Zohrab Information Center Special Collections available to the public

On November 15, 2023November 16, 2023 By zohrabcenterIn Resources, Zohrab Center Interns, Zohrab Center photos, Zohrab Center Updates2 Comments

A group of special collections comprised of hundreds of photographs, letters, scrapbooks, and other artifacts has recently been processed and is now available for the interested public to view at the Zohrab Information Center. The collections were processed by Linda Smith, a graduate student at Simmons University, pursing a degree in Archives Management, who is concurrently an archival intern at the Zohrab Center.

The collection includes over 125 years of materials that were donated over the years by various individuals.

Dr Elias Riggs — Dr. Riggs was a missionary who lived from 1810-1901 and worked in the Ottoman Empire for decades. He helped guide the translation of the Bible into modern Armenian. The plate was made and colored by E.F. McLouglin, 36 Bromfield St., Boston.

The first series contains several small portrait photographs and photographic glass plates from Armenian photographers based in Constantinople/Istanbul in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. These photographs and plates show various leaders, religious figures, and people at work or with their families, as well as various sites in Armenia and the former Ottoman Empire.

Bashi Bozooks were irregular soldiers of the Ottoman army raised only in times of war.

Zeibek — Similar to a bashi bozook, a zeibek was an irregular militia and guerrilla fighter who lived in West Anatolia from the late 17th to early 20th centuries.

The second series consists of photographs and other personal artifacts from Zaven Melik-Shah Nazaroff, whose brother was Soss E. Melik. Both brothers were artists, but Soss’s renown far surpassed Zaven’s. Both brothers, their parents Efrem Melik Shah-Nazaroff and Maria Avanesov, and friends and family members are featured in photographs, and artwork from both brothers is photographed as well.

The next series is by far the largest and consists primarily of materials donated either by former diocesan employees or people active in the diocese. The contents document people and events related to the diocese, or were donated by people who thought the materials would be of interest to the diocese and those connected to it. The materials include photographs, photo albums, clippings, letters, postcards, certificates, and other documents.

Mekhitarist monks — This photograph’s caption (in French) translates to “Armenian church vestments” and refers to the island of San Lazarro degli Armeni, home to the Mekhitarist monastery.

From left, Reuben Nakian, Alex Manoogian, Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, Mrs. Reuben Nakian, and Mrs. Alex Manoogian. The sculpture on the left, a permanent installation on the St. Vartan cathedral plaza, was created by Nakian and is called “Descent from the Cross.”

Delegates and guests performing traditional Armenian dances at the gala banquet for the 88th Diocesan assembly in Worcester, Massachusetts on May 5, 1990.

Scrapbook — A unique feature of this collection is the numerous scrapbooks and photo albums available. Here is a two-page spread from one album, available in box 11.

The fourth series is the Ashjian family donation. Zovig Ashjian donated these photographs, which are primarily of her father, Fr. Arten Ashjian (1919–2016), who played an influential and leading role in the diocese throughout his long pastoral ministry, including at St. James in Watertown, MA (1955–1969) and as a teacher at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary.

Father Ashjian, John A. Volpe, Archbishop Sion Manoogian — From left, Fr. Arten Ashjian, Massachusetts Governor John A. Volpe, and Archbishop Sion Manoogian at a banquet in Boston on March 28, 1965.

Father Ashjian — Fr. Arten Ashjian celebrating with others at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in 1988. To Fr. Arten’s left are current seminary dean Fr. Mardiros Chevian and current Diocesan Vicar Fr. Simeon Odabashian.

The next series is the Joseph and Joyce Chorbajian donation. Joseph served on the original steering committee responsible for the construction of St. Vartan Cathedral. After the cathedral was operational, he served in many positions within the diocese. Several photographs show Joseph, his wife Armenouhie, and daughter Joyce throughout his life. Highlights of this donation include old passports of Joseph, Armenouhie, and Joseph’s mother Veronica and cards and letters congratulating Joseph for different honors bestowed upon him by the diocese and a banquet held in his honor on November 6, 1977.

From left, Diocesan delegates Zareh Kapikian, Ralph Anoushian, Edward Bashian, Edward Chapian, and Joseph Chorbajian in May 1970.

Joyce, Joseph, and Armenouhie Chorbajian — The Chorbajian family (the three people in the background facing the camera). From left, Joyce, Joseph, and Armenouhie.

The final series in this collection contains materials from the opening of the Zohrab Information Center on November 8, 1987 through its early years. There are several photographs from events that took place in St. Vartan Cathedral, the Zohrab Information Center, and nearby, including an assembly that took place outside the diocese seeking help and awareness for Armenians suffering from an Azeri blockade in the early 1990s.

Photographs from the opening of the Zohrab Information Center — Photographs from the early days of the Zohrab Information Center, which include Dolores Zohrab Liebmann, Bishop Khajag Barsamian, Fr. Krikor Maksoudian, Dn. Hovannes Khosdeghian, and others.

Dolores Zohrab Liebmann — An undated photograph of Dolores with Mr. and Mrs. Haik Kavookjian (located in the Zohrab Information Center opening series).

Assembly against Azeri blockade — Photographs of an assembly that took place outside the diocese seeking help and awareness for Armenians suffering from an Azeri blockade in the early 1990s.

These collections illustrate the experiences of Armenian people from the 19th and 20th centuries across the globe. It serves as an invaluable look into the lives and work of many Armenian people throughout history, especially those connected with the Armenian Church and Eastern Diocese. This collection is now available for visitors looking to conduct research or simply admire documents, artifacts, and photographs from the past. A searchable finding aid of the collection is available to view here.

Vava Sarkis Khachaturian photography collection available at the Zohrab Information Center

On October 13, 2023October 18, 2023 By zohrabcenterIn General Interest, Treasures from the ZIC, Zohrab Center Updates2 Comments

A collection of about one hundred photographs from Vava Sarkis Khachaturian has recently been processed and is now available for the interested public to view at the Zohrab Information Center. The collection was processed by Linda Smith, a graduate student at Simmons University, pursing a degree in Archives Management and undertaking field experience at the Zohrab Center under the supervision of Dr. Jesse S. Arlen.

The Armenian text on the back states that this photograph was taken in Constantinople and that it is the Mouradian family, which was Vava’s mother’s maiden name. The date on the back of the photograph is unclear, but it looks like 1897. Vava would have been two years old, and is thus one of the three children in the foreground of the photograph.

Vava Sarkis was born Vardanoush Sarian in Trabzon, Turkey on February 12, 1895. She spent most of her childhood in Batum, Georgia, living with her parents, five sisters, two brothers, and extended family. Vava later lived in Vienna and Paris, where she modeled for several artists including Henri Matisse. She met Sarkis Khachaturian while taking art lessons from him.

Sarkis was a prolific artist who helped create the Armenian Artists’ Association. He studied painting and pedagogy extensively across Europe. He painted works depicting orphans and refugees from the Armenian genocide, as well as painting Armenian churches and religious feast days and themes. Sarkis is well known as the illustrator of Edward Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat. From 1937 to 1941, Sarkis restored and made copies from temple frescoes in India, saving this art from decay.

Sarkis Khachaturian with members of the Mamoulian family. Rouben Mamoulian (seated on floor) was a prominent theater and film director. He became known for his innovations in camera movement and sound in some of the first films that included audio technology, remakes of silent films, and musicals on the stage and screen.

The couple married in 1920. Vava and Sarkis made extended travels all over the world, and first settled in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia in 1923, where Vava described the city as going through an “Armenian renaissance” in several art forms, including painting, art, singing, theater, and opera. Sarkis and Vava continued traveling for work and pleasure before settling in New York in 1941. That is also the year Vava began painting, with her first one-person exhibition opening in the city in the mid-1940s. The couple never had children; in an interview Vava gave as part of Columbia University’s Armenian oral history archive, she stated that “our children [are] our paintings” which she thought was better “because they are living…for eternity.” You can listen to the entire interview here.

Vava and Sarkis in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi), Georgia, 1920. — Vava and Sarkis in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia, 1920.

From left, Simon Vratzian, Gostan Zarian, Vava, and Arshavir Shiragian at an exhibition of Vava's work — From left, Simon Vratzian, Gostan Zarian, Vava, and Arshavir Shiragian at an exhibition of Vava’s work.

Sarkis died in Paris in 1947 after complications from an appendectomy. Vava remained in New York for the rest of her life, and she continued to paint and attended exhibitions of both her art and Sarkis’ art. Vava died of cancer on February 25, 1984 at the age of 89. Vava’s and Sarkis’ artwork can be seen in the National Gallery of Armenia and private collections across the globe.

Vava with singers Zara Douloukhanova, Kay Armen (nee Armenuhi Manoogian), and Lily Chookasian, New York, 1959.

Vava with Yussof Karsh and his second wife Estrellita Karsh (nee Nachbar), 1970.

This collection provides a valuable picture of the personal life and contributions of two prolific painters and active members of the Armenian community of New York in the early 20th century, as well as other important Armenian figures they knew and loved. This collection of photographs is now available for researchers and visitors to admire and learn from in the Zohrab Information Center’s library. A finding aid of the collection is available to view here.

Vava posing beside her artwork, undated — The last folder of materials contains the only color photographs in the collection, in which Vava is showcasing her artwork while striking poses. The photographs are undated.

To see a short blog post about Vava with two photographs of her art and a painting that Sarkis did of her, click here.

The National Gallery of Armenia holds much of Sarkis’ and Vava’s artwork. Click here to see entries of two paintings of Vava by Sarkis.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art received a donation from Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas William D’Elia in memory of Sarkis Katchadourian in 1949. Click here to view Sarkis’ “Seated man in European Clothes Holding a Bottle.”

Hrair Hawk Khatcherian to Present New Magnificent Album on Khatchkars on Thursday, March 30.

On March 22, 2017March 23, 2017 By zohrabcenterIn Events in New York, General Interest, Zohrab Center Events, Zohrab Center UpdatesLeave a comment

Acclaimed photographer Hrair Hawk Khatcherian will present his new, massive album entitled, Khatchkar [Խաչքար] at the Zohrab Center on Thursday, March 30 at 7PM in the Guild Hall of the Armenian Diocese in New York.

Spanning over 500 pages and including well over 1000 exquisite photographs, Khatcherian’s unprecedented photographic compilation comprises easily the most comprehensive photographic documentation of the signature sacred art form of the Armenian people.

Khatchkars are intricately adorned crosses sculpted into stone, which are ubiquitous in the Armenian homeland. Armenians continued to create khatchkars wherever they migrated. As such, beautiful examples of khatchkars—no two of them alike—can be found all over the world, wherever Armenians live or have lived; and they date from the early centuries of Christianity to the present time. They are true markers of Christian Armenian presence.

Khatcherian has photographed khatchkars in Armenia and throughout the world. Some years ago he visited the Zohrab Center to exhibit photographs he had taken from western and historical Armenia.

The publication of the album was subsidized by Mr. and Mrs. Hagop Didizian of London.

2017-03 HawkKacherian.001 CLICK HERE to download a full-color flyer.

Born in Lebanon, Khatcherian lives in Canada. There, in 1988 he participated resolutely in the various activities of the Diaspora linked to the Artsakh Movement. In 1993 he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In his hospital room where he underwent terrible treatments which alone could kill a man, there was on the wall a cross and photographs of Armenia and Artsakh.

“It was by staring at them fiercely, day by day, with my mortally wounded hawk’s eyes, that I succeeded in tearing myself from the claws of Death, to take flight again, and to rise high again in the sky, in the direction of my true destiny,” he writes. Today, fully and miraculously recovered, with his wife and two teenage children, he “lives only for and by Armenia, the Artsakh, and the fundamental references and benchmarks of the Armenian world.”

The presentation is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. A reception will follow the event and copies of Khacherian’s book will be available for sale.

For further information contact the Zohrab Center at zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org or (212) 686-0710.

Armenians and the History of Photography. A Pictorial Presentation on December 9

On November 16, 2015November 16, 2015 By zohrabcenterIn Events in New York, Zohrab Center Events, Zohrab Center UpdatesLeave a comment

Who knew that in the Middle East of the 19th century, the pioneers of the newly-emerging art of photography were Armenians?

That is indeed the case according to Dr. Joseph E. Malikian, founder of a massive, new archive of vintage photographs. Dr. Malikian will tell the story in a pictorial presentation at the Zohrab Center entitled, From Constantinople to Egypt: The Armenians in the Development of Photography in the Near East.

The presentation will take place on Wednesday, December 9 at 7PM in the Guild Hall of the Armenian Diocese, 630 2nd Avenue, New York, NY.

CLICK HERE to download a flyer.

It is well established that as early as the 1850s prominent photographers emerged from the Armenian communities in many of the cultural and commercial capitals and principal towns in the Ottoman Empire. Armenian photographers such as the Abdullah Freres, Pascal Sebah and Gabriel Lekegian enjoyed tremendous success first in Constantinople and eventually in Egypt.

During this early period, Jerusalem also emerged as a center where Armenians played a dominant role in the field of photography. The leading photographer of the Armenian Convent there was Garabed Krikorian.

Dr. Malikian will discuss these photographers and their contributions. He will explore the reasons why the Armenians played a dominant role and were considered to be pioneers in the newly invented photographic industry in the Ottoman Empire. The presentation will draw generously upon vintage images acquired for a newly formed archive, The Middle East and Armenian Photography Archive (MEAPP).

Dr. Malikian is a frequent visitor to the Zohrab Center, where he has been studying the ZIC’s small but important collection of historic photographs, some of which he will display during his lecture.

Malikian is the author of The Armenians in the Ottoman Empire: An Anthology and a Photo History, published in 2011 by the Armenian Catholicate of Cilicia.

For the past ten years, Joseph E. Malikian has been engaged in the study of archival photographs as it relates to Ottoman and Middle Eastern history. During the course of his research, he initiated an internationally based project (The Middle East and Armenian Photograph Project – MEAPP) which is devoted to the collection of vintage images of the Middle East around the turn of the twentieth century, in addition to images by the Armenian photo studios from the 1850s to the 1960s.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For further information contact the Zohrab Center at zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org or (212) 686-0710.

#armenianphotographers

Portraits of Survival: The Armenians of Bourj Hammoud. Tuesday, June 9

On June 3, 2015June 3, 2015 By zohrabcenterIn Events in New York, General Interest, Zohrab Center UpdatesLeave a comment

Photographer Ariane Ateshian Delacampagne will present her photographic portrait of the Armenian community of Bourj Hammoud, Beirut, Lebanon. — Photographer Ariane Ateshian Delacampagne will present her photographic portrait of the Armenian community of Bourj Hammoud, Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday, June 9, 2015 at the Zohrab Center in New York.

The presentation of the new book Portraits of Survival: The Armenians of Bourj Hammoud, which was postponed earlier in the year because of snow will take place this Tuesday, June 9 at 7PM in the Guild Hall of the Armenian Diocese in New York.

Ariane Ateshian Delacampagne, a photographer of Armenian descent born in Beirut, spent years among the remarkable people living and working in the Armenian enclave of Bourj Hammoud in northeast Beirut. The result is a singular portrait of this vibrant Armenian community born from the ashes of the Genocide.

The album is replete with stunning, original photographs that document the spirit and history of this remarkable community.

The evening is being co-sponsored by the Zohrab Information Center and the Department of Armenian Studies of the Diocese, as well as AGBU Ararat. The event is free and open to the public. A wine and cheese reception will follow. CLICK HERE for full details.

CLICK HERE to download a color brochure.

For further information contact zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org or (212) 686-0710.

From the ZIC Photograph Archives. Do You Recognize These Faces?

On September 27, 2014September 25, 2014 By zohrabcenterIn Zohrab Center Updates3 Comments

One of the treasures of the Zohrab Center is its rich collection of historical photographs, some of them from 19th century Armenian communities in western Armenia and the Middle East, many of them documenting the early history of the Armenian community in the United States.

The collection, numbering hundreds of photographs, has grown gradually thanks to the donations of American Armenians going back to the establishment of the Diocese of the Armenian Church over a century ago.

One person working with the ZIC collection is Dr. Joseph Malikian, an expert in 19th and early 20th century Armenian photography and photographers, who has his own vast and precious personal collection of historical photographs, and who published the recent album, The Armenians in the Ottoman Empire: An Anthology and a Photo History (Antelias, Lebanon, 2011). (Read about a recent exhibit from his personal collection of Ottoman-era photographs).

Dr. Malikian recently brought to our attention one of the rare photographs that contains identifying information.

The print, measuring approximately 5 x 7 inches, depicts 8 well-dressed young men standing behind two distinguished gentlemen and an Armenian clergyman, all seated. On the reverse we read the following caption:

Ագ-Շէհիրի դպրոցի բարձրագոյն կարգի աշակերտները իրենց տնօրէնը Լեւոն Աղապապեան, Գարեգին Սրբազանը՝ ներկայիս Պօլսոյ պատրիարք Խաչատուրեանը, Արմենակ Օրմանեան։ 1913-1955.

The students of the senior class of the Ak-Shehir school [with] their principal, Levon Aghababian, Bishop Karekin Khachadourian—currently the Patriarch of Constantinople, [and] Armenak Ormanian. 1913-1955.

Relatively few of the ZIC photographs include identifying captions such as this one.

The fascinating photo and caption provide a glimpse into a long-forgotten page in the story of the Armenian people. Ak-Shehir is a city in west-central Turkey that had a small, but vibrant Armenian community far from the larger pre-Genocide Armenian centers hundreds of miles farther east.

Patriarch Karekin Khachadourian, a native of Trabizon, served as Patriarch of Constantinople from 1951-1961. The years “1913-1955” that conclude the caption probably indicate the date of the photograph (1913) and the date that the caption was written (1955).

But who is Levon Aghababian, the principal? And who is Armenak Ormanian? Is the latter a relative of Maghakia Ormanian, the great intellectual and prolific scholar who converted from the Armenian Catholic Church eventually to become Patriarch of Constantinople in 1896?

If you can provide any additional information about these individuals, the photograph, or the Armenian community of Ak-Shehir, please post a note on this blog.

Continue reading “From the ZIC Photograph Archives. Do You Recognize These Faces?” →

The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center

Tag: Armenian photography