The Armenian Museum of America recently announced the opening of a new exhibition in the Terjenian-Thomas Gallery. “Merchants and Maps” highlights 17 original maps from our collection that illustrate Armenian cartography from the 1600’s to the 1900’s.
Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian explains that the art of map-making combines the disciplines of science, history, geography, and artistic calligraphy to depict a three-dimensional world in a two-dimensional form. In recent centuries, people rarely traveled further than 50 miles from their birthplace, so maps provided a glimpse of a vast unknown world of mystery and imagination.
Half of the maps in this new exhibition were produced in Venice by the Mekhitarist Order on the Island of San Lazzaro and were donated by Paul and Vicki Bedoukian. Extensive family networks and a gift for languages allowed Armenian merchants to dominate trade to Southeast Asia for centuries, adds Lind-Sinanian. This trade network understood the value of detailed maps, and many of the world maps on display are in the Armenian language. One large map is from the collection of Arakel Almasian, who is a long-time Trustee of the Museum.
This exhibition is supported by a generous donation made in memory of Alice and John Alabilikian.