Updates from the Armenian Studies Library and Archive

Sosse Baloian Yanez
Special to Hye Sharzhoom

In the last year, I have had the privilege of joining the Armenian Studies Program staff as a research assistant working with the Program’s Library and Archive.

The first collection I worked on was the George Injajikian Personal Papers donated to the Program in 2018 by George Injajikian’s daughter, Gina Injayan.

The collection of published works spans the years 1953 to 1989 and includes poems, short stories, essays, and Injajikian’s novel The Bronx with parallel realities.

Another recently added collection was the Sarkis Sarkisian Archives donated in 2022 by Sarkisian’s daughter, Ellen Sarkisian Chestnut.

The Sarkisian Archive is comprised of the research Chestnut utilized to write her first book, Deli Sarkis: The Scars He Carried. The research is held in four labeled binders which include: photographs, oral histories, transcribed interviews between Sarkis Sarkisian and Ellen Chestnut, maps, letters, and much more.

One of the collections I find particularly interesting as an Armenian-American growing up in the twenty-first century, is the “Soviet Armenia Travel” Magazine Box.

The Program archive contains several travel guides and souvenir books dating to the period prior to Armenia’s independence in 1991.

This collection offers a glimpse into travel to Armenia in the Soviet Union.

It has been surreal to work in the office sitting just a few feet away from my great grandfather’s books – the Arpiar Markarian Collection.

It is hard to believe that I have just scratched the surface of the breadth of treasures within the ASP Library and Archive.

The Armenian Studies Program online Library Catalog can be accessed at https://opac.libraryworld.com/opac/home.php.