and Company| date = 1927| location =New York, NY| page =85| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924002933400;view=1up;seq=137|oclc= 688408214}} *{{cite news| title =Filter light| newspaper = Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =58| date =4 Dec 1927| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320454/bahai_beatrice_irwin_with_her_filter/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Amidst the coverage she given a reception in San Francisco area by women's poetry groups.<ref>{{cite news| title =Literary Reception| newspaper =Mill Valley Record | location =Mill Valley, CA| page =1| date =16 January 1926| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MVR19260116.2.4&srpos=17&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1 | access-date =Sep 26, 2019}}</ref>
In 1928 Lord Rosslyn came out with another book himself and briefly mentions Irwin.<ref>{{cite news| title =Stirred up by his threat to spill the family secrets| newspaper =The Times| location =Shreveport, Louisiana| page =45| date =26 Feb 1928| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320532/book_by_earl_of_rosslyn_mentions/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Meanwhile Irwin exhibited at the Long Beach Pacific Southwest Exposition at which she won a gold medal,<ref name="GatesofLight" /><small>{{rp|facing p128}}</small> had a poem published in a local Long Beach newspaper,<ref>{{cite magazine| author=Beatrice Irwin| title = Golden Hawks| magazine =The World Liberator | location = Long Beach, CA |publisher=George Chainey| page = 9| date =June 1928| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/world_liberator/world_liberator_v1_n9_may-jun_1928.pdf| access-date = Sep 26, 2019}}</ref> and was adding profession consultations in city planning and other performances in California.<ref>{{cite news| title =City planning group to hold installation | newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =17| date =14 Jul 1928| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320643/bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_city_planning/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} <!-- * Sister Elaine was still alive in 1928 but lost track of - http://www.wrightanddavis.co.uk/GD/SIMPSONELAINEM.htm -->* {{cite book|first=John W.|last=Ryckman|title=Story of an Epochal Event in the History of California: The Pacific Southwest Exposition |chapter=Where art and archeology met |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoxBAAAAIAAJ |year=1928|publisher=Long Beach chamber of commerce}}</ref> and on into 1929.<ref>{{cite news| title =Rupert Highes and Home Grunn| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =31| date =5 Feb 1929| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320787/bahai_beatrice_irwin_among/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Woman writer, engineer of light, to speak at Cada de Manana Sunday| newspaper = San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page = 13| date = March 8, 1929| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13A5C6E8164CD485%402425679-13A5BFAF2F8A054C%4012-13A5BFAF2F8A054C%40| access-date = Oct 6, 2019 }}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Watercolors, portrait now at Park Manor| newspaper = San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page =46 | date =March 31, 1929| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13A5C70228F520F6%402425702-139E89E1B8EBC56D%4045-139E89E1B8EBC56D%40a| access-date =Oct 6, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> A book of hers was contributed to library in Hawaii.<ref>{{cite news| title =At Library of Hawaii| newspaper =Honolulu Star-Bulletin| location =Honolulu, Hawaii| page =44| date =20 Apr 1929| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320829/bahai_beatrice_irwin_book_at_library/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Meanwhile she was traveling to Europe where she performed her ''Colour Poem'' in the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition<ref name="McFarlanePhD" />{{rp|p201}} which closed in January, 1930.
====Baháʼí pilgrimage and color illumination==== Irwin went on Baháʼí pilgrimage to Haifa, then of Mandatory Palestine, in early 1930,<ref name=BWBio/> of which she wrote in August.<ref name=Pilgrimage>{{cite magazine| title =A Pilgrim's Scrip 1 - Haifa |author=Beatrice Irwin| magazine = Star of the West| page =148| date = Aug 1930 |volume=21 |number=5| url =http://starofthewest.info/viewer.erb?vol=21&page=148 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> She arrived on the original RMS Mauretania,<ref name=Pilgrimage/> which left New York about February 20,<ref>{{cite news| title =The Maurentania to the Mediterranean| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle | location = Brooklyn, New York| page =70| date =2 Feb 1930| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36232017/mauretania_to_leave_ny_for_haifa/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and arrived in Haifa March 10.<ref>{{cite news| title = Steamer movements| newspaper = The Philadelphia Inquirer| location = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania| page =2| date =11 Mar 1930| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36231816/mauretania_from_new_york_to_haifa/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> In her text ''Gates of Light'' she includes a picture of the Shrine of the Báb taken in April.<ref name=GatesofLight/><small>{{rp|facing p100}}</small> She reflected on her time with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Paris with "many commands and prophecies on travel" for her which she has seen fulfilled "in unexpected ways and places".<ref name=Pilgrimage/> She was there 19 days including into April and observed a kind of miracle, as she termed it, of international presence and deeds that created an atmosphere … "a kinship with a larger life, more abstract, and the same time more intimate."<ref name=Pilgrimage/> She also remarked that some 2500 trees had been added to the landscape plus flowers by donations of pilgrims forming "a new memorial to Death, and an interpretation of its meaning at the portal of larger life and creative growth."<ref name=Pilgrimage/> Her thoughts were reprised and extended noting six nationalities of visitors and stopped to inquire with her about the gardens and Shrine of the Báb while she sat there reading - Russian, German, Arabs, Turkish, Jewish, and American - in the space of one hour; the place of the Holy Land in the tides of history now including the harbor in the bay being modified by the British.<ref name=BW3ShrinesandGardens>{{cite book| author= Beatrice Irwin| title = The Baháʼí World | volume=3 |chapter=Shrines and Gardens| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee| date = 1930| location =New York| pages =349–353| url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_3 |chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Vol3_Pt4.pdf&page=88 | oclc= 607698969 }}</ref> "In spite of modernization and colonialization the Holy Land still exhales an ineffable calm, and the deep gladness of unutterable things. Here the mysteries of spirit and matter mingle, and are poised in a balance that presages a new world order."<ref name=BW3ShrinesandGardens/> She then takes up recalling the banishment of Baháʼu'lláh and family and followers to prison in Akka and eventually being granted leniency from prison life because of "his prison life and spirit commands such respect."<ref name=BW3ShrinesandGardens/> She highlighted the Ridvan Garden there and noted it as "the first earthly point of liberation for the message of Baháʼu'lláh", the rise of the Shrine of the Báb and, at the time, nine terraced gardens and it attracting diverse religious travelers and tourists.<ref name=BW3ShrinesandGardens/> A night view with illumination is included but it is unstated if the picture was hers or with her illumination technology.<ref name=BW3ShrinesandGardens/> At the time the three back chambers of the Shrine of the Báb were being worked on.<ref name=BW3ShrinesandGardens/> She noted the growth of the gardens under the leadership of Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, and the sight towards Akka "running out its white arm of remembrance in the blue distance."<ref name=BW3ShrinesandGardens/>
Following her return and writing of her pilgrimage,<ref name=Pilgrimage/> and before the year was out, she published her next book, ''The Gates of Light'', after July.<ref name=GatesofLight>{{cite book| author=Beatrice Irwin| title =The gates of light; a record of progress in the engineering of colour and light| publisher =Mayflower Press, Plymouth (William Brendon & Sons, LTD), and D. McKay |location= Great Britain and Philadelphia| url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007476010| date =1930 <!-- The Brendon & Sons edition is itself undated but cf page 21 "in this year's International Exposition at Barcelona" which happened in 1930 - and the last mention included in the text is from July 21, 1930 referring to a future installation upcoming. -->| oclc = 702494199 <!-- later print in 1931 by D. McKay in Philadelphia --> }}</ref> In it she refers to the Baháʼís directly and includes pictures of two Baháʼí-related installations she did in Haifa. She says:<blockquote>In the West, we do not consider religion as an integral part of life, probably because our scientific education makes it impossible for us to accept reasonably the dogmatic theories or orthodoxies which narrow men's thirst for the infinite down to their own particular measurements. The message of the Bahai[sic] Revelation which came through the Persian prophet Baha'ullah[sic] (1866) is most in keeping with our modern outlook, since its fundamentals enjoin the union of Religion with science, universal religious tolerance, international parliaments and the absolute equality of men and women.<ref name=GatesofLight/>{{rp|p99}}</blockquote> She had constructed a portable version of the Irwin Colour Filter specifically for use at the Baháʼí Shrines she named "The Gate".<ref name=GatesofLight/><small>{{rp|facing p64}}</small> She also included an outdoor picture uphill towards the front of the Shrine of the Báb as it stood in April 1930 with lighting she supplied,(though the picture itself as published in the book was black-and-white.)<ref name=GatesofLight/><small>{{rp|facing p100}}</small> She also speaks of the difficulties of the burgeoning field of illumination saying "I voice the feeling of many comrade and creative engineers when I say that the art of illumination cannot come into robust existence until the Illuminating Specialist is recognized as an independent authority, whose scheme, though co-operative, is based upon a deeper and more detailed study of Colour and Light than architects or decorators usually have time to afford to these subjects. The public is gradually awakening to this fact, though its own limited idea that Architecture and Decoration are fine arts, whereas illumination is a mere mechanical necessity, is largely responsible for the present situation."<ref name=GatesofLight/>{{rp|pp17-8}} It was commented on by Hugh Ross Williamson in January 1931 noting Irwin's color illumination technology had been used in “masonic lodges in California, to Bahai[sic] shrines in Palestine, and elsewhere”.<ref>{{cite magazine| title =the Gates of Light| magazine =The Bookman |volume= 79 |number= 472| page =280| date =January 1931}}</ref> In November she was noted in the journal ''Nature'' giving a talk for the Electrical Association for Women in New York;<ref>{{cite magazine| title =Diary of Societies| newspaper =Nature |volume= 126 |number= 3183| page = 712| date =Nov 1, 1930| url =https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v126/n3183/pdf/126711b0.pdf |doi= 10.1038/126795b0| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> she also aided founding a chapter in England.<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|p199}}
In February 1931 an article of hers was published in ''Star of the West'' entitled "Cooperation - Spiritual and Material".<ref name=SOTW21Cooperation>{{cite magazine| title =Cooperation - spiritual and material |author= Beatrice Irwin| magazine =Star of the West| pages =335–7| date = Feb 1931 |volume=21 |number=11| url =http://starofthewest.info/viewer.erb?vol=21&page=335 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> "One of the most revivifying and vitalizing aspects of the Baháʼí Revelation is its presentation of religion as a cooperative liberator into a larger life, a constant invocation to the 'investigation of reality,' and to a fuller self-expression, through the use of the word ''do'' rather than the ''dont'' which is usually associated with religious ceremonial.… the Báb, Baháʼu'lláh and ʻAbdu'l-Baha (sic), have provided us with a magic lamp of guidance with which to illumine the obscure and arduous road! That lamp is ''cooperation - material and spiritual''…."<ref name=SOTW21Cooperation/> She derived four corner-points in this ''cooperation'': spiritual cooperation among religions, material cooperation via an international parliament, the cooperation of science and religion, and the equality and cooperation of the sexes rising to being human rights and though the Baháʼí program of action was barely started the world's attempts at cooperation were "achieving no result".<ref name=SOTW21Cooperation/> She underscored the cooperation of the body, mind, and spirit as each necessary though also that the Baháʼí assemblies and individuals could not avoid the unrest in the world. "… I believe that as intimate a knowledge as possible is essential to the correct basic understanding from which thorough cooperation develops."<ref name=SOTW21Cooperation/> In later May she took part in the funeral of a Baháʼí in New York,<ref>{{cite book | last = Whitehead | first = O.Z. | author-link = O.Z. Whitehead | title = Portraits of some Baháʼí Women | publisher = George Ronald Publisher Ltd | year = 1996 | location = Oaklands, Welwyn, UK | url = http://grbooks.com/george-ronald-publisher-books/heritage-books/portraits-of-some-bahai-women-1317292238 | isbn = 978-0-85398-403-0 | oclc = 34886950 | page = 47 | access-date = 2019-10-19 | archive-date = 2019-10-17 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191017111817/http://www.grbooks.com/george-ronald-publisher-books/heritage-books/portraits-of-some-bahai-women-1317292238 | url-status = dead }}</ref> in June is noted returning from London with her home listed in Hollywood, California,<ref>{{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24NZ-T4H | title =Beatrice Irwin New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists| date =June 12, 1931| website =FamilySearch.org| access-date =Sep 27, 2019}}</ref> in October was in a New York exhibition,<ref>{{cite news| title =Interesting exhibitions… | newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =13| date =1 Oct 1931| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10320967/bahai_beatrice_irwin_among_exhibitions/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Exposition of women's arts and industries opens in New York| newspaper =The Morning Call| location =Paterson, New Jersey | page =18| date =1 Oct 1931| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36413802/inc_bahai_beatrice_irwin_color/| access-date = Sep 27, 2019}}</ref> and then in the New York Baháʼí Center giving a talk with Martha Root.<ref>{{cite news| title =Martha Root…| newspaper = The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =9| date =3 Oct 1931| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/670219/bahais_martha_root_jessie_faufet/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Irwin was also recalled in early theatre development.<ref>{{cite news| title = Its success…| newspaper =The Indianapolis Star| location =Indianapolis, Indiana| page =33| date =25 Oct 1931| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321124/mention_of_later_bahai_beatrice_irwin/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
====Books and lectures==== A year later the new book ''The Gates of Light'' was circulated more in the news,<ref>{{cite news| title =A new source for hints on lighting the home | newspaper =The Baltimore Sun| location =Baltimore, Maryland| page =113| date =8 Nov 1931| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321282/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talk_at_library/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> she was giving lectures in California,<ref>{{cite news| title = Art lecture announced| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =17| date =2 Nov 1932| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321323/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talk_at_meeting/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Art lecture| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =16| date =3 Nov 1932| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321607/bahai_beatrice_irwin_lectures_for_otis/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and around the same time a poem of hers was published in a Sufi periodical.<ref>{{cite periodical| author= Beatrice Irwin| title =Deathless Flame| periodical = Hamsa | location =Brookline, MA| page = 96| publisher = Rudhyar| date =1932 | number= 6| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/hamsa/hamsa_1932_n6.pdf | access-date = Sep 26, 2019}}</ref> In 1933 some of her work was noted as a co-exhibitor in the "House of Tomorrow", (the Wieboldt-Rostone House,) in 1933 for color filter illumination in the master bedroom,<ref>{{cite book| author=B. R. Graham| title =House of Tomorrow| publisher =B. R. Graham| date = 1933 | page = "Co–exhibitors in the "House of Tomorrow"; Furnishing and equipment| url =https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/century0094.pdf|oclc= 15134792 }}</ref> and a brief article on the color green was published in a Sufi periodical,<ref>{{cite periodical| author= Beatrice Irwin| title = The Green Ray| periodical =Hamsa| location =Los Angeles, CA| page = 59| publisher =Rudhyar| date =1933 |number= 4| url =http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/hamsa/hamsa_1933_n4.pdf| access-date =Sep 26, 2019}}</ref> and for the November issue of the ''American Theosophist'' Irwin wrote a poem piece in honor of Annie Besant who had died in September.<ref>{{cite web| title =The American Theosophist 1933 - 1996, Wheaton; Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals| url =http://www.austheos.org.au/indices/AMERTH.HTM | website =The Theosophical Society in Australia|publisher= The Campbell Theosophical Research Library| date = 17 September 2019| access-date = Oct 12, 2019}}</ref>
In March 1934 Irwin was noted giving talks about the Baháʼí House of Worship on radio stations in Chicago, Cleveland and New York across a few weeks,<ref>{{cite news| title =News of the Cause; United States and Canada| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =7| date =Feb 1934 |number=81| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=658| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> and is noted returned from Bermuda in late February.<ref>{{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24NR-CGY| title = Beatrice Irwin New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists| date =Feb 21, 1934| website =FamilySearch.org| access-date = Sep 27, 2019 }}{{registration required}}</ref> In April she was giving a Baháʼí talk in Brooklyn.<ref>{{cite news| title = Beatrice Irwin will speak…| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =13| date =7 Apr 1934| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1260548/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> In early May she is noted returning from Bermuda.<ref>{{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24NB-MWT | title =Beatrice Irwin New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists| date =May 2, 1934| website =FamilySearch.org| access-date = Sep 27, 2019 }}</ref> Irwin was in a list of speakers on the Baháʼí House of Worship in the Chicago area during the year.<ref>{{cite news| title =Temple Program| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =5| date = Feb 1935| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=725| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref>
In 1935 Irwin's mother who had been chronically and acute ill some time died in January.<ref name=SallyDavisBioofAliceIsabelSimpson/> She was also noted returning to America from the UK in August detailing herself as a writer, of Irish background, born in India, and that her passport had been issued in DC in June 1934.<ref>{{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24VV-1QY | title =Beatrice Irwin New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957| date =Aug 30, 1935| website =FamilySearch.org| access-date = Sep 25, 2019}}{{registration required}}</ref> She was noticed in Cleveland in November 1935.<ref>{{cite news| title =News of the Cause| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =5| date =April 1936| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=829| access-date =Sep 25, 2019| archive-date =October 21, 2023| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20231021072205/http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=829| url-status =dead}}</ref>
Irwins returned to San Diego in January 1936 giving Baháʼí talks though the first talk's venue was moved.<ref>{{cite news| title = Art expert to give lectures in city| newspaper =Evening Tribune| location =San Diego, California| page =2| date =January 25, 1936| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6CB81C5E443C%40GB3NEWS-13A81E3DB1273514%402428193-13A56FACA94D69B5%401-13A56FACA94D69B5%40| access-date = Oct 3, 2019 }}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Change of plans| newspaper = Evening Tribune| location =San Diego, California| page =11 <!-- planned lecture at Woman's Club in two days off -->| date = January 27, 1936| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6CB81C5E443C%40GB3NEWS-13A81E432447125D%402428195-13A815CAC93E6E5F%4010-13A815CAC93E6E5F%40| access-date =Oct 3, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Lecture in Town Club| newspaper =Evening Tribune | location =San Diego, California| page = 10 | date =January 28, 1936| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6CB81C5E443C%40GB3NEWS-13A81E484CEB6C4C%402428196-13A56FAD283B4DE7%409-13A56FAD283B4DE7%40| access-date = Oct 3, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> She spoke again that summer.<ref>{{cite news| title =Summer colony enjoys artists here to create| newspaper = San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page =5 | date = July 27, 1936| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13BA967109B0F9B0%402428377-13BA94FDC10D8474%404-13BA94FDC10D8474%40 | access-date = Oct 3, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Irwin contributed an article “The modern miracles of Palestine” in ''Baháʼí World'' volume 6 published later in 1937.<ref>{{cite book| author= Beatrice Irwin| title =The Baháʼí World |chapter=The modern miracles of Palestine| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee| volume =6| date =1937 | location = New York, NY| pages =719–722| url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_6 |chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Vol6_Pt4.pdf&page=150 | oclc= 13195820 }}</ref> It outlines the condition of Palestine through recent history and the arrival and lives of Baháʼu'lláh and the burgeoning community and takes it up into the 1930s and the transformation of agriculture, turning the Dead Sea into a source of potash and bromine used in products and dyes, industrialization and buildings, universities, the port at Haifa and oil pipelines, doubling populations, electrification and museums.
====Baháʼí tours==== However Shoghi Effendi wrote a telegraph cable on May 1, 1936, to the Baháʼí Annual Convention of the United States and Canada, and asked for the systematic implementation of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's vision from the ''Tablets of the Divine Plan'' to begin.<ref name="alamb">{{cite book | last = Lamb | first = Artemus | title = The Beginnings of the Baháʼí Faith in Latin America:Some Remembrances, English Revised and Amplified Edition | publisher = M L VanOrman Enterprises |date=November 1995 | location = West Linn, OR | url = http://bahai-library.com/lamb_bahai_latin_america}}</ref> In his cable he wrote: <blockquote> "Appeal to assembled delegates ponder historic appeal voiced by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in ''Tablets of the Divine Plan''. Urge earnest deliberation with incoming National Assembly to insure its complete fulfillment. First century of Baháʼí Era drawing to a close. Humanity entering outer fringes most perilous stage its existence. Opportunities of present hour unimaginably precious. Would to God every State within American Republic and every Republic in American continent might ere termination of this glorious century embrace the light of the Faith of Baháʼu'lláh and establish structural basis of His World Order."<ref>{{cite book |first = Shoghi |last = Effendi |author-link = Shoghi Effendi |year = 1947 |title = Messages to America |publisher = Baháʼí Publishing Committee |location = Wilmette, Illinois, USA |oclc = 5806374 |url =http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/MA/ma-16.html.iso8859-1|page=6 |isbn = 0-87743-145-0 }}</ref></blockquote>
Following the May 1 cable, another cable came on May 19 calling for permanent pioneers to be established in all the countries of Latin America. The Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada appointed the Inter-America Committee to take charge of the preparations.
In later 1936 Irwin joined in these plans of promulgating the religion first by giving talks on the religion in Southern California and then going on into Mexico. Irwin initially teamed up with Marion Holley,<ref>{{cite news| title =Other new cities opened up| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =3| date =Feb 1937 |number=105| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=892 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =California, Arizona, and Nevada| newspaper = Baha'i News| page =12| date =April 1937 |number=107| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=923 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> and then left for Mexico near February, 1937,<ref>{{cite news| title =Inter-American Committee| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =7| date =Feb 1937| number =105| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=896| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =American Teachers Abroad| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =13| date =June 1937| number =108| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=942| access-date =Sep 25, 2019| archive-date =March 4, 2016| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083937/http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=942| url-status =dead}}</ref> where she was noted by May in Mexico City,<ref>{{cite news| title =Annual Report - Inter-American Committee| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =5| date =July 1937 |number=109| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=01&page=956 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> and spent some six months.<ref name="BWv7">{{cite book| author=Horace Holley| author-link =Horace Holley (Baháʼí)| title = The Baháʼí World|chapter=Survey of current Bahaʼi activities in the East and West| publisher =Baha'i Publishing Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =7| date =1939| location = New York, NY| pages = 15–107| url = https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_7| chapter-url= https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Vol7_Pt1.pdf&page=18 | oclc = 993097589 }} * {{cite book| author=Horace Holley| author-link =Horace Holley (Baháʼí)| title = The Baháʼí World|chapter=Survey of current Bahaʼi activities in the East and West; American Teachers Abroad | publisher =Baha'i Publishing Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =7| date =1939| location = New York, NY| pages = 113–125 | url = https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_7| chapter-url= https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File%3ABW_Vol7_Pt1.pdf&page=122| oclc = 993097589 }} * {{cite book| author=Horace Holley| author-link =Horace Holley (Baháʼí)| title = The Baháʼí World|chapter=Survey of current Bahaʼi activities in the East and West; Twofold Task| publisher =Baha'i Publishing Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =7| date =1939| location = New York, NY| pages = 125–133| url = https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_7| chapter-url= https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File%3ABW_Vol7_Pt1.pdf&page=127| oclc = 993097589 }}</ref> See Baháʼí Faith in Mexico. All this despite not being fluent in Spanish,<ref>{{cite news| title =Inter-America Committee| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =6| date =Dec 1937 |number=112| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=12 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> but at the suggestion of Shoghi Effendi.<ref name="BWBio" />
While Irwin was in Mexico Shoghi Effendi cabled the 1937 Baháʼí North American Convention advising the convention to prolong their deliberations to permit the delegates and the National Assembly to consult on a plan that would enable Baháʼís to go to Latin America as well as to include the completion of the outer structure of the Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.<ref name="alamb" /> In 1937 the ''First Seven Year Plan'' (1937–44), designed by Shoghi Effendi, gave the American Baháʼís the goal of establishing the religion in every country in Latin America. With the spread of American Baháʼís communities and assemblies began to form in 1938 across Latin America.<ref name="alamb" /> Upon her return from Mexico Irwin gave many presentations on the religion through the summer highlighting Mexico,<ref>{{cite news| title =Mexico| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =11| date =July 1938| number =117| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=78| access-date =Sep 25, 2019| archive-date =March 4, 2016| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160304111400/http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=78| url-status =dead}} * {{cite news| title =Newly undertaken campaign Central America| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =6| date =May 1939| number =125| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=156| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite book| author=Loulie A. Mathews| title=The Baháʼí Centenary 1844-1944| chapter=Bahaʼi teaching in Latin America to 1940| publisher=Baháʼí Publishing Committee| date=1944| location=Wilmette, Illinois| pages=195–7| url=https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_Centenary_1844-1944| chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:Centenary-1844-1944.pdf&page=217| oclc=270631500}} * {{cite book | title =The Baháʼí Centenary 1844-1944 | chapter =The Bahaʼi Faith in the colleges | publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee | date =1944 | location =Wilmette, Illinois | pages =206–8 | url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_Centenary_1844-1944 | chapter-url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:Centenary-1844-1944.pdf&page=227 | oclc =270631500 }}</ref> and wrote an article "Mexico's peace-poet and king" published in the Baháʼí magazine ''World Order'' lauding Nezahualcoyotl and the native preservation of arts against mass production however much the town of Texcoco was itself plain.<ref>{{cite magazine| title = Mexico's peace-poet and king |author= Beatrice Irwin| magazine = World Order |volume=13 |number=12| pages = 457–60| date =March 1938| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order_Vol3_Issue12.pdf&page=19| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> She mentioned having visited in June and then on into the more beautiful Texcotzingo. Then she quotes a translated native poem found which she compared to the Psalms of David and chants of Akhnaton.
She also extended talking of Mexico starting in January 1938 into April in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Irwin to talk on 'Mexico'| newspaper =San Francisco Chronicle|location =San Francisco, California| page = 5| date =January 22, 1938| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40GB3NEWS-14FED7FEF06DBAA2%402428921-14FED30F8FD3CCB3%404-14FED30F8FD3CCB3%40 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Beatrice Irwin to speak| newspaper = San Francisco Chronicle |location=San Francisco, California| page = 38 | date =April 17, 1938| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40GB3NEWS-14FEDAD26C740C19%402429006-14FD979C856BCB40%4037-14FD979C856BCB40%40| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> She remained in the area giving talks as well as writing articles,<ref>{{cite news| title =San Francisco church directory; Baha'i| newspaper =San Francisco Chronicle| location=San Francisco, California| page = 8| date =May 14, 1938| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40GB3NEWS-14FED8C94D541223%402429033-14FD97B0C25C13DC%407-14FD97B0C25C13DC%40| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite magazine| title = Spiritual aspects of education - a symposium; Prayer, meditation, work… |author= Beatrice Irwin| magazine = World Order |volume=4 |number=2| page =45| date = May 1928| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order_Vol4_Issue2.pdf&page=27| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Lighting expert visitor locally| newspaper =The Bakersfield Californian|location=Bakersfield, California| page =6| date =24 May 1938| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321475/bahai_beatrice_irwin_profiled_talks/| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Beatrice Irwin will lecture| newspaper = San Francisco Chronicle|location=San Francisco, California| page =12 | date =May 28, 1938| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40GB3NEWS-14FED8E04DDB9E48%402429047-14FD97BBC37E8BF0%4011-14FD97BBC37E8BF0%40| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite magazine| title = Education in Mexico |author=Beatrice Irwin| magazine =World Order |volume=4 |number=3| pages =111–2| date = June 1938| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File%3AWorld_Order_Vol4_Issue3.pdf&page=33| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =The Revelation of Baha'u'llah| newspaper =San Francisco Chronicle|location=San Francisco, California| page = 26| date =June 4, 1938| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40GB3NEWS-14FEE9DB213D9E13%402429054-14FD97C11F908D4D%4025-14FD97C11F908D4D%40| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> amidst which she also published a booklet ''Heralds of Peace''.<ref>{{cite book| author=Beatrice Irwin | title = Heralds of peace| date =1938| location =Philadelphia| oclc= 44482992}}</ref><ref name=SFConHerlads>{{cite news| title =Between the lines| newspaper =San Francisco Chronicle | location=San Francisco, California| page =7 | date =May 28, 1938| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40GB3NEWS-14FED8E04DDB9E48%402429047-14FED52FD13490BC%406| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> A reviewer in San Francisco called it "a melange of brief essays and verse on the general subject of peace as illuminated by the teachings of the Persian, Abdul Baha[sic]."<ref name=SFConHerlads/> But the reviewer is confused by Irwin's use of the term "planetary issues" which, according to the reviewer. she linked to horoscopes. "Just the same, the author is honest in her desire that more people think about peace and stop thinking about war, and sincere in her belief that somehow this might help things."<ref name=SFConHerlads/> Irwin went to the Baháʼí Summer School at Geyserville in later June,<ref>{{cite news| title =Baha'i summer school planned for Geyserville| newspaper =San Francisco Chronicle| location =San Francisco, California| page =8| date =June 25, 1938| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40GB3NEWS-14FEE9EEF019A386%402429075-14FD97D0E4AFFBE4%407-14FD97D0E4AFFBE4%40 }}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Geyserville| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =4| date = June 1938 |number=116| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=55| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Baha'i summer school to oepn at Geyserville| newspaper =Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar | location =Healdsburg, CA| page =5| date =27 June 1938| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HTES19380627.2.80&srpos=18&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1 | access-date =Sep 26, 2019 }}</ref> which was the establishment before the Bosch Baháʼí School. A poem she wrote about the Báb was published in ''World Order'' that summer as well,<ref>{{cite magazine| title =The Bab (poem) |author= Beatrice Irwin| magazine =World Order |volume=4 |number=4| page =148| date =July 1938| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order_Vol4_Issue4.pdf&page=30 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> while another was published in a Missouri newspaper.<ref>{{cite news| title =Meadow Lark| newspaper =Kansas City Star|location=Kansas City, Missouri| page = 10| date = July 23, 1938| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1126152C152E4978%40GB3NEWS-15F174B93480970A%402429103-15EF1C87A76BF018%409-15EF1C87A76BF018%40| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> She had also taken the opportunity around then to visit several California cities,<ref>{{cite news| title =Teaching - "Unto every one the duty"| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =3| date = Oct 1938 |number=119| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=91| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> going back to London in August during which point she was interviewed by BBC Radio where she was able to comment about the Baháʼí Temple,<ref>{{cite news| title =News items| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =12| date =Dec 1938 |number=121| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=122 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Extension teaching by Local Assemblies| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =7| date = January 1939 |number=122| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=129| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> before returning to the US in mid-November.<ref>{{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:242V-QYR| title = Beatrice Irwin New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists| date =Nov 18, 1938| website =FamilySearch.org| access-date =Sep 27, 2019}}</ref> In December she began giving monthly talks at the Brooklyn Baháʼí Center starting in December,<ref>{{cite news| title =Baha'i Centre| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =5| date =10 Dec 1938| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307547/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talk_at_center/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> then January,<ref>{{cite news| title = N. J. Women's| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =18| date =22 Jan 1939| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321557/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and then in March,<ref>{{cite news| title = Baha'i Centre| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =5| date =18 Mar 1939| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307717/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talk_at_center/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> before writing another article for ''World Order'' on peace,<ref>{{cite magazine| title =Revaluation of Peace |author= Beatrice Irwin| magazine =World Order |volume=5 |number=1| pages = 11–2| date =April 1939| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order_Vol5_Issue1.pdf&page=13 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> where she writes about the perception of peace being a pattern in order to becoming a soul-based perception and a needed universalism and not just one of externalities while the world was suffering from its lack. Meanwhile she traveled around in New England, the Wilmette area, and then back to California,<ref>{{cite news| title ="A new Faith rising…" Report of the National Teaching Committee| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =7| date = February 1940 |number=133| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=231| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> where she arrived by November and gave a talk on Mexico.<ref>{{cite news| title =Superintendent Cutler to be chairman of session at Teachers' Institute| newspaper =Coronado Eagle & Journal|location= Coronado, CA| page =1| date = 16 November 1939| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=CJ19391116.2.2&srpos=19&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN--------1| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Teachers plan county meeting| newspaper =San Diego Union |location=San Diego, California| page =4| date =November 17, 1939| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13BA81A5BB4C4321%402429585-13B7A8D60FD4BB4D%403-13B7A8D60FD4BB4D%40| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref>
In October 1940 Irwin was in Albuquerque with a model of the Temple giving a talk,<ref>{{cite news| title = Baha'i speaker exhibits Temple| newspaper =Albuquerque Journal|location=Albuquerque, New Mexico| page =10| date =17 Oct 1940| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5726484/bahai_beatrice_irwin_shows_model_of/| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> and was soon visible in several California cities.<ref>{{cite news| title =Teaching activities, North America| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =8| date =October 1940 |number=139| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=319 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> In later December she was visible in back in Phoenix.<ref>{{cite news| title =Travelor plans lectures here| newspaper = Arizona Republic| location =Phoenix, Arizona| page =23| date =26 Nov 1940| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321766/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meetings/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Students hear peace lecturer| newspaper =Arizona Republic| location =Phoenix, Arizona| page =9| date =4 Dec 1940| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321807/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She managed to visit an Inter-American conference at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in January, 1941,<ref name=WOJuly1941>{{cite magazine| title =Baha'is are alert…, excerpted from a letter |author= Beatrice Irwin| magazine =World Order |volume=7 |number=4| page =154| date = July 1941| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order_Vol7_Issue4.pdf&page=35 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> but largely was in the Phoenix area through December.<ref>{{cite news| title =Teaching project in southwestern states| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =5| date =March 1941 |number=142| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=348 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> Meanwhile she was naturalized as a citizen of the US back in March,<ref name=Irwin1941>{{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:242P-BB4 | title =Beatrice Irwin New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists| date =October 20, 1941| website =FamilySearch.org| access-date = Sep 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXQQ-NSJ | title =Beatrice Irwin California, Southern District Court (Central) Naturalization Index, 1915-1976| date =March 28, 1941| website =FamilySearch.org| access-date = Sep 27, 2019}}</ref> and her work on ''Heralds of Peace'' was among the materials encouraged in a Baháʼí project in the southwest.<ref>{{cite news| title = Teaching project in Southwestern states| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =5| date =Mar 1941 |number=142| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File%3ABaha%27i_News_142.pdf&page=5| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> But in the middle of 1941 she went to Rio de Janeiro in June,<ref>{{cite news| title =Brazil| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =10| date =June 1941| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=379 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite web| title = Beatrice Irwin Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJY-TX97| website =FamilySearch.org| date = May 5, 1941| access-date =Sep 25, 2019 }}{{registration required}} * {{cite web |title=Beatrice Irwin Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJB-MTT7| website =FamilySearch.org| date = May 5, 1941| access-date =Sep 25, 2019 }}{{registration required}}</ref> returned from Santos in early October,<ref name=Irwin1941/> and wrote about her visit.<ref>{{cite news |title=Panama |newspaper=Baha'i News |page=5| date =October 1941 |number=147| url=http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=413 |access-date=Sep 25, 2019}} * {{cite news |title=Brazil |newspaper =Baha'i News |page=4 |date=November 1941 |number=148 |url=http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=424 |access-date=Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> It is known she visited with Baháʼí pioneer Leonora Armstrong<ref>{{cite news |author=Kristine Leonard Burgess| title =Biography - A loving portrait of an eventful life spent in service of the Cause of God |newspaper=Baha'i News| pages =6–9| date =Aug 1982 | issn= 0195-9212 |number= 617| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File%3ABaha%27i_News_617.pdf&page=8 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019 }}</ref> and getting some professional work done.<ref>{{cite news| title =Brazil| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =4| date =Feb 1942 |number=151| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=02&page=454 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> A year later she wrote an article about her experience in Brazil in ''World Order'',<ref>{{cite news| title =Brazil in Renaissance |author= Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = World Order |volume=8 |number=11 |pages=388–91|date=Feb 1943| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order_Vol8_Issue11.pdf&page=30 |access-date=Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> speaking of the relatively modern peace seeking civilization of the country and of a period of relatively mild colonialization process. She elaborated she was a traveling "good will correspondent" finding a meeting hall that regularly discussed the ideas of Auguste Comte and spoke with the Oslwaldo Cruz Institute, as it was then called, and though the countryside was to her eyes "poor and backward" it was also "devoid of beggary" and generally the country was at the time "free of tension, suspicion and fear".
She was in Brooklyn in January 1942 where she gave a couple talks,<ref>{{cite news| title = Baha'i Centre| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =8| date =3 Jan 1942| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307740/bahais_ali_kuli_khan_and_beatrice/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Baha'i Centre| newspaper =The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| location =Brooklyn, New York| page =8| date =17 Jan 1942| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10307729/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talk_at_center/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> before going to DC reviewing some of her trips with slides.<ref>{{cite news| title =Baha'i Center Talk| newspaper =Evening Star| location =Washington, DC| page = 4 | date =February 15, 1942| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A13D5DA85AE05A305%40GB3NEWS-14874C5B1F0341AF%402430406-148730818D9E2604%403-148730818D9E2604%40| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> By May she was in Los Angeles for some talks on Baháʼí subjects and meetings into the summer.<ref>{{cite news| title = Baha'i Service| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =19| date =23 May 1942| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6272185/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Baha'i public meeting| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =34| date =24 May 1942| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321881/bahai_beatrice_irwin_in_talk_at_meeting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Baha'i public meeting| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =24| date =28 Jun 1942| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6272221/bahai_beatrice_franklin_talks_at/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Baha'i service| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =17| date =19 Sep 1942| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321914/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talk_at_meeting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She also wrote a letter to the editor of the ''LA Times'' "North Africa - land of magic" in November.<ref>{{cite news| title =North Africa - land of magic |author= Beatrice Irwin| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =18| date =14 Nov 1942| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36228746/bahai_beatrice_irwin/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Though starting with mention of the war coverage and trade relations America had with the region and their support for America, it shifts to a tourist experience of modernized cities and ports and especially in Morocco and generally of French influence. Meanwhile Irwin contributed a poem on the Báb to volume 8 of ''The Baháʼí World'',<ref>{{cite book| author= Beatrice Irwin| title =Baha'i World |chapter=Song offerings; The Báb| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Trust| series = biennial international record| volume =8| edition =reprint| date =1981 |orig-year= 1942| location =Wilmette, Illinois| page =945| url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_8 |chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Vol8_Pt4.pdf&page=178| oclc= 13195820 <!-- can't find oclc this volume but see oclc 32960579 --> }}</ref> another in honor of Martha Root,<ref>{{cite book| author= Beatrice Irwin| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=Song offerings; The Lone-star| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Trust| series = biennial international record| volume =8| edition =reprint| date =1981 |orig-year= 1942| location =Wilmette, Illinois| page =961| url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_8 |chapter-url= https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Vol8_Pt4.pdf&page=194| oclc= 13195820 <!-- can't find oclc this volume but see oclc 32960579 --> }}</ref> was credited as an American contributing to the efforts of the Baháʼís in England,<ref>{{cite book| author= Beatrice Irwin| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=Current Baha'i activities| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Trust| series = biennial international record| volume =8| edition =reprint| date =1981 |orig-year= 1942| location =Wilmette, Illinois| page =129| url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_8 |chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Vol8_Pt1.pdf&page=130| oclc= 13195820 <!-- can't find oclc this volume but see oclc 32960579 --> }}</ref> and she contributed an article entitled ''The New Citizenship''.<ref name=IrwinonCitizenship>{{cite book| author= Beatrice Irwin| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=The New Citizenship| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Trust| series = biennial international record| volume =8| edition =reprint| date =1981 |orig-year= 1942| location =Wilmette, Illinois| pages =831–4 | url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_8 |chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Vol8_Pt4.pdf&page=64 | oclc= 13195820 <!-- can't find oclc this volume but see oclc 32960579 --> }}</ref> She observes that citizenship was "of the man who would subordinate his personal interests and welfare to that of the community. The citizen, then, was one who through ability and unselfishness built up those cities of antiquity which have bequeathed their rich legacies of education, culture and morality to our day,"<ref name=IrwinonCitizenship/> reviews samples of the forms of citizenship through the ages and then says "With pain man has renounced many physical, mental and moral limitations, and now we stand at a transcendent moment in history, when the patriotism of lands is being expanded into a patriotism of humanity, when man is progressing from self-consciousness into that scientific recognition of a unity of life that means soul-consciousness. This state demands the re-birth of both faith and free will, and it is the urgent problem that the present chaos is solving,… the new pattern of citizenship proclaimed by Baha'u'llah contain the seeds of a spiritual democracy…."<ref name="IrwinonCitizenship" />
She was then visible giving talks in the Los Angeles area in the spring of 1943 and later summer about her international travels or with Baháʼís.<ref>{{cite news| title =Pleiades to assemble| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =60| date =11 Apr 1943| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321967/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title = Bullock's| newspaper = Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =28| date =26 Apr 1943| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10321983/advert_for_talk_by_bahai_beatrice_irwin/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Baha'i service| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =27| date =14 Aug 1943| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6272866/bahai_beatrice_franklin_talks_at/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Noting that travel was limited during war time,<ref>{{cite news| title =Centenary committee important announcement| newspaper =Baha'i News |number=168| page =3| date =Mar 1944| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:Baha%27i_News_168.pdf&page=4 | access-date = Sep 12, 2018 }}</ref> she appeared again there in February 1944.<ref>{{cite news| title =Baha'i World Faith (advert)| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =11| date =5 Feb 1944| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6273075/bahai_beatrice_irwin_gives_talk/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She also contributed to and commented on in several parts of ''Baháʼí World'' volume 9.<ref>{{cite book| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=Bahaʼi publications |page=36| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =9| date =1945| location =Wilmette, IL| oclc= 1772030| chapter-url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_9 }} * {{cite book| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=Teaching activity |pages= 55, 84, 87| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =9| date =1945| location =Wilmette, IL| oclc= 1772030| chapter-url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_9 }} * {{cite book| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=Uniting the Americas |author= Garreta Busey |pages= 186, 189, 191| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =9| date =1945| location =Wilmette, IL| oclc= 1772030| chapter-url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_9 }} * {{cite book| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=The Bahaʼi Faith in the Colleges |author= Dorothy Beecher Baker | page=773| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =9| date =1945| location =Wilmette, IL| oclc= 1772030| chapter-url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_9 }} * {{cite book| title =Baháʼí World |chapter=Verse; Day of God | page= 932| publisher =Baháʼí Publishing Committee| series =biennial international record| volume =9| date =1945| location =Wilmette, IL| oclc= 1772030| chapter-url =https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_9 }}</ref>
In 1945 Irwin's poem "Day of God" was published in the February edition of ''World Order'',<ref>{{cite magazine| title =The Day of God(poem) |author= Beatrice Irwin| magazine =World Order |volume=10 |number=11| page =349| date =Feb 1945| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order_Vol10_Issue11.pdf&page=21 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> while she was in the Los Angeles area giving a talk.<ref>{{cite news| title =Baha'i service| newspaper = Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =14| date =3 Mar 1945| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10322005/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She took part in the effort for the recognitions of the religion with the UN in 1945.<ref name=BWBio/>
She was visible again in Los Angeles in April a year later.<ref>{{cite news| title =Baha'i Service| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =11| date =20 Apr 1946| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6273978/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Her article "The New Civilization" was published in ''World Order'' the same time.<ref>{{cite magazine| title =The New Civilization |author= Beatrice Irwin| magazine = World Order| pages =23–6| date =April 1946 |volume= 12 | issue= 1| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order_Vol12_Issue1.pdf&page=25 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> During the year she is known to have consulted with the committee managing the Baháʼí House of Worship at Wilmette.<ref>{{cite book|author= Whitmore, Bruce W.|year= 1984|title= The Dawning Place: The Building of a Temple, the Forging of the North American Baháʼí Community|publisher= Baháʼí Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, USA|isbn= 0-87743-192-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iO9IAQAAIAAJ|page=311}}</ref> By mid-January 1947 she was visible in Los Angeles again.<ref>{{cite news| title =Prayer and faith| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =11| date =18 Jan 1947| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6277320/bahai_beatrice_erwin_talks_at_center/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
A year later in late 1948 Irwin is noted in Tunis and headed to Marseilles amidst which she had already held several weekly meetings and radio broadcasts and an assembly elected by early 1949.<ref>{{cite news| title =Operation Tunis!| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =9| date =Feb 1949 |number=216| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=03&page=67 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> The initiative was due to a suggestion of Shoghi Effendi.<ref name=BWBio/> A picture of the assembly of Tunis was published in June.<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin…| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =10| date =June 1949 |number=220| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File%3ABaha%27i_News_220.pdf&page=10| access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> Irwin returned to America arriving in Long Beach California by July where she gave a couple talks starting on her book "Heralds of Peace" and mentioning her recent travels,<ref>{{cite news| title =Bahai peace group to meet| newspaper =Long Beach Independent| location =Long Beach, California| page =12| date =4 Jul 1949| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308336/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talk_and_book_at/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and then on "What are the requisites of a new civilization?".<ref>{{cite news| title =Forum names final speaker| newspaper = Long Beach Independent| location =Long Beach, California| page =17| date =19 Jul 1949| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10322081/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_meeting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Irwin's trip and work as reported from Long Beach was included in a reactionary feeling of threat about world government in an October article in New Mexico a year later.<ref>{{cite news| title = The one-big-world-government…| newspaper =Clovis News-Journal| location =Clovis, New Mexico| page =45| date =1 Oct 1950| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10322285/bahai_beatrice_irwin_letter_to_long/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Then she was back to take part in a November regional meeting in the LA area noting the growth of pre-assembly communities,<ref>{{cite news| title =The Home Front; Southern Calif RTC| newspaper =Baha'i News| page =14| date =March 1950| url =http://bahai-news.info/viewer.erb?vol=03&page=236 | access-date =Sep 25, 2019}}</ref> and herself spoke at a meeting by early December.<ref>{{cite news| title = Baha'i World Faith (advert)| newspaper =Los Angeles Times| location =Los Angeles, California| page =19| date =10 Dec 1949| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6277488/bahai_advert_for_talk_by_beatrice_irwin/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> Amidst these activities her work on color and demonstrations years earlier was remembered.<ref>{{cite book| author= Audrey Kargere| title =Color and personality| publisher =Philosophical Library| date = 1949| location = New York, NY| pages =29–30| url =https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002139957&view=1up&seq=53 | isbn= 9780877284789|oclc= 1037536131}}</ref> Meanwhile she gave a talk at the Baháʼí House of Worship in early September.<ref>{{cite news| title = Baha'i speaker| newspaper =Chicago Daily Tribune| location =Chicago, Illinois| page =87| date =3 Sep 1950| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10322196/bahai_beatrice_irwin_talks_at_temple/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> A couple weeks later she was in Sydney giving a talk for the religion.<ref>{{cite news| title =Public Notices; Baha'i World Faith| newspaper = The Sun| location =Sydney, NSW| page =20| date = 19 Oct 1950| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229629396 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
In July 1951 she gave a talk at an art gallery and it was noted she had a private collection part of which she loaned for an exhibition in Los Angeles, (and the news coverage mentioned her grandparents Sir John and Lady Hall.<ref>{{cite news| title =To Display Embroideries| newspaper =Palos Verdes Peninsula News| page =1| date = 12 July 1951| url =https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=PVPN19510712.2.9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She was back in Tucson, Arizona, through most of January of the new year,<ref>{{cite news| title =Miss Beatrice Irwin spends season here| newspaper = Arizona Daily Star | location =Tucson, Arizona| page =41| date =6 Jan 1952| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10322361/bahai_beatrice_irwin_wintering_in/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =Baha'i sponsors talks on world security| newspaper =Tucson Daily Citizen| location =Tucson, Arizona| page =11| date =19 Jan 1952| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10322411/bahais_mrs_stanley_boyle_and/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}} * {{cite news| title =International relations| newspaper = Arizona Daily Star| location =Tucson, Arizona| page =37| date =20 Jan 1952| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10322466/bahais_charles_aliais_and_beatrice/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> and then in March back in California over in Santa Cruz.<ref>{{cite news| title =Baha'i group plans potluck dinner March 28| newspaper = Santa Cruz Sentinel| location =Santa Cruz, California| page =3| date =6 Mar 1952| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3883207/bahai_beatrice_williams_hosts_meeting/ | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
In October and into November 1953 she was visible in San Diego giving several talks.<ref>{{cite news| title =Lecture series opens| newspaper =San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page = 5 | date = October 17, 1953| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13BF214B5A4A3CAF%402434668-13BE83AC2810F458%404-13BE83AC2810F458%40| access-date = Oct 6, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =What's going on in S.D.| newspaper =San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page =6 | date =October 19, 1953| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13BF214D2B99C0BF%402434670-13BE83AD06D9A0BC%405-13BE83AD06D9A0BC%40| access-date = Oct 6, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Campbell studies plan for Balboa pageant| newspaper = San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page = 21| date = November 27, 1953| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13BF202A246BB11D%402434709-13BE83A1F57E6A88%4020-13BE83A1F57E6A88%40| access-date = Oct 6, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> In January 1954 she spoke for a garden club about "Famous garden around the world" which she repeated in February,<ref>{{cite news| title =Famous gardens subject of talk| newspaper =San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page =89| date =January 17, 1954| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13BF368DF197727F%402434760-13BE838C8422AEB7%4088-13BE838C8422AEB7%40| access-date = Oct 6, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite news| title =Floral group to hear talk by Beatrice Irwin| newspaper = San Diego Union| location = San Diego, CA | page =88| date =Feb 14, 1954| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13BF32628E086638%402434788-13BE83B41FEB0D85%4087-13BE83B41FEB0D85%40 | access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> when her work on color was recalled in Hawaii.<ref>{{cite news| title = Be sure to heed color factor |author=Gay Burk| newspaper =Honolulu Star-Bulletin| location =Honolulu, Hawaii| page =17| date =13 Feb 1954| url =https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10308094/bahai_beatrice_irwin_work_in_color/| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref> She observed Naw Ruz in San Diego contributing a talk with color slides of Baháʼí Temples, Shrines and Gardens.<ref>{{cite news| title =Naw Ruz rites to be observed| newspaper = San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| page =36 | date =March 19, 1954| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13C36A6C60953825%402434821-13BEDD1C0F7B5C29%4035-13BEDD1C0F7B5C29%40ac| access-date = Oct 6, 2019}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Later that year she pioneered to Mallorca.<ref name="BWBio" />
===Death=== Irwin died in 1956 in San Diego.<ref>{{cite news| title = Miss Irwin, Lecturer, Author, Dies| newspaper =San Diego Union| location =San Diego, California| pages =27| date =March 22, 1956| url =https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13BE8DFCA05A8955%402435555-13BE8B276F81A915%4026-13BE8B276F81A915%40| access-date = Oct 6, 2019}}{{subscription required}} * {{cite web| url =https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VGYF-K29| title = Beatrice Irwin California Death Index, 1940-1997| date = 20 Mar 1956| website =FamilySearch.org| access-date = Oct 6, 2019 }}</ref> "Grieved passing steadfast devoted indefatigable promoter Faith. Reward assured Kingdom. Praying progress soul." was the telegram from Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States dated March 23, 1956.<ref>{{cite news| author=Shoghi Effendi| title = Grieved passing indefatigable promoter| newspaper = Baha'i News| page =6| date = May 1956 |number=303| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:Baha%27i_News_303.pdf&page=6| access-date = Oct 10, 2019 }}</ref> Some lost track of her in Spain.<ref name="McFarlanePhD" />{{rp|p199}} The Baháʼís published a biography of her in 1970.<ref name="BWBio" />
==Review and commentary== ===Reprints=== Irwin's work on the importance of color has been picked up by the artist community at least from the 1950s.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Wyatt|first= R. C. |date= June 1956 |title= The Symbolism of Color in the Drama of German Expressionism|type= PhD |publisher=Department of German in State College of University of Iowa |oclc= 222506799 |page =5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ethel Hall Bjerkoe|title=How to Decorate for and with Antiques|url=https://archive.org/details/howtodecoratefor00bjer|url-access=registration|year=1959|publisher=Doubleday|page=[https://archive.org/details/howtodecoratefor00bjer/page/34 34]}}</ref>
In Baháʼí circles, the opening poem of chapter 12 of Hasan Balyuzi's 1973 biography of the Báb has a poem of Irwin's,<ref>{{cite book|author=H. M. Balyuzi | author-link =Hasan Balyuzi |title=The Báb: The Herald of the Day of Days|url=https://archive.org/details/thebbtheheraldof49257gut |year=1994 |orig-year=1973|publisher=G. Ronald|isbn=978-0-85398-048-3 |oclc=713758450|page=149}}</ref> and it's been repeated.<ref>{{cite journal| author =Beatrice Irwin| title =That Midsummer Noone; The Martyrdom of the Báb| journal =Baha'i Journal| volume =7| issue =3| page =15| date =June 1990| url =https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:Bahai_Journal_Vol7_Issue3.pdf&page=17| oclc =843959432| location =London, Uk| publisher =National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United Kingdom| access-date =Oct 10, 2019| archive-date =December 20, 2021| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20211220033121/https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:Bahai_Journal_Vol7_Issue3.pdf&page=17| url-status =dead}}</ref> Irwin was mentioned in a French language book on the history of the Baháʼí Faith in Spain from the 1990s.<ref>{{cite book|author=Navid Mohabbat|title=Brisa en el amanecer: orígenes (1874-1957) : la fe Baháʼí en España| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pv_jAAAAMAAJ| date=1 January 1997|publisher=Editorial Baháʼí de España|isbn=978-84-89677-09-8| pages=53–4,520}}</ref>
In addition for her commentary on Rodin being recalled,<ref name=RodinCantorGift/> her pioneering theatrical work was recalled in 2009.<ref>{{cite web| title = CURTAIN CALL: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance| url =http://www.nymuseums.com/lm09011t.htm#_Toc220387980| website = Glenn Loney's Museum Notes | date = January 2009| access-date =Oct 12, 2019}}</ref> And Irwin's words on color resonated to the point they were worth repeating in audio book form for artist Sue Anderson and published by Librivox.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://audiobooks.oliveandseablue.com/2018/08/| title =The Science of Color| author =Sue Anderson| date =August 2018| website =Sue's Audio Books| access-date =Oct 10, 2019| archive-date =October 10, 2019| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20191010141443/http://audiobooks.oliveandseablue.com/2018/08/| url-status =dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title =The New Science of Color |chapter=The Color Development of Thirteen Countries| publisher =librivox| author1=Beatrice Irwin |author2=read by Sue Anderson| series =LibriVox 13th Anniversary Collection| date =Aug 1, 2018| chapter-url =https://librivox.org/librivox-13th-anniversary-collection/ }}</ref>
===Australian art=== From at least 2005 a number of publications have picked up Irwin's effect on Australian art. It begins with the interests of Australian academics Deborah Hart and Jenny McFarlane.<ref>{{cite news | last = McFarlane | first = J. | title =A Fourth-Dimensional Emotion | newspaper = Art Monthly | location = Australia |number=182 | pages =31–33 | date = August 2005 | url =http://www.artmonthly.org.au/issue-182-august-2005 }}</ref> In 2006 McFarlane wrote a PhD dissertation with extensive review of Irwin's effect on Australian art.<ref name=McFarlanePhD/> In 2008 some symposium papers were presented by Hart and McFarlane,<ref name=TheosophicalSydney>{{cite conference| author=Jenny McFarlane| title =A Theosophical Sydney: A context for the colour-music theory |editor1=Nick Waterlow |editor2=Annabel Pegus | book-title =Symposium Papers:Colour in Art - Revisiting 1919| pages =23–4?| publisher =College of Fine Arts| date = 2008| location =Sydney, Australia |oclc=298587328| isbn = 9780733426636 }}</ref><ref name=SymposiumPapers>{{cite conference| author=Deborah Hart| title =Beatrice Irwin and Grace Cossington Smith: Women on the Wings of Colour in Art| book-title =Symposium papers: colour in art - revisiting 1919 & R-Balson-/41| pages =17–22| publisher =Ivan Dougherty Gallery | date =2008 |isbn= 9780733427053 |oclc= 298587328| location = Anthony Horderns' Fine Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia| url =https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/27153835?q&versionId=45257489 | access-date =Sep 26, 2019}}</ref> where it was published that Deborah Hart traced the source of Australian artist Roy de Maistre thoughts on color to Irwin.<ref name=SymposiumPapers/> In 2009 another Australian academic Andrew McNamara picked up the theme.<ref>{{cite book|author= Andrew McNamara |editor1=Sascha Bru|editor2=Jan Baetens|editor3=Benedikt Hjartarson|editor4=Peter Nicholls |editor5= Tania Ørum|editor6= Hubert van den Berg|title=Europa! Europa?: The Avant-Garde, Modernism and the Fate of a Continent|chapter=The Colour of Modernism: Colour-Form Experiments in Europe and Australia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Al5dtvq1AXYC |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Al5dtvq1AXYC&pg=PA499 |date=29 October 2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-021772-8|pages=498–9}}</ref> de Maistre had led a 1919 "Colour in art" exhibition in Australia<ref name=TheosophicalSydney/>{{rp|p1}} which also brought in the interests of Charles Webster Leadbeater who had moved to Australia in 1914 and died in 1934. Irwin's ''New Science of Colour'' was a significant influence at the exhibition,<ref name=TheosophicalSydney/>{{rp|p24}} and de Maistre took notes directly based on it as well.<ref name=TheosophicalSydney/>{{rp|p24}}
Australian painter Grace Cossington Smith also was much affected by Irwin in context with de Maistre and others.<ref name=Alderton/>{{rp|p251}}<ref>{{cite conference| author=Jenny McFarlane| title =A Theosophical Sydney: A context for the colour-music theory |editor1=Nick Waterlow |editor2=Annabel Pegus | book-title =Symposium Papers:Colour in Art - Revisiting 1919| pages =23–4?| publisher =College of Fine Arts| date = 2008| location =Sydney, Australia | isbn = 9780733426636}}</ref> In 1924 Cossington Smith transcribed Irwin's ''The New Science of Colour'' probably from a copy her local library had and was called a mentor of Cossington Smith by McFarlane.<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|pp198,202}} McFarlane associates Irwin's ideas on color coming from Theosophy<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|pp199-201}} but distinguishes that Irwin was not a member of the British Theosophical Society,<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|p198}} though seeing Irwin's use of the word ''Science'' in the title as an occult use of the word and not a mainstream one.<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|p198}} McFarlane sees some of Cossington Smith's paintings are strongly affected by Irwin's ideas.<ref name=McFarlanePhD/>{{rp|p206}} While Cossington Smith was closely referring to Irwin's work in 1924 it wasn't until 1926 Cossington Smith was visible connecting with Theosophy in Australia.<ref name=Alderton/>{{rp|p252}} Though Baháʼís in Australia had been connected with theosophical interests, this came later.<ref>{{cite journal| author=Graham Hassall| title =Outpost of a World Religion: The Baháʼí Faith in Australia 1920-1947 | journal =Journal of Religious History| volume = 16| issue =3| pages =315–338| date =June 1991| url =https://bahai-library.com/hassall_outpost_world_religion | oclc= 641869954| access-date = Oct 9, 2019}}</ref>
In 2011 this theme was picked up by Australian academic Zoe Alderton,<ref name=Alderton>{{cite journal| author= Zoe Alderton | title =Colour, Shape, and Music: The Presence of Thought Forms in Abstract Art | journal =Literature & Aesthetics| volume = 21 | issue =1| pages =236–258| date = June 2011| url =https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/LA/article/viewFile/5058/5763 | issn =2200-0437|oclc=7019067529| access-date = Sep 26, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|p236}} and British academic Rev. Jane Shaw.<ref>{{cite episode| title = The Mystical Turn; Kandinsky and Contemporaries|people= Jane Shaw | url =https://chromemedia.co.uk/the-mystical-turn/| series = The Essay| network = BBC Radio 3| air-date = <!-- 16 to -->20 May 2011 }}</ref>
In 2017 Nicholas Gaskill, recently appointed an Associate Professor of American Literature at Oxford University coming from Rutgers University,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rai.ox.ac.uk/article/merve-emre-and-nicholas-gaskill-appointed-as-associate-professors-of-american-literature|title=Merve Emre and Nicholas Gaskill appointed as Associate Professors of American Literature | publisher= Rothermere American Institute|website=www.rai.ox.ac.uk|access-date=2019-08-03}}</ref> called Irwin a kind of Loie Fuller referencing her work ''The New Science of Color''.<ref>{{cite magazine| title = The Articulate Eye: Color-Music, the Color Sense, and the Language of Abstraction |author= Nicholas Gaskill| magazine =Configurations |volume= 25| number= 4| pages =475–505| date =<!-- Fall, --> 2017| url =https://muse.jhu.edu/article/675014|doi=10.1353/con.2017.0029 |issn=1080-6520| access-date = Sep 24, 2019}}</ref>
==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|author=Beatrice Irwin|title=The Pagan Trinity|url=https://archive.org/details/pagantrinity00irwigoog |year=1912|publisher=John Lane the Bodley Head|location= London, UK}} * {{cite book|author=Beatrice Irwin|title=The New Science of Color|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nCUaAAAAIAAJ |year=1915|publisher=Union Lithograph}} * {{cite book| author=Beatrice Irwin| title =The gates of light; a record of progress in the engineering of colour and light| publisher =Mayflower Press, Plymouth (William Brendon & Sons, LTD), and D. McKay |location= Great Britain and Philadelphia| url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007476010| date =1930 <!-- The Brendon & Sons edition is itself undated but cf page 21 "in this year's International Exposition at Barcelona" which happened in 1930 - and the last mention included in the text is from July 21, 1930 referring to a future installation upcoming. -->| oclc = 702494199 <!-- later print in 1931 by D. McKay in Philadelphia --> }} * {{cite book| author=Beatrice Irwin | title = Heralds of peace| date =1938| location =Philadelphia| oclc= 44482992}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irwin, Beatrice}} Category:American Baháʼís Category:British Baháʼís Category:People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College Category:1877 births Category:1953 deaths Category:Converts to the Baháʼí Faith Category:20th-century Baháʼís Category:American women engineers Category:Scottish stage actresses Category:Scottish women poets