This paper examines the significant connections between an American woman, Laura Barney (1879-1974), and Abdu'l-Baha, an Eastern spiritual leader. Her role in his trips to Europe (1911 and 1913) and to the United States (1912) will be examined. The paper will discuss some of the important meetings of Abdu'l-Baha at which Laura and her husband, Hippolyte Dreyfus, were present. It will indicate Laura and Hippolyte's role during certain of these visits and the Iranian dignitaries they met through him. Her role in facilitating the plans for his visit to the Western world will also be presented. Laura Barney was born to an affluent American family. Her mother, Alice Pike Barney, was a noted artist and prominent civic and social leader; her father was a wealthy financier. Laura and her older sister, Natalie, were educated principally in Paris. Laura was introduced to the Baha'i Faith in 1900 and soon after, visited Akka, Palestine, where Abdu'l-Baha was still living as a prisoner. On her many subsequent visits there, she learned Persian and became close to him and to his family. At the time of Abdu'l-Baha's first visit to the West, she lived in Paris with her husband, who had given up his legal career to devote himself to Oriental studies and religions. He had learned Arabic and Persian and translated many Baha'i scriptures into French. Laura and her husband acted as interpreters or took notes at many of Abdu'l-Baha's talks in the West. They were present, or accompanied him, to, London, Geneva, Thonon-les-Bains and Paris. They were also with him in New York and Washington D.C. Based on various published books, diaries, articles, obituaries, biographies and original archival materials in English, Persian and French, this research highlights a new dimension of Laura Dreyfus-Barney's life, piecing together fragmentary information to uncover the role of this remarkable early Western Baha'i during the Western visits of Abdu'l-Baha.