The Incomplete Story of Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian & His Brothers
Written by Harout Arakelian
Թող տիեզերք մոռնայ հայուն մեծութիւն
Let the universe forget the greatness of the Armenian
Ես կը սիրեմ չեմ մոռանար
I still love and won’t forget
Իմ հայրենիք այրիացեալ Հայաստան
My homeland, my widowed Armenia
“Hairenikt Mortsir” sung and recorded by Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian - 1909 Columbia Records, NYC
In the year 1909, two unrelated music recording sessions took place in two remarkable locations over five thousand miles apart. One session was held in Gyumri, a city in today’s Republic of Armenia which was then known as Alexandropol. The other was in New York City. From April to September 1909, the Gramophone Company of London sent sound expert Franz Hampe on a recording expedition spanning from the Caucasus to Central Asia¹. Labels such as Gramophone had recorded Armenian music and musicians as early as in 1902, if not earlier, throughout the Caucasus and the Ottoman Empire. The company had already established a regional office in Tbilisi (then Tiflis) and recorded Armenian musicians, such as Bagrat Bagramiants in 1903. On his 1909 journey, Hampe visited Gyumri and proceeded to document the voice of Gomidas Vartabed (Father Gomidas, 1869-1935) the renowned Armenian composer and musicologist. While Gomidas sang on one recording, his student the vocalist Vahan Ter-Arakelian would record numerous compositions by Gomidas for Hampe. While around the same time, some 5, 590 miles westward to Gyumri, in New York City, a twenty-nine year old electrotyper named Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian would enter the recording studios of the Columbia Phonograph Company and document the Armenian language for the first time in the United States by recording a total of thirty four songs. Six of the recordings are solo compositions by Mardiros recorded in 1909, while the remaining twenty-eight songs feature he and his brothers Nishan and Levon recorded in 1910. By focusing on the biographical sketches of the Der Sarkis Tashjian brothers, this article explores the first Armenian language commercially released recordings in America.
One lonely immigrant boy
The year was 1892. On January 1st, Ellis Island was opened as a United States immigration inspection station. According to the 1890 census, the resident population of the United States was sixty-three million with less than 2,000 of these souls being Armenian. For reasons unknown, it was in this year when twelve-year-old Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian arrived in America, leaving his immediate family thousands of miles away in Kharpert (then Ottoman Empire, present-day Harput, Elazığ, Turkey). According to Mardiros’ own testimony from his citizenship case in the New York Supreme Court, he lived for five years in Massachusetts from age twelve to seventeen and became an American citizen on May 5, 1902².
A comment on the significance of his family name, Der Sarkis Tashjian… “Der” is an honorific marking for a descendent of a married clergyman in the Armenian Apostolic Church. In this case, the priest and patriarch of the family is Sarkis Tashjian, who was born in Kharpert in February 1835. Sarkis married Shushan who was also born in Kharpert in 1847. The date of their marriage is unknown. Their first child, a daughter by the name of Elmas, was born in 1875. Mardiros was born on January 6, 1880 and was followed by Nishan on June 10, 1881, by Levon in July 1886, and by Takouhi, the youngest of the family, in 1888. All were born in Kharpert. With the information currently available, it can be assumed that the family was not destitute and the children were well-educated.
Forgoing a formal education, the seventeen year-old Mardiros entered the electrotype industry, in January of 1897, joining the Empire City Electrotype Company as an errand boy. The business was established in 1890 by a pioneering New York businessman John Garabed Hurmuze, who was born in Constantinople on October 10, 1862 and arrived in the United States in 1880.
Following in the footsteps of both his father Der Sarkis and his mentor John Hurmuze, Mardiros became involved in Armenian cultural affairs. On July 27, 1901, the New York based Armenian language daily Tzain Hairenyatz published a notice which listed Mardiros as the secretary of a newly formed community organization known as the New York Kharpertsi Union (Kharpert Compatriots’ Union)3. At the turn of the century, the majority of Armenians in America were from the Kharpert region. Mardiros himself was a Kharpertsi (a person from Kharpert). While he was settling into his New York City life, his brothers Nishan and Levon were growing up in Kharpert.
Nishan & Levon’s education in Western Armenia
Nishan attended and in 1901 graduated from the Sanasarian College, the distinguished education institution established by Armenian merchant and benefactor Mgrdich Sanasarian in Garin (present-day Erzurum, Turkey) in 1881. Garin of that time was known for its Armenian activism and revolutionary groups. Sometime between 1899 and 1901, Nishan joined the local chapter of Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Of importance musically, in Nishan’s final year of schooling, Garin would see the arrival of the famed singer Armenag Shah-Mouradian (1878-1939). Armenag had yet to become an international star but throughout Armenia and her surrounding regions his voice carried great importance. A student, contemporary, colleague and friend of Gomidas Vartabed, from 1900-1904 Shah-Mouradian, in Garin would serve as the headmaster of the Armenian Church where he introduced and performed Makar Yekmalian’s Divine Liturgy. Shah-Mouradian would also be the music director and a general instructor at the Arzuniantz Boys School and the Hripsimian Girls School. Though never a student of Shah-Mouradian, it can be assumed Nishan was well aware of the young singer. Upon his graduation, Nishan returned to Kharpert and became an Armenian language instructor at Mezire’s (in Elazığ) Getronagan (Central School), which was opened in 1897.
Levon Der Sarkis Tashjian, the youngest of the brothers, was in the inaugural graduating class at the Central School of Mezire. Writer and historian Vahe Haig (Vahe Dinjian 1896 -1983) provides the best account of Levon and Nishan’s activities in Kharpert in his 1959 book Kharpert Yev Anor Vosgeghen Tashde (Kharpert and Its Golden Plain) printed in NYC. According to Haig, both Tashjian brothers were involved in the Hagop and Hapet (Kalusd Antreasian and Hagop Tevekelian) incident. In 1903, two freedom fighters of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party were in a gunfight with Turkish authorities. A cop was killed and the Hunchak freedom fighters Hagop and Hapet found themselves needing to escape from Kharpert. During one opportunity to avoid capture, it was Levon Tashjian who led them to a safe house. From there, an attempt to flee was foiled and after a few more unsuccessful attempts, Hagop and Hapet were found, arrested, and publicly hanged. Many of the city’s Armenian community leaders and intellectuals including school teachers were rounded up and brutalized during this time.
Soon after the Hagop and Hapet incident, the Tashjian family decided to leave Kharpert and join Mardiros in the United States. Six people made the journey: Sarkis, Shushan, Nishan, Levon, Takouhi, and Haiganoush (Elmas’ daughter, born in Kharpert in 1891). The first part of their journey led from Kharpert to London. After a brief stay in England, they departed from Liverpool on December 20, 1903, traveling third class on the SS Lake Manitoba. They arrived at St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada on December 25, 1903. According to Levon, the family crossed the Canadian-American border by rail in December 1903 (or January of 1904 according to Nishan).
Mardiros welcomes his family to America
After nearly two decades apart, the Tashjian family reunited with Mardiros in New York City. By late 1905 Rev. Sarkis, mother Shushan, Nishan, and Levon would relocate to Boston, Massachusetts. While Nishan and Levon would enroll in Harvard Medical School, Rev. Sarkis would become a priest for the Armenian Apostolic community of Boston. We come across his name in an interesting article published in the May 18, 1907 issue of Hairenik newspaper. Titled “The Parish Council of Boston and Its Decisions,” this article mentions Rev. Sarkis’ name as the chairman of the council and announced four decisions settled that day. The third of those reads: “It was decided to find a way to bring Gomidas Vartabed here from Europe in order to introduce Armenian music, whether to Armenians or to foreigners, just as he has successfully done in Paris recently.”4
While the rest of his family moved to Boston, Mardiros remained in NYC and married Manoushag Barsamian. The year of their wedding is unknown. Their first child Harry was born in 1906. The couple had another son, George, who was born in 1908. Both sons were born in Brooklyn, New York. Mardiros quickly moved up in position at Empire City Electrotype from an errand boy to the general manager and then to the vice-president. The company was successful in its ability to utilize foreign language printing presses. It is unknown how many, if any, Armenian language newspapers were clients of the company but we can guess that Mardiros did have a relationship with the Hairenik Press.
In the meantime, Nishan was beginning his life-long involvement with the Hairenik Association. He was an earlier editor of the Hairenik newspaper, serving in that role between 1907 and 1909. Nishan followed Arshag Vramian (born Onnik Tertzagian, 1871-1915) as editor and was preceded by Haroutiun Hovhaness Chakmakjian (1878-1973) and the poet Siamanto (Atom Yarjanian, 1878-1915). After leaving his post as the editor of the newspaper, Nishan would publish his first book in Armenian: The Question of Unity or Solidarity Between Armenian Revolutionary Parties.5
In April 1909, Armenians of America received the news of the massacres against Armenians in Adana. According to an article published in the Boston Globe on August 16, 1909, nearly 300 Armenians from all parts of Boston and the neighboring cities gathered in America Hall to protest the Ottoman government's response to the atrocities. The organizing committee was composed of five people headed by H. H. Chakmakjian and included Rev. Sarkis and his son Nishan Der Sarkis Tashjian. A resolution was drawn up condemning the Ottoman government for the Adana atrocities. It read: “Having hailed the restoration of the Ottoman constitution, we, the Armenians of Boston and vicinity, were shocked by recent massacres and by the indifference shown by the Ottoman government and, after long expectations, bitterly disappointed…”6
It is on the eve of this meeting in the early summer months of 1909 that the very first Armenian language song recordings in the United States were made by Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian for the Columbia Phonograph Company in New York City. There is no evidence of a concert nor a singing performance by Mardiros. There is no evidence of an adorning audience anticipating his newest recorded discs. This makes it very curious how he was able to walk into a studio at Columbia Records and record six Armenian songs.
Mardiros D. S. Tashjian & Columbia Records
The early phonograph industry was in the midst of a battle for commercial dominance over the evolving technology. The companies dominating the market, namely, Columbia, Victor, and Edison had endless litigation wars. While Edison and Victor had the superior phonograph players, Columbia, in competition with them, began expanding its catalog of recordings to promote its own brand of record players: the Grafonola. In 1908, Columbia introduced the double-sided discs. Offering music on both sides of the disc proved to be successful for the record label. Prior to this innovation, the sound or music was recorded onto one side of a disc or record. In the same year, it also began the foreign series also known as the“E-Series” which featured “ethnic” and foreign-language music.
Tashjian’s discography consisted of double-sided discs where Armenian songs were coupled with non-Armenian songs for example, “Hairenikt Mortsir” (Forget your Homeland, Columbia E-531-4084) is set with “Last Rose of Summer” (Columbia, E-531-1199). Additionally, there was at least one disc which was pressed as a single-sided record featuring the song “Himi el Lrenk” (Should We Still Remain Silent, Columbia, E529-4100).
Below is a discography of the first Armenian language songs recorded by Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian in the United States in 1909. These songs are listed along with the songs they were coupled with upon release.
Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian discography Columbia Records - 1909:
Dalvorig (unknown matrix number)
Star Spangled Banner
Ov Dzidzernag (E527)
Ave Maria
Himi El Lrenk (E529-4100)
Marseillaise
Pomp Orodan [Vorodan] (E530-4099)
Thunderer March
Haireniked [Hayrenikt] Mortsir (E531-4084)
Last Rose of Summer
Hay Mernink (unknown matrix number)
Charet Race March
In these recordings, a non-professional Mardiros’ voice possesses a natural sincerity. Among them, “Haireniked [Hayrenikt] Mortsir / Forget your Country” is the most compelling. This song is listed in various Armenian song books of the early twentieth century as “Hayrenaser” (Patriot). In this Columbia recording, Mardiros’ version includes opening lyrics different from the variants printed in these song books. The title of the song on the label is the most captivating part of the song selected by the singer, addressing the emotional connection to the homeland an immigrant may experience. Resistant to complete assimilation, in this song, the singer says that the “odar” (foreigner) tells him to abandon the memories of his homeland claiming that “it’s a barren and deserted land.” But the song becomes passionately defiant: Let the world abandon Armenia, our singer never will!
[...]7
Հայրենիքդ մոռցիր, կ'ըսեն օտարներ
Forget your homeland, the foreigners say
Անիծեալ է, լոկ փուշ ունի ու աւեր
It’s cursed with only thorns and ruins
Մեր հող դրախտ, ջուրն օշարակ
Our land is eden, its waters are refreshing
Օդ քաղցր է, օդ քաղցր
Its air is sweet
Եկուր պանդուխտ, սրտիկդ անոր նուիրէ
Come emigre, give your heart to it
Թէեւ ամուլ ամայի ըլլայ երկիրս հայրենի
Let my ancestral homeland be deserted and barren
Ես կը սիրեմ Հայաստան, ապրի հոգիս Կիլիկիան
I [would still] love Hayastan, long live my dear Cilicia
Թող հայութեան առջեւ լռէ պատմութիւն
Let history be silent before the Armenian people
Թող տիեզերք մոռնա հայուն մեծութիւն
Let the universe forget the greatness of the Armenian
Ես կը սիրեմ չեմ մոռանար
I still love and won’t forget
Աննման, աննման
Unequaled, unequaled
Իմ հայրենիք այրիացեալ Հայաստան
My homeland, my widowed Hayastan
Was it a coincidence that Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian recorded these songs a month after the tragic acts against humanity during the Adana massacres? With the known community involvement of both Nishan and Mardiros, it can be assumed that these discs were utilized to raise funds for humanitarian aid during various community events.
Mardiros returns to Columbia, this time with his brothers
In the autumn of 1910, Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian returned to the recording studios of Columbia Records. For these recording sessions he was accompanied by his brothers, Nishan and Levon. As the Tashjian Brothers they proceeded to record a total of twenty-eight songs. As with Mardiros’ initial releases, they are patriotic songs with odes to the freedom fighters (fedayi) such as “Kerezmanis Togh” (or commonly known as “Hrayr Tzhokhki Yerke,” “Hrayr Tzhokhk’s Song”) and “Tashnagtsagan Khump” (The Regiment of Armenian Revolutionary Federation) or to the land such as “Akh Vasburagan – Voghp Vasburagani” (Oh Vasburagan – The Lament of Vasburagan), “Yerp vor Patsvin” (or commonly known as “Giligia,” “Cilicia”), and “Mer Hayrenik” (Our Fatherland). Sentimental songs of loss, such as “Azniv Enger (Precious Friend)” were also among the recordings. Each tune consists of the brothers’ vocal harmonizing as a three-person choir. Below is the complete discography of the Tashjian Brothers.
The Tashjian Brothers discography Columbia Records - 1910:
ARF Kaylerk (E655)
Hunchak (E655)
Dalvorig (E656)
Grvetsek Dgherk (E656)
Yerp vor Patsvin [Giligia] (E657-4963)
Kerezmanis Togh (E657-4955)
Mer Hayrenik (E658-4954)
Tartzial Paylets (E658-4964)
Lrets Ambere (E659)
Hairenikd Mortzir (E659)
Sipan Sarer – Lo lo (E660-4958)
Khavarel Yem – Fedayii Yerke (E660-4972)
Azniv Enger (E661-4971)
Menk Bedk E Grvenk (E661-4971)
Lusin Chgar (E662-4966)
Ov Yes Vor Kas (E662-4968)
Der Getso (E663)
Kani Tmrink (E663)
Hayasdan (E664)
Mangutyan Orer (E664)
Tashnagtsagan Khump (E665-4962)
I Piur Tzaynits (E665-4965)
Akh Vasburagan (E666-4974)
Zartir Vortiag (E666-4975)
Togh Pche Kamin (E667)
Pamp Vorodan (E667)
Himi El Lrenk (E668-4953)
I Zen Hayer (E668-4967)
The recordings were made in 1910 and released in 1911 marking the end of the musical and recording careers of all three Tashjian brothers.
Though their experience as recording artists ceased, Mardiros and Levon remained dealers of phonographs, as advertisements in the Hairenik newspaper prove. Interestingly, they both chose not to promote their own recordings. Neither brother had a traditional music store. Mardiros used the Empire City Electrotype address which was 251 William Street, New York City. While Levon utilized the address of Nishan’s dental practice at 532 Tremont Street in Boston.
Nishan would forsake the opportunity of a stage career in New York City and returned to Boston, where he graduated from Harvard Medical School with a degree in dentistry and established his private practice in Boston.
The years of 1915 - 1917 were especially grueling for the Tashjian family. Just as reports were coming in that a genocide was being committed in the Ottoman Empire, especially in the Tashjian’s ancestral lands of Kharpert in Western Armenia. On May 19, 1915, the patriarch of the family, Der Sarkis Tashjian died at the age of eighty in Boston, Massachusetts.
The on-going genocide was devastating to the Armenian American community and there was an immediate reaction to provide aid and assistance. With relief efforts in full swing, by the time of the Allied Bazaar of 1916 in New York City, during the nineteen day bazaar an Armenian booth was built to raise funds for the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, the fundraiser “broke all records for an enterprise of this kind in the United States” upward of $1.5 million dollars was raised according to the literary and political periodical The New Armenia. The article mentions Manoushag Tashjian, Mardiros’ wife, “Mrs. Tashjian and other volunteers rendered the yeoman’s service at the booth.” 8
Numerous popular entertainers were enlisted to meet and greet with the guests at the Armenian booth and concerts featured famous Armenian vocalists such as tenor Armenag Shah-Mouradian and soprano Zabelle Panosian. Along with the vaudeville star baritone Torcom Bezazian, Shah-Mouradian and Panosian would usher in a new era of Armenian language songs recorded by Columbia, Victor, and Edison. From 1915 to 1918, over 50 discs were produced by the three musicians. Is it possible that Mardiros Tashjian was the conduit between the artists and the record labels? Interestingly, in this period, the Tashjian brothers revived their roles as record dealers. Unlike earlier in the decade when the brothers did not promote their own recordings, this time, singers Armenag Shah-Mouradian and Zabelle Panosian would be prominently featured in detailed advertisements.
1917 was a substantially difficult year for Mardiros as he experienced the continued pain of the ongoing Armenian Genocide. The year began with the death of his mentor John Garabed Hurmuze on January 28, 1917. In the summer of that year, the Tashjian family as a whole experienced the great loss of Shushan Tashjian, the matriarch of the family, who died in her home on June 21, 1917, at the age of 70.
Upon John Hurmuze’s death, trade magazine International Stereotypers and Electrotypers Union Journal published a death notice and wrote the following:
“Mr. Hurmuze…has long been a prominent figure in the electrotyping business here, and owing to his uniformly genial and sunny disposition, was one of the best liked men in the trade as an employer.”
The same magazine also acknowledged Mardiros as follows:
“Mr. Tashjian is also well known in the trade…the business under his management is prosperous and its fortune is assured.”9
Mardiros was well-liked in the industry and Empire City Electrotype was a prospering company. Yet it seems that Mrs. Grace Hurmuze, the widow of John Hurmuze and his longtime partner disagreed on the direction of the company thus ending Madiros’ twenty-year career with Empire City Electrotype.
A New York electrotyper becomes a California fig farmer
In the early winter of 1917, Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian sold all his assets in New York. Mardiros, his wife, and two sons departed from their residence on 1 Jefferson St, NY to trek out west. The family resettled on a farm in the central valley of California, located at R.R.O. 33 Dinuba, Tulare. The electrotyper became a farmer. On his 80-acres of land, Mardiros grew peaches and figs, particularly Capri figs. He became a pioneer in the dried fruit business. The family farm was located in the Cutler area bordering the town of Yettem, the Armenian colony established in 1901. At the turn of the century, the postmaster and the Armenian residents successfully petitioned the county to change the name of their town from Lovell to Yettem, meaning the “garden of Eden” in Armenian.
Mardiros and his family attended the local St Mary’s Armenian Church in Yettem. In 1921, Manoushag and Mardiros had their third child: Evelyn May Tashjian. She was born in Fresno on April 11, 1921. Evie started singing at the age of five in the family church in Yettem. The youngest child of the family was also the only child of the family to pursue a career in music and entertainment.
The lives of Mardiros’ children are uniquely fascinating. The eldest son Harry M. Tashjian became a respected trial lawyer in Tulare County. According to his sister Evelyn, “They used to call him ‘Young Darrow’ because of the way he could thunder on after someone.” She would continue, “And even in those days when there was no air conditioning, people would line the aisles of the courthouse to listen to him. He was just brilliant.” 10
In 1936, Harry became the first public defender in Tulare County, a new office was created in the county courthouse to provide legal defense and advice for those who could not afford legal counsel. Tragically, four years later, on May 23, 1942, Harry M. Tashjian suddenly died from a heart attack. He was 36 years old.
At the time of Harry’s death, younger brother George was a Private in the US Army. George was given leave to return home to be with his family. It is unknown if he ever married or had children. George M. Tashjian died on January 1, 1984.
From an early age, Evelyn Tashjian was known in the local area for her singing talents. At the age of 18, she came to the attention of the famous big band leader Tommy Dorsey, joining the Dorsey band from 1940 to 1942. She was heard on the radio and even recorded with the band. She would sing alongside another young member of the band, Frank Sinatra.
One night in 1942, at the Army Air Corps Sequoia Field north of Visalia, a young Armenian-American cadet named Martin Tashjian (no relation) heard a voice on the radio and fell in love. He called the radio station and asked for the singer's name. And soon after, Martin met Evelyn and within months of meeting in early 1943 they were married. Unfortunately, during the Second World War, on March 15, 1944, Air Force pilot First Lieutenant Martin Tashjian became a casualty of war when his B-17 bomber was struck over enemy-occupied Europe. This was a difficult blow for Evelyn. Two years after losing her older brother Harry, she had lost her husband of less than a year. She never married again.
The year of 1944 ended with more heartbreak for Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian and his family. While in La Jolla, California, on November 9, 1944 Manoushag Tashjian died. Her death was reported as being sudden. She was 56 years old. After Manoushag’s death Mardiros left his farm in Cutler and relocated to Pasadena, California, living on 531 N. Sierra Bonita Street with his daughter Evelyn. In 1951, an opportunity arose for Evelyn. She competed for the role of “Champagne Lady” on the television program “The Lawrence Welk Show,” she was offered a contract but turned it down because her father had fallen ill and she wanted to stay at home to care for him.
For the last two years of his life, Mardiros resided at the Cedar Lodge Sanitarium in Hollywood. On November 25, 1953, Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian died. His 73 years spanned from a promising Kharpert and its golden plains of the 19th century to becoming a pioneer in establishing the roots of a strong Armenian American musical culture by recording the first Armenian language songs in America.
The short life of Levon Der Sarkis Tashjian
After completing his education at Harvard Medical School, Levon joined Mardiros in California. On August 13, 1926, he patented and introduced an invention for “a new, original and ornamental design for a Cabinet for Toothbrushes”.11 Made of shining white porcelain, it would hang or be mounted to the wall and have four compartments for brushes and a place at the top for the toothpaste tube. Levon began to manufacture the item in Fresno and planned to expand the product by using different materials. He also advertised the product nearly every day throughout 1927 in the Hairenik newspaper. Unfortunately, Levon fell ill in early 1929 and spent two months at the Mare Island Naval Hospital, where he died on March 5, 1929 at the age of 42.
Nishan D. S. Tashjian, an activist from an earlier time
In Worcester, Massachusetts, on January 1, 1916, the thirty-four-year-old Nishan, interestingly, married a woman with the same first name as his older sister, Elmas Garabedian. Two years later the couple welcomed their daughter Lillian Shooshanik Tashjian, born in Boston on June 5.
Throughout his life Nishan would balance his profession as a dentist with his civic duty as a leader of his Armenian-American community. By the mid 1910s he would assume the role of president of the Hairenik Association and would serve as the chairman of the ARF in America. But he was also a dentist and this led to a curious episode when Nishan applied for a passport on March 4, 1919 to attend the Paris Peace Conference as a “special correspondent” on behalf of the Hairenik newspaper. His career and community status puzzled an immigration officer. On March 12, that is, eight days after submitting his request for a passport, an immigration officer asked a superior:
“Shall we grant…?”
With a response the following day,
“Yes.”
But the officer persists typing,
“This looks queer to me. Is he a dentist and a correspondent? A versatile gentleman without a doubt!”12
The passport was granted and Nishan spent the month of April in Paris. The inquiring immigration officer did provide a fair assessment of Nishan Der Sarkis Tashjian, by all accounts he was a versatile gentleman. When in 1939 the Hairenik Association purchased a new building, Nishan was invited to deliver a speech on the occasion of the opening. In the November 17, 1939 issue of the Armenian Weekly, an article on the event said of Nishan, “What lent a touch of sentiment to the Doctor’s appearance was the fact that many veterans in the audience knew him as one of those pioneering editors of Hairenik when its workers and editors used to live on the munificent sum of a five to ten dollar a weekly wage, when editors used to do everything, all the way from writing editorials to linotyping, proofreading and mailing.”13
The year prior in 1938, Nishan would publish a book titled: “Dental Hygiene”14, a review in the Hairenik Weekly wrote, “This combined Armenian and English treatment is a novel and indispensable guide book of the Armenian family interested in sound teeth and the healthy growth of children.”15
On Wednesday, January 24, 1945, Nishan Der Sarkis Tashjian suddenly suffered a life-ending heart attack. He died at the age of 65. His widow Elmas continued to reside in Belmont, Massachusetts until her death on February 20, 1953. Their only daughter Lillian married Berg Keshian in 1946 and the couple had two children: Berj Jr. and Karen. Lillian passed away in Boca Raton, Florida on May 30, 1982.
A lengthier study into the dynamic legacy of Nishan Der Sarkis Tashjian is worth exploring. From his early education and political activities in Western Armenia to having a unique role in the early days of the Armenian American press. Nishan greatly contributed to the foundation of the Armenian American community, after all, he was a versatile gentleman. The Tashjian brothers led the lives of innovators in their individual endeavors. Collectively they have a fascinating and important place with their contributions to the history of Armenian music by recording in total thirty-four songs for the Columbia Phonograph Company.
In the first half of the twentieth century, Armenians in America created a unique, dynamic and important musical culture, a legacy which was captured on 10” shellac discs called phonographs or records, also known as the 78 rpm record. During this era (roughly 1890s - 1950s) there were over one thousand recordings made by Armenians in the United States. In 1909 Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian introduced the Armenian musical arts to an American landscape of art and culture. In the following years and decades the musicianship would flourish with a variety of masterful musicians and creators of culture among the Armenians in America. These discs and recordings have captured these beautiful musical artifacts, the songs and the voices on physical discs to enable us to explore the sounds and stories of the musicians. And to empower us to better understand the evolution of the Armenian-American community and how a musical language was developed.
As Mardiros sang in Hairenikt Mortsir:
Թող տիեզերք մոռնայ հայուն մեծութիւն
Let the universe forget the greatness of the Armenian
Ես կը սիրեմ չեմ մոռանար
I still love and won’t forget
Աննման, աննման
Unequaled, unequaled
-Mardiros D. S. Tashjian - Hairenikt Mortsir
Special thanks to Melissa Bilal, Ara Dinkjian, Jesse Kensas-Collins, Harry Kezelian, Ian Nagoski, Tsoleen Sarian and Jonathan Ward
Endnotes
1. Will Prentice, Liner notes for Before the Revolution: A 1909 Recording Expedition in the Caucasus and Central Asia by the Gramophone Company (London: Topic Records, British Library National Sound Archive, 2002).
2. United States National Archives and Records Administration, Index to Petitions for Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906, Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009, RG 21, NAI Number: 5700802.
3. “Goch Me New Yorkapnag Kharperttsineru,” Tzain Hairenyatz 92 (July 27,1901): 2.
4. “Bostoni Hokapartsutyune yev ir Voroshumnere,” Hairenik 9/ 20 (410) (May 16, 1907):1.
5. Nishan Der Sarkis Tashjian, Miutyan Gam Hamerashkhutyan Khntire Hay Hegh[apokhagan] Gusagtsutyunneru Michev (The Question of Unity or Solidarity Between Armenian Revolutionary Parties) (Boston: Hairenik Press, 1909).
6. “Armenian Protest,” The Boston Globe 76/47 (August 16, 1909): 7.
7. Due to the condition of the physical disc we were unable to transcribe the first verse of the recording properly.
8. “Armenian Relief,” The New Armenia 8/15 (July 1, 1916): 239.
9. “Trade Notes and News Items from Local Unions,” The International Stereotypers and Electrotypers Union Journal 12/5 (May 1917):18.
10. “History’s Missing Links,” Visalia Times Delta, Saturday (February 23, 2002): D1.
11. Official Gazette US Patent Office 351-353 (1926). Des. 71,567. Serial No. 18,733
12. Select Passports, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 723; Volume #: Roll 0723
13. “Armenian Federation Holds Public Opening of New Hairenik Building,” Hairenik Weekly 6/38 (November 17, 1939): 299
14. Nishan Der Sarkis Tashjian, Dental Hygiene (Boston: Hairenik Press, 1938).
15. J.G.M., “Book Review: Dental Hygiene,” Hairenik Weekly (February 4, 1938): 4.
Sources:
Archives and Libraries:
ExcavatedShellac.com
Hairenik Association/ Hairenik Digital Archives
National Library of Armenia - Armenian Periodical Publications
Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives
UCSB – Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR)
United States National Archives and Records Administration
Periodicals:
The Boston Globe
Hairenik Daily
Hairenik Weekly
The International Stereotypers and Electrotypers Union Journal
The New Armenia
Official Gazette US Patent Office
Tzain Hairenyatz
Visalia Times Delta
Books and CD Liner Notes:
Der Sarkis Tashjian, Nishan. Miutyan Gam Hamerashkhutyan Khntire Hay Hegh[apokhagan] Gusagtsutyunneru Michev (The Question of Unity or Solidarity Between Armenian Revolutionary Parties) (Boston: Hairenik Press, 1909).
Der Sarkis Tashjian, Nishan. Dental Hygiene (Boston: Hairenik Press, 1938).
Prentice, Will. Liner notes for Before the Revolution: A 1909 Recording Expedition in the Caucasus and Central Asia by the Gramophone Company (London: Topic Records, British Library National Sound Archive, 2002).
Spottswood, Richard. Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produces In The United States, 1893-1942, Volume 5 (Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1990)