TheTheosophical Society in Detroit
Chartered in 1916 as a Branch of the Theosophical Society of America

Madame Blavatsky            Colonel Olcott

The Theosophy Society was founded by Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott on November 17, 1875 in New York City. 

Madame Blavatsky was a Russian of noble birth. As a young woman, she traveled all over the world in search of wisdom about the nature of life and the reason for human existence. Eventually, Blavatsky brought the spiritual wisdoms of the East and of ancient Western mysteries to the modern West where they were virtually unknown. Her writings became the first exposition of modern Theosophy

Colonel Olcott was a veteran of the Civil War, during which he had been a special investigator into corruption in the armed services and after which he was a member of the commission appointed to investigate the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He was also an internationally renowned agricultural authority. Olcott related the timeless wisdom of Theosophy to the cultures of both East and West, applied it to everyday life, and built the Society into an international organization.

In 1879, the principal founders, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, moved to India, where the Society spread rapidly. In 1882, they established the Society's international headquarters in Adyar, in Madras (recently renamed Chennai). The national headquarters in the U.S., called the Olcott Center, is in Wheaton, Illinois.

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