Early Iranian–American Relations
First Persian Diplomat to USA
Portrait of Hajji Hossein-Gholi Khan Noori (1849–1937), a Qajar diplomat and the first Persian envoy sent to the United States. In 1888 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Washington, marking the beginning of formal diplomatic relations between Persia and the United States. During his stay he collected American newspaper clippings about Iran and helped introduce the country to American scholars and the public.
First American Diplomat to The Sublime State of Persia
Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin was the first diplomatic representative of the United States to Persia, appointed in 1883 by President Chester A. Arthur. He traveled to Tehran during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, marking the beginning of formal diplomatic relations between the United States and Persia. Benjamin later wrote Persia and the Persians (1886), one of the first books introducing Persian culture to American readers.
His mission in Tehran helped establish the early foundations of U.S.–Iran diplomatic relations in the late nineteenth century.