Armenian Studies Library Houses Photograph Archive

Claire Kasaian

Staff Writer

Over the years the Armenian Studies Program has received a generous amount of donations, such as manuscripts, books, newspaper clippings, and videos. These materials include Genocide survivor memoirs, newsletters from the Diaspora, and theological and literary works.

Malina Zakian, the Armenian Studies Program librarian and archivist, has been cataloging the numerous donations. Zakian and a graduate student are working on digitizing the historic photographs that the Program has received from the Armenian community.

These photographs will help preserve the rich history of the Armenian culture in Fresno and will educate the current generation on the history of the Fresno Armenian community.

Zakian has begun to evaluate the materials, assessing how they serve the research interests of the Program and how they reflect the history of the Fresno Armenian community. The materials are then included on the online catalog of the Armenian Studies Program, found on the ASP website at fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.

Prior to working in Fresno, Zakian did similar work for the Gulbenkian Library of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

She noted that in both of the communities she has worked in, the vast collections that each institution accumulated was in large part donated generously by the community. According to Zakian, “the collections tell a different kind of history than you might find written in books. They speak to the predilections, tastes, and interests of their communities, accumulated over time.”

These materials tell the story of a culture that Zakian is helping protect and conserve.