Collections

The Columbia Armenian Oral History Archive is an important collection of audio and video recordings of first-person accounts of the early and recent experiences of Armenians, recorded after they had immigrated to the United States. The collection consists of 138 interviews in Armenian, English, and Turkish languages with immigrants conducted by Vazken L. Parsegian during the 1950s and 1960s, focusing largely on the survivors' memories of their personal experiences of the abduction, deportation, imporisonment and massacre of Armenians and the destruction of Armenian communities under the Ottoman Empire in the first decades of the Twentieth century. The testimonies also recount the early formation of Armenian communities in various cities of United States and socio-economic conditions. The collection is comprised of 210 hours of sound recordings in the following formats: magnetic tape reels, compact cassettes, and WAV files and compact disks representing the content of the original tapes.

Related materials can be found in the following Bakhmeteff Archive collections: Arkhangel'skii, Kutepov, Lampe, ROVS-North America, and Shatilov.

These records consist of a wide range of documents: reports, copies of speeches and articles by the Deans, university publications about the academic programs, history, and mission of the School and student publications, alumni office correspondence concerning General Studies and Alumni Association mailings, press releases, newspaper clippings, and student applications to writing courses. These records formed part of the Historical Subject Files, acquired or aggregated at unknown dates. Much of the material in the Subject Files—correspondence, newspaper clippings, invitations, press releases, and publications about the School of General Studies—was collected by the office of Harold Emerson, Assistant to the President and Vice President for Alumni Programs. The Alumni Affairs Office similarly collected materials about alumni programs, events, mailings to alumni, and publications, and the Office of Public Affairs compiled both Columbia press releases and newspaper clippings relating to General Studies news or new programs. This collection thus represents an assemblage from different sources.