NAASR's Mardigian Library Treasures — Mardigian Library Treasures

Although he was not the first Armenian-American publisher—that distinction belongs to Haigag Ēginian (Հայկակ Էկինեան)—occupying a special place among the early publishers stands E. A. Yeran and Yeran Press in Boston.

To mark May 28, the anniversary of the declaration of the first independent Republic of Armenia in 1918, we focus on one object from NAASR’s Mardigian Library.

In this feature we highlight a group, by no means exhaustive, of memoirs by survivors of the Armenian Genocide published in Armenian and English between the years 1918 and 1955. In these memoirs we hear the voices of women and men, clergymen and political activists, natives of the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire and of western Asia Minor, Protestant and Apostolic, intellectuals and “average” women and men, as well as one non-Armenian, an Assyrian whose people suffered largely the same fate as the Armenians.

In 1820 two prominent Armenians were born who devoted their lives to Armenia and the Armenian people and were venerated by their contemporaries. Khrimian Hayrik (1820-1907) was an Armenian Apostolic Church leader, educator, and publisher who became the Patriarch of Constantinople and later Catholicos of All Armenians. Ghevond Alishan (1820-1901) was a philologist, historian, geographer, translator, a member of the Mkhitarist Congregation in Venice.

This special installment of Treasures of NAASR's Mardigian Library highlights the work of RAA (Research on Armenian Architecture) in Armenia which provide a wealth of information about the cultural heritage of Artsakh. We owe much to Samvel Karapetian and all who at RAA who contributed to this work in many capacities.

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