Edouard Blak

Edouard Blak Bey a.k.a. Edouard Blacque (1824–1895 ) was the first minister of the Ottoman Empire to the United States.

His father, a Frenchman descended from the Scottish Catholic Black family, Blak married an American woman whose father was a well-known surgeon.

Blak joined the Ottoman Foreign service with posts in Paris, France and Naples, Italy.

Blak appeared in a photograph with Robert E. Lee and other officials from the U.S. government. Sinan Kuneralp, author of "Ottoman Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in the United States of America, 1867-1917," described this photograph as "one of America's most valuable pictorial documents" and what Blak "is best remembered [for] today".

His term as U.S. envoy ended in 1873. He became president of Pera Municipality (now Beyoğlu), where he established a system of public parks that got inspiration from Washington, DC.