Armenian Studies

Avedis K. Sanjian papers (Collection 2187)

Avedis Krikor Sanjian, Professor emeritus of UCLA's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, was a scholar of Armenian studies who wrote ten books and authored more than 40 articles in English and Armenian. The collection consists of personal and professional correspondence, Armenian studies lectures and notes, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures faculty meeting minutes, UCLA Armenian studies minutes, brochures and student publications, his research files, publications, slides, microfilm, photos, audio and video tapes, curriculum vitae and biographies.

Krikor Mardiros Khantamour papers, ca. 1920-1956 (Collection 1248)

Collection consists of photographs, writings, notes, correspondence, and ephemera of Dr. Krikor Khantamour, mostly writings and notes in Armenian connected with Armenian studies and history.

Caro Minasian collection of Armenian material (Collection 1632)

The Minasian Collection of Armenian material, 1600-1968 consists of material pertaining to the life and history of the Armenian community of New Julfa, Isfahan in Iran and their relations with the British, as well as the people of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other groups residing within the region of the Indian Ocean. The range and diversity of the material in this collection is noteworthy, and includes: a large number of correspondence; photographs; maps; periodicals; printed books; official legal documents; ecclesiastical documents; trade letters and documents; ledgers; and postcards. This material can be found in many languages which includes: Armenian, Persian, Arabic, English, Dutch, French, Russian, Urdu, several Indian dialects, Turkish, and Hebrew. This collection is a valuable resource for the study of the history of Iran and the city of Isfahan; the Armenian community of New Julfa, Isfahan; the history of India and Sri Lanka; as well as British presence within these parts of the world. This collection is also an important resource for the study of Indian Ocean trade and commerce in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Garin Compatriotic Union records, 1928-1988 (Collection 284)

The Garin Educational Union was founded in 1908 in Boston to provide educational work in Garin (now known as Erzurum), Turkey. After the 1915-23 Turkish massacres of Armenians, its name changed to the Garin Compatriotic Union (Karnoy Hayrenakts'akan Miut'iwn). In 1957, the Unions of the U.S., France, and Lebanon collectively published the Hushamatean Bardzr Hayk'i: Karinapatum, edited by Ghazar Ch'areg; the Boston and New York chapters published the English translation of the shorter version by Hrach' Darpasian, titled Erzurum (Garin): Its Armenian history and traditions (1975). The collection consists of correspondence, office records and ephemera (in English and Armenian) relating to the Garin Compatriotic Union, and especially to the publication of Erzurum (Garin): Its Armenian history and traditions (1975).

Minasian Collection of Armenian Manuscripts, ca. 1300-1899 (Collection 2089) 

This collection consists of Armenian manuscripts from the 14th to 19th centuries.  It includes religious texts such as books of sermons, commentaries, menologia, ritual books, psalters, and liturgical texts; works of poetry; and works on logic, astronomy, herbalism and medicine, and geomancy.  Many of these manuscripts are digitized and can be found online.

For more complete description of Armenian manuscripts at UCLA, see: 

Sanjian, Avedis K. Medieval Armenian Manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Minasian Collection of Near Eastern Manuscripts, ca. 1100-1899 (Collection 1147) 

This collection consists of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu manuscripts relating to Persian and Arabic lexicography, Persian literature, history, Shiite theology and jurisprudence, practical arts, and philosophy and logic.  Many of these manuscripts are digitized and can be found online.

Exhibit Collection of Near Eastern Manuscripts (Collection 1656)

This collection consists of Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Armenian manuscripts dating from 1492-1848. The collection includes bound manuscripts, scrolls, manuscript fragments, decorative book covers, and artifacts. Subjects include history, lexicography, belles-lettres, theology, and philosophy.

Bound Manuscripts Collection (Collection 170)

The bound manuscripts collection consists of over 700 manuscripts from the 7th to the 19th century and covers a wide variety of topics. The collection includes a papyrus fragment from the 7th century, a North French or Flemish Book of hours (late 15th or early 16th century), Persian and Arabic manuscripts, manuscript books from the 16th through 18th century, commonplace books, Friendship albums, and personal journals.  Included are several Armenian manuscripts.

Collection of Turkish manuscripts (Collection 896)

This consists of manuscripts of Turkish folk poetry, from circa 1600-1900. 

Minasian Collection of Early Armenian Printed Books (Collection 1612)

This collection contains Armenian books published in Amsterdam, Astrakhan, Calcutta, Constantinople, Jerusalem, London, Moscow, Nakhichevan, New Julfa (Isphahan), New York, Paris, Serampore, Smyrna (Izmir), St. Petersburg, Trešt, Vagharshapat (Echmiadzin), Venice, and Vienna. It consists largely of bibles and religious texts, but also includes books on medicine and astrology, grammars and dictionaries, and translations of Latin texts. Books date from 1666-1900.

These books can be located through the library catalog by doing an advanced search with the following Special Collections and Archives Codes (SPACs): 

• Minasian Collection SPAC: MNA
• Minasian Rare Armenian Books SPAC: ARB

​Armenian Children's Books Collection 

This collection primarily consists of children's books produced in Yerevan, Armenia in the 1970s, though the Սովետական գրող (Soviet Writer) publishing house.

These books can be located through the library catalog by doing an advanced search with the following Special Collections and Archives Code (SPAC): ACB

William Sachtleben papers (Collection 1841)

William Lewis Sachtleben was an American long-distance cyclist who rode across Asia from Istanbul to Peking in 1891 to 1892 with Thomas Gaskell Allen Jr., his classmate from Washington University.  In all they traveled 15,044 miles by bicycle, “the longest continuous land journey ever made around the world,” as reported in their book Across Asia on a Bicycle (1895). While traveling through Asia Minor, Sachtleben witnessed and documented the massacre of Armenians on October 30, 1895 at Erzerum, Turkey.  His photographs and diaries describe these events and photographs throughout the Ottoman Empire show local Armenians as well as give a picture of the environs of the day.

These materials have been digitized and can be viewed online:

• William Sachtleben diaries
• William Sachtleben images of Armenian massacre
• William Sachtleben papers

Adelbert Bartlett collection (Collection 1300)

Adelbert Bartlett (1887-1966) was an American commercial photographer based in Santa Monica, California.  He was also director of the news bureau of the Los Angeles headquarters of the Near East Relief, a humanitarian and development organization founded in response to the Armenian genocide. As news bureau director and a traveling photographer, Bartlett's collection is a rich source of images of the Middle East from the early 20th century, in general and as pertains to Ottoman Armenians.  Collection contains photographs, negatives, periodicals, scrapbooks, and memorabilia.

Photographic Album Collection, ca. 1860- (Collection 94) 

This collection contains several photographs albums relevant to, or containing images produced by, Armenians in the Middle East.  Among them are:

• Photographs of the Levant (Collection 94, Album 198): This album contains photographs by Gabriel Lekegian in Cairo, Syrian- Armenian Pascal Sebah in Constantinople, and the Armenian Abdullah Freres in Constantinople and Cairo.

• Photograph album of Isabella Bird’s travels on horseback from Baghdad to Tehran, 1890 (Collection 94, Album 93): Album containing 101 black-and-white photographs documenting Isabella Bird's journey from Baghdad to Tehran in 1890. Includes several photographs of Armenian communities.

• Yadgâr-i İstanbul : Constantinople photographs by Sebah & Joailler, 1888- 1910 (Collection 94, Album 276): Pascal Sébah, one of the most prolific early photographers of the Ottoman Empire,  was born in Constantinople to a Syrian Catholic father and an Armenian mother. Sebah and Joallier were the official photographers to the Sultan.  Their studio, active in Constantinople and Cairo, also supplied the tourist industry with photographs.

Collection of Stereoscopic Views, 1850-1920 (Collection 2050)

Stereograph images were most commonly made by using the stereo camera, a machine that took two simultaneous images of the same subject through two lenses placed side by side. By the mid-1850s, collecting and viewing stereographs was very popular. This collection consists primarily of American stereographs by numerous photographers and publishers.  It also includes glass slides of scenes from the Middle East.

Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives (Collection 1429)

This collection consists of photonegatives and photographic prints documenting events and people in Southern California, the U.S., and the world. The material originates from the Los Angeles Times newspaper and includes glass negatives (circa 1918-1932), nitrate negatives (circa 1925-45), and safety negatives (circa 1935-present). Also includes prints and negatives from the Los Angeles Times Orange County and San Diego bureaus.

Vrej Nersessian Collection of Armenian Periodicals

This collection consists of hundreds of Armenian periodical titles published around the world from the mid-19th century to the present.  They include newspapers, newsletters and bulletins, magazines, and other periodicals that encompass a wide range of topics, such as current events, politics, religion, art, cinema, women's issues, and literary writing and criticism.

These periodicals can be located through the library catalog by doing an advanced search with the following Special Collections and Archives Code (SPAC): ARMPER

Soviet Armenian Posters Collection (UCLA Modern Endangered Archives Project)

UCLA Library and the National Library of Armenia (NLA) established the IDEP Armenian Ephemera Collection to preserve, digitize, and provide online access to valuable historical materials related to Armenia. Since 2017, NLA has been digitizing and describing selected Armenian posters from their collections. Current work focuses on Soviet Era propaganda posters curated from NLA’s vast collection of over 60,000 posters. Comprising a variety of subjects, from arts and culture to industry and science, these posters translate and re-imagine the ideology and the agenda of the Soviet Union for Armenian society.  They are available to view on the project website.

Collection of Middle Eastern Posters (Collection 359)

This collection consists of posters from Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. These include posters relating to Lebanese Armenian communities.

Henry J. Bruman map collection

The Henry J. Bruman Map Collection at UCLA contains historical and contemporary maps from around the world. 

UCLA Film and Television Archive

The UCLA Film and Television Archive holds a collection of over 350,000 films and television programs, over 100,000 News and Public Affairs (NAPA) programs, and over 2,000 radio programs.  This includes material by Armenian filmmakers and news programs and broadcasts related to Armenian affairs.  Look for material by searching the Archive's catalog.

Armenian Women’s Archive Collection (UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, Collection 2008.06)

A collection of 78 RPM recordings of Armenian folk and popular music, recorded and released in the United States.

Donn Borcherdt collection, 1956 (UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, Collection 1966.03)

Recordings of Armenian folk songs by Armenian-Americans made in 1956.

Donn Borcherdt was born in Montrose, California. Borcherdt was a composer and pianist. After he received his BA from UCLA in composition and conducting, he began his graduate studies in ethnomusicology in 1956, focusing first on Armenian folk music and, later, on the music of Mexico. He earned his MA from UCLA in 1962. Borcherdt conducted field research in Jalisco, Mexico, in 1960, 1961, and 1963-64. His publications include "Armenian Folk Music in the Los Angeles and Fresno Areas," Western Folklore (1959). Borcherdt also hosted the weekly radio program, "Many Worlds of Music," in 1960-62, on KPFK in Los Angeles.

Open Reel Archive Collection (UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, Collection 2008.03)

This collection contains some recordings of Armenian music from Turkey.

David L. Clark Los Angeles Oral Histories Collection, 1974-1982 (Collection 2080)

Interview about Holy Martyrs Armenian Apostolic Church. Conducted by Linda Carver.