The Baháʼí Faith was first mentioned in the United States in 1893 at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Soon after, early American converts began embracing the new religion. Thornton Chase was the most prominent among the first American Baha'is and made important contributions to early activities. One of the first Baháʼí institutions in the U.S. was established in Chicago and called the Baháʼí Temple Unity, incorporated in 1909 to facilitate the establishment of the first Baháʼí House of Worship in the West, which was eventually built in Wilmette, Illinois and dedicated in 1953. As of 2020 the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies noted the Baháʼí Faith was the largest non-Christian religion in the majority of US counties.

ʻAbdu'l-Bahá became head of the Baháʼí Faith after his father Baha'u'llah (Founder of the religion) died in 1892. He visited the United States and Canada in 1912, ultimately reaching some 40 cities from April to December. He promoted his father's teachings on peace and unity and consolidated the fledgling western Baháʼí community. After returning from his journey, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá continued corresponding with American Baháʼís, eventually addressing to them a series of letters, or tablets, charging the believers with the task of spreading the religion worldwide. These letters were compiled in Tablets of the Divine Plan.

Following ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death in 1921, his grandson Shoghi Effendi became the Guardian of the Faith, and continued to encourage and direct the efforts of the American and worldwide Baháʼí community. In 1925, the first National Spiritual Assembly of the United States was formed in conjunction with the Baháʼís of Canada. In 1937, Shoghi Effendi asked believers to begin the systematic implementation of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's vision of teaching the Faith worldwide, calling for American pioneers to assist in establishing Baháʼí communities in the republics of Latin America. Later coordinated efforts, such as the Ten Year Crusade from 1953–63, would see American pioneers sent to a wide variety of locations around the globe.

At the conclusion of the first 7-year Plan in 1944, it was reported that every state in the United States had at least one Local Spiritual Assembly, and the national Baháʼí population was estimated at 4,800. In its 2020 annual report, the National Spiritual Assembly of the 48 contiguous states reported 177,647 registered Baháʼís of all ages, only 77,290 of which had good addresses, and 57,341 total participants in core activities, with 37% of attendees from outside of the Baháʼí population.

Early history The first mention of events related to the history of the religion in the United States appears to be the 1845-6 echo of the Nov 1845 London Times story relating events of the Báb upon return from pilgrimage, whom Baháʼís hold as a direct precursor akin to the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus. In America this was printed in April 1846 in the Boon Lick Times based on an article in the NY Mirror. A mention in 1850 followed. The first academic paper on the religion was a letter written to the American Oriental Society which was holding its meeting in Boston and the library of materials was held at the Boston Athenæum. The letter was originally published as part of the minutes of the Society in The Literary World of June 14, 1851, as an untitled entry whose first quote is "notice of a singular character, who has for some years past played a prominent part on the stage of Persian life" dated February 10, 1851 by Dr. Rev. Austin H. Wright. It was subsequently also published in a Vermont newspaper June 26, 1851. In 1893 Rev. Henry Harris Jessup addressed the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago with the first mention the Baháʼí Faith itself in the United States - and published in the Chicago Inter Ocean and manuscript. Anton Haddad, the first Baháʼí to come to America was already in the country.

First community Following Haddad, Ibrahim George Kheiralla came to the US and settled in New York where he began to teach "Truth Seeker" classes. He visited Charles Augustus Briggs and others, as well as the Syrian community in New York however in 1894 Kheiralla moved on to Chicago following the interest fostered by the World's Columbian Exposition's World Parliament of Religions. One of the early converts while Kheiralla was in Chicago was Thornton Chase, who had read the presentation about the Baháʼís at the Exposition, and is generally considered the first Baháʼí convert in the West. Other individuals had converted, but none remained members of the religion. Later students of Kheiralla's included Howard MacNutt, who would later compile The Promulgation of Universal Peace, a prominent collection of the addresses of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá during his journeys in America. Both men were designated as "Disciples of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá" and "Heralds of the Covenant" by Shoghi Effendi. Another student of the classes and Disciple was Lua Getsinger, designated as the "mother teacher of the West". Another who "passed" the class and joined the religion was the maverick Honoré Jackson. Kheiralla moved once again, to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1895, where a large Baháʼí community soon developed.

In 1898, Kheiralla undertook a Baháʼí pilgrimage to Palestine to meet ʻAbdu'l-Bahá with other American pilgrims, including Phoebe Hearst, Lua Getsinger and joined by May Bolles. Kheiralla began making claims of independent leadership and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá sent, first, Anton Haddad with a letter contesting the definition of leadership, then Khieralla's initial teacher of the religion, ʻAbdu'l-Karím-i-Tihrání, to confront him. The conflict made the newspapers.*

Ultimately unwilling to follow the leadership of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, he was declared a Covenant-breaker.

In the earliest decades of the religion in the country the US the membership had rapid fluctuations that suffered from ill defined community experiences of what membership even meant. It had started with writing individual letters of declaration to 'Abdu'l-Baha but that became less common after 1900.

Green Acre

Meanwhile, to the east, Sarah Farmer had founded Green Acre following the enthusiasm of the same Parliament as a summer center of cross-religion gatherings and cultural development. She had success attracting investors, most especially Phoebe Hearst, but by the end of 1899 things were in crisis. According to scholar Eric Leigh Schmidt various people involved were trying to take Green Acre in various directions and threatened the shutdown of the programs Creditors were nervous, and her business partners had thought to force Farmer to sell out. While her partners were seeking to meet with her, Farmer was a guest already aboard the SS Fürst Bismarck For a picture see the first week of January 1900.Menon says she was aboard on Jan 1: ; Rideout, just prior, says February 23, two newspaper clippings the ship left mid first week of January.

During the voyage Farmer and Wilson met friends and learned they were on the way to see ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and were asked to come along. Wilson was dubious but eventually the ladies changed their plans and went along. before leaving for Haifa March 23, 1900. After converting to the religion on meeting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá Farmer returned to America and began settings plans for the 1901 session at Green Acre. Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl, among the most scholarly trained Baháʼís of the time, accompanied Anton Haddad returning to America and arrived for the 1901 season.*

Ali Kuli Khan, to serve as his translator, arrived in the United States in June. They had been sent by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. The later well-known Baháʼí Agnes Baldwin Alexander (in 1957, the head of the Baháʼí Faith, Shoghi Effendi, appointed her a Hand of the Cause of God, the highest rank one may hold as an individual Baháʼí), was also there. Out of this the community of Baháʼís began to form in Boston. Farmer and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá began an active exchange of letters some twenty-plus of his which were gathered and printed initially in 1909 and then the third edition in 1919.

Continued development That America went through a Civil War and achieved progress toward an emancipation of its black people is pointed at by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in 1912 as a basis of encouraging respect for America in its support for humanitarian and altruistic ideals. An appeal to the US for humanitarian interest goes as far back as 1867 when Baháʼís wrote a petition to the US Congress because it held no attachment to the present oppressive conditions in Persia. Baháʼu'lláh did himself address the "Rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics" (Ulysses S. Grant was USA President at the time) saying in part "Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice, and crush the oppressor who flourisheth with the rod of the commandments of your Lord…." Baháʼís also used diplomatic means to seek redress or relief. In 1901 when the American Baha'i community numbered only roughly 2000 members, they approached the US Ambassador to Persia Herbert W. Bowen in Paris concerning the situation of Baháʼís.* As an example of the persecution Baha'is faced (then and now) in Iran, even an American diplomat was murdered in 1924 by a mob on suspicion of being a Baháʼí intervening in a local matter.

In 1906 a government census reported through a scholar that there were 1280 Baháʼís in 24 places among 14 states. Early Baháʼís in this period included reformers and artists like Stanwood Cobb, Louis G. Gregory, and Juliet Thompson. Laura Clifford Barney interviewed ʻAbdu'l-Bahá on several teachings of the religion resulting in the early publication Some Answered Questions. The Baháʼí Temple Unity was incorporated in Chicago at a national convention in 1909 to facilitate the establishment of the first Baháʼí House of Worship in the West; 39 delegates from 36 cities attended. Star of the West was the first large periodical production in the country beginning in March, 1910. Thornton Chase scholar Robert Stockman underscores Chase' importance as an early North American Baháʼí thinker, publicist, administrator, and organizer who is still under appreciated, that "He is perhaps the only person (in America) before 1912 who had a thorough understanding of the Baháʼí concept of consultation." Chase was the prime mover behind many of the Chicago's early institutional activities and in many ways his sudden death left a gap in the North American Baháʼí community that remained unfilled until the rise to prominence in the early 1920s of Horace Holley, the chief developer of Baháʼí organization in the United States and Canada.

ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, while head of the religion, visited the United States and Canada, ultimately visiting some 40 cities, to once again spread his father's teachings. He arrived in New York City on 11 April 1912. While he spent most of his time in New York, he visited many cities on the east coast. Then in August he started a more extensive journey across America to the West coast before returning east at the end of October. On 5 December 1912 he set sail back to Europe from New York. During his nine months in North America, he met with many well known people as well as hundreds of American and Canadian Baháʼís who were recent converts to the religion. Accomplishments during the trip include setting examples of the core values of the religion - unity of humanity, and gender equality. First he demonstrated an advanced race-consciousness by glorifying diversity and black individuals on multiple occasions when racial segregation in the United States was the usual practice. And second, extending the progress of the equality of women and men. During his stay in America the lead all-male assembly was dissolved in favor of an integrated one of women and men.