At the Library of Congress, Dr. Mouradian Brings 250 Years of Armenian America to Life

“It was not simply hero worship,” Mouradian explained. Rather, Armenian readers encountered a balanced and thoughtful portrait of one of America’s founding fathers decades before many Armenians ever set foot in the New World.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s iconic Uncle Tom’s Cabin, first published in 1852, appeared in Armenian translation only two years later again through the efforts of the Mekhitarian Order. Historical records show that Rev. Harrison Gray Otis Dwight (1803–1862), the first American missionary to work extensively with Armenians, wrote to Stowe’s husband expressing his amazement that the famous novel had reached “the sons of Haig” in their own language. The author herself later expressed delight after receiving a copy of the Armenian edition.

Building a Community in America

As Armenian immigration increased during the late nineteenth century, newcomers began establishing institutions that would preserve their identity in their adopted homeland.

In 1890, Armenian community leaders in Worcester, Massachusetts, resolved to establish a church “in order to preserve these immigrants from being alienated.” Within a year, they had purchased land and completed construction.

Mouradian displayed a Boston Globe newspaper’s historical clipping reporting on the church’s establishment, alongside with a photograph of what became the first Armenian church in the Western Hemisphere.

The Armenian Genocide Through Original Documents

The lecture inevitably turned to the darkest chapter in Armenian history.

“As night fell on Saturday, April 24, 1915, Ottoman Turkish police officers paid surprise visits to dozens of Armenian addresses in Istanbul. Within hours, writers, artists, and lay and religious leaders found themselves greeting one another at an unlikely rendezvous spot — the Ottoman capital’s central prison,” Mouradian said while recounting the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.

Among the most striking documents preserved at the Library of Congress is a letter signed by Talaat Pasha, the principal architect of the Armenian Genocide, accepting an invitation to dine with United States Ambassador Henry Morgenthau in April 1915.

While Armenian intellectuals languished in prison awaiting deportation and death, Talaat attended a diplomatic dinner, assuring Morgenthau of his “most sincere friendship.” The juxtaposition offers a chilling illustration of the calculated nature of the genocide.

One of the Library’s most remarkable Armenian treasures is the handwritten journal of genocide survivor David Atamian.

Born in 1892 in the town of Behesni, Atamian survived deportation, persecution, starvation, and exile before eventually reaching the United States. Over many years, he recorded his experiences in fourteen handwritten volumes comprising more than 10,000 pages.

Donated to the Library of Congress during the 1940s, the journals were immediately recognized as one of the institution’s greatest acquisitions. At the time, the Library described them as “perhaps the most significant, certainly the most unusual acquisition of the year.”

During the lecture, Mouradian read several deeply moving passages from Atamian’s diary.

“Will I be able to sit here tomorrow? … Will I be able to sleep here in my bed tomorrow? Where will I be tomorrow?”

For Atamian, “tomorrow” ultimately became America. In his adopted homeland, he served as a translator for the U.S. State Department, mastering Armenian, Turkish, Persian, French, and several other languages he had once dreamed of learning. He also published poetry that appeared in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Celebrating Armenian-American Scholarship

The lecture concluded by highlighting Armenian-American academic achievement through the life and career of historian Nina Garsoïan.

Having arrived in the United States as a child refugee, Garsoïan became one of the world’s foremost scholars of Armenian and Byzantine history. She was the first woman historian to receive tenure at Columbia University and later became the first woman dean of Princeton University’s Graduate School.

Today, her correspondence, lecture notes, manuscripts, and research materials are preserved at the Library of Congress, ensuring that future generations will be able to study not only Armenian history but also the development of Armenian studies in the United States.

Concluding the lecture, Mouradian reminded the audience that preserving history is an ongoing responsibility.

“As we reflect on the next 250 years,” he said, “I look at us all as those who are going to continue preserving, studying, exploring our cultural heritage, and passing it on to the next generation.”

The lecture demonstrated that the Armenian experience in America is preserved not only in memories but also in thousands of documents, photographs, manuscripts, and personal stories safeguarded by the Library of Congress. Together, these treasures tell the remarkable story of a people who, despite persecution and displacement, helped shape American history while faithfully preserving their own.

Selected excerpts from Mouradian’s lecture, including remarks by Joan Weeks, Head of the Near East Section and Turkic World Area Specialist at the Library of Congress, follow. The video and audio excerpts used are the courtesy of the Library of Congress.