R.Jackson Armstrong - Ingram  

author, archivist, musicologist, U.S.A.

1954 - 2004

Jackson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and educated himself so he was able to get a B.A. from Goshen College (Indiana, U.S) in one year, graduating in 1978. He married Karen Eggermont of South Bend, Indiana in 1976 and they have two sons, Conan and Tiernan.

Jackson started work at the Bahá´í House of Worship Archives in Wilmette in 1982. Then he worked for a telephone survey company, while living in South Bend, Indiana. In 1991, he set up the St. Joseph County Archives in South Bend, and worked with a variety of record holders in the area. During this time, he received his Archive Certification from the Illinois Historical Society, Chicago. In addition, Jackson taught evening Cultural Anthropology courses as an adjunct at Indiana University South Bend from 1993- 1997.

In 1997, Jackson moved to Carson City, Nevada, to continue archival work at the State Archives, becoming the state's first Electronic Records Archivist from July to October of 1999. After working as Archivist and Records Administrator for the city of Henderson, Nevada, from 1999 to the end of 2001, he became State Archivist for the state of Alaska in 2002. Health problems forced a return to Henderson, Indiana, where he continued to free- lance as an editor, consultant, and author for Kalimat Press, as well as a lecturer and consultant to other organizations.

In 2002, he published a book on Henderson, Nevada, entitled Images of America: Henderson. His work on electronic archives includes Digital Imaging Guidelines for Nevada Libraries and Archives (2003). His writing is considered of importance by many.

Jackson was a highly intelligent and creative individual who loved knowledge for its own sake. In his teens, he performed puppet shows for school children, limiting himself to puppets without strings using muppet-like creatures, as well as Chinese and Balinese puppets. After his marriage, he composed a melody to his wife, and, in 1983, a composition of his was performed at the Bahá´í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. Reading and writing were his favorite past-times. He enjoyed good conversation, good music, and loved nothing better than to expound on what he learned to a rapt audience.

R. Jackson Armstrong - Ingram died in Henderson, Nevada after a short illness, in October 2004.

Some links to articles written by Jackson
Article about Susan Moody (1851- 1934). An early Chicago Bahá´í and pioneer in the development of education and healthcare for women in Iran.

Excerpt from the article:
All together now: Liturgical refrains in Bahá´í Worship
by R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram

The translation of the "Song of the Holy Mariner" was published in the May 17 1922 (Azamat, 78, Vol 13,
no 4) issue of Star of the West pp. 75-77. The text is preceded by a note as follows:

Note the following instruction given by Shoghi Effendi: "Where the asterisks ( *** ) are placed the following chorus or burden of the song is every time repeated: 'Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!' After the last three verses of the song the chorus is as follows: 'Glorifed be our Lord, the Most High!' " {Emphasis added)

This wording clearly implies that Shoghi Effendi conceives of this as a 'performance' text. I do not discuss this text in my book, "Music, Devotions and the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár" (Kalimat 1987).

There I discuss the Lawh-i-Naqus in the brief section where I recount the exposure to, and use of, the Eastern Bahá’í devotional tradition by Western Bahá’ís before discussing the main topic of the book: the development of Western practices. Of the various Bahá’í texts in this form, the Lawh-i-Naqus seems to be the one to which Western Bahá’ís had most exposure. Indeed, it would seem that even on the first pilgrimage (1898-9) Bahiyyih Khanum taught the refrain to some of the young women who visited Akka. This might suggest that both this text, and the form it represents, had a particular resonance for Bahá’í practice in the Holy Land at that time.

Obviously, the problem with such a form is that someone with good enough knowledge of language and cantillation is needed for the verse part. Except for possibly some of the meetings arranged by Fareed around 1906, this was probably not often available to the Western community. However, I do think there was likely some use of the refrain as a 'free-standing' devotional practice. After all, the Western community did have a tune for the Arabic text of 'The Remover of Difficulties' at this time and this seems to have been widely used. The refrain from the Lawh-i-Naqus would be even easier to learn and, like 'The Remover..,' could be repeated a number of times. There does seem to have been a small, but appreciated, repertoire of sung short original texts available to the early Western Bahá’í community. But a verse/refrain text that required someone who could cope with the more complex cantillation of the verses would have been beyond them.

I am not aware of any attempt to use English translations of these texts in a cantillated form in the general US Bahá’í community. However, there would have been a model in the Bahá’í liturgies produced for St Mark's in the Bouwerie church in New York (possibly from as early as 1914, but certainly by the 1920s). These were likely cantillated in an Anglican high church fashion. They are arranged/paraphrased from translations of Bahá’í texts and include sections with responses, etc. Thus, at the time the 'Holy Mariner' was first published there was a model for its use, but a very culturally restricted one.

The longer term problem in the development of Bahá’í community devotional practice in the US was that the original impetus was in a, roughly-speaking, Chicago low-church context and by 1917 there was a power shift in the community to those from an East Coast high-church context. Although the St Mark's liturgies (which are actually of some interest) might seem likely to have more than a localised impact due to their association with this new power center, in actuality that group became disenchanted with both St Mark's and the idea of distinctive Bahá’í devotional practices. They were the 'Bahá’í Movement' boosters and tended to deprecate anything that was distinctively 'religious' especially if it was in any way 'enthusiastic.' As these verse/refrain forms derive from a very 'enthusiastic' and experiential Sufi concept of devotional practice it was not likely that they would be fostered by the US Bahá’í institutions during their development in the inter-war years...

Excerpt from Arts Dialogue, February 2000, page 23