Garabed Gospel Passed Down for 800 Years

The Garabed Gospel is one of the most important manuscripts in the Armenian Museum of America's collection. The scribe Garabed completed this extraordinary work in 1207 during the reign of Cilician King Levon I. The Gospel was passed down for 800 years before finding its current resting place at the AMA. It was donated to our collection by Julie Der Garabedian.

The Prolific Works of Hamasdegh

Here in our library, we have gifts presented to Hamasdegh (Hampartsoum Gelenian) as well as several of his literary works. Hamasdegh was a prolific poet and writer who was known and honored for preserving Western Armenian literature. He started working for the "Hairenik" in 1918, adopting the pen name Hamasdegh . Some of his well-known works are the collections of stories “The Village” and "The Rain" which describe an Armenian village with its unique past and images. Other works include the novel "The White Horseman" and other short stories and poems.

Decorated Textiles

In this video, Collections Curator Gary Lind Sinanian displays several textiles donated by the family of the late Anahid Iskian. Gary highlights one of his favorite pieces which is a beautiful hand-made crocheted lace angora wool sweater. The shell stitching in the delicately crocheted lapel and cuffs demonstrate just how impressive this really is.

Vibrant Paintings of Melkon Hovhannisyan

Melkon Hovhannisyan is a prominent painter and sculptor from Gandzak Village which is in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia. Melkon graduated from Erevani Gexarvesti Petakan Akademia in 1970 with a very unique style of painting that he still uses today. Thanks to the Estate of Isabelle Hodgson, we have three spectacular abstract paintings here in our collection.

Invaluable Norikian Painting and Mystery Pieces

We recently acquired several artworks from the Estate of Isabelle Hodgson. The first is a wonderful painting by Krikor Norikian. Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian explains that the Armenian Museum of America mounted an exhibition of Norikian’s works back in 1978. He also highlights a large copper tray with motifs influenced by illuminated manuscripts, and a mystery painting signed Paul. If anyone recognizes his style, please let us know!

Urban Crocheted Lace

Historically, a tiny crochet hook was used to make exquisite lace such as this. In this unique and delicate variation of crochet, you create lacy designs with a miniscule hook and thread. Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian shows us a hook that was used to make loops from chains of thread. Because of the design, we can infer that it came from an urban area rather than a village.

Cabinet of Curiosities from the Holy Land

In the late 1800’s, many Armenian families were on the move to the United States in search of a more stable life. They immigrated with skills that benefited America in many industries. Paul Iskiyan was a Protestant missionary that applied his entrepreneurial spirit in several areas. One was the sale of madzoon, while another is a “cabinet of curiosities” from the Holy Land that functioned as a small museum in its own right.

Dagger Forged from the South

Hagop Mazmanian immigrated to the Boston area in the 1890’s and established a well-known grocery business. He brought along with him a dagger that is now part of our collection. Because of the curves of the blade and the floral designs we can tell that it was used in southern Armenia as well as in regions expanding as far as India. In this video, Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian explains the characteristics that demonstrate the origin and use of this piece.

Karagheusian’s Herati Rugs

What do Armenian rugs and Bruce Springsteen have in common? Take a look at this video as Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian tells a story of the Karagheusian Herati Rug Factory of Freehold, New Jersey. We have many historic objects in our collection from the factory's early days. Herati rugs traditionally feature a small geometric base that may include small flowers, or rosettes, encased in a rhombus and surrounded by leaves.

Thorn from the Holy Crown

Relics are considered sacred under three circumstances, some of which may be described as "holy by association." First are physical parts of a saint such as piece of hair or bone. Second are objects that a saint has touched, and the third is something that "touched" an item that a saint has touched. We are fortunate to have such a relic in our collection, which is said to contain a thorn from the crown that was worn by Jesus leading up to his crucifixion.

An Inscribed Armenian Rug

This video features just one of the many exemplary objects donated to our collection by the late Haig Der Manuelian, the larger-than-life Chairman and Co-Founder of the Armenian Museum of America. Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian describes the characteristic features of this Kazakh-style rug dated 1914 and remembers a dear friend, visionary, and leader.

A Vintage Christmas Tree

Christmas trees became popular in the 16th century when people would bring decorated trees into their homes to resemble the winter solstice. In this video, Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian tells us about a visit from Hayk Demoyan, one of our esteemed Academic Advisors. Dr. Demoyan suggested adding artifacts from Soviet Armenia to our collection, so we acquired several items including this vintage Christmas tree from the 1960s.

Painting Within a Painting

This work depicts a talented artist and a deep friendship between two artists. Richard Tashjian was a friend of the renowned artist Minas Avetisyan. Unfortunately, Minas’ studio and many of his paintings were destroyed in a fire in 1974. Fortunately, Richard had photos of some of his works. Watch as Collections Curator Gary-Lind Sinanian describes the significance of the smaller painting within this large piece on display in one of our second-floor galleries.

Armenian Recipe Books

Sharing food is hugely important to Armenian culture and it’s a great time of the year as we celebrate Thanksgiving. We have a collection of recipe books in our Mesrob G. Boyajian Library dating back to 1907! Cookbooks published in the 1900’s consisted of simple recipes with locally sourced ingredients. Some books published later highlight plants and folklore associated with Armenian recipes. In this video, Gary-Lind Sinanian gives us a peek into recipe books that can suit any kind of appetite. A few of them are even available in our Gift Shop.

Hussenig Village

Here at the Museum we have thousands of objects in our collection, as well as a vast collection of books. Our Mesrob G. Boyajian Library is an invaluable resource with more than 30,000 books in Armenian, English, and other languages. In this video, Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian shows us a book about Hussenig Village written by Mardiros Deranian as well as a very important object. Hussenig was just outside of Kharpert and was the home of St. Varvar, one of the largest Armenian churches dating back to the 13th century.

Silk Cocoon Embroidery

At the turn of the century, cultures in the far east would discard silk cocoons after they could no longer be used for silk threads, but Armenians would cut and shape the cocoon for embroidery. In this video, Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian highlights two pieces that used this type of technique from 1903 and 1906.

Adorned Bridal Tradition

Did you know that it was customary for the woman who had the most children to place a belt on the bride prior to her wedding ceremony? The hope was that the bride would also have many children. The groom's family would present a silver belt asking for the bride's hand in marriage and the bride would wear the belt on her wedding day. In this video Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian showcases a beautifully designed silver belt in our collection.

Spa Day

In this video, Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian talks about three metal pots from our collection that had a very unique purpose. These metal pots were used to collect mud and clay from the bottom of riverbeds. Much like the modern-day skin care routines of today, clay has been used for centuries to nourish our skin and hair.

House Shrines

When a village does not have the means to build a church often times people create unofficial places of worship within their own homes. Sometimes a mini shrine as a place for worship is created with objects like religious imagery, incense containers, stones or items that were taken home from a pilgrimage are put on display. In this video, Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian highlights objects that were found in an interesting sacred place from the home of Aghavny Demirjian.

Stamped for Independence

On September 21, 1991, Armenians voted to break from the Soviet Union, resulting in the re-emergence of an independent state for the first time in 70 years. The Soviet Union was losing its grip and in an attempt to reverse this, Mikhail Gorbachev held a referendum on March 17, 1991, in which most of the population voted to remain part of the USSR. Armenians held their own referendum in September in response, and nearly unanimously voted for freedom. This is the 31st anniversary of Armenia’s independence. However the holiday takes on a somber tone since Azerbaijan recently initiated new attacks against Armenia.