Armenian Library and Museum of America gets new name

PanARMENIAN.Net - As of Christmas Eve, the Armenian Library and Museum of America gets its new name, “Armenian Museum of America Inc.,” in recognition of its rise as a major museum, wickedlocal.com reports.

The words, “Armenian” and “America,” remain in the title because the museum is for all and belongs to all. By this change, this institution will be known for its role as the largest Armenian museum outside of Armenia.

In 1996, Dr James Russell, the Mashdots professor of Armenian studies at Harvard University, wrote, in part, describing ALMA’s collections, “Over all, it is perhaps the most important Armenian museum collection after the Armenian State Historical Museum in Yerevan and the collections of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in Israel.”

By then, the museum was a shining beacon and its holdings had multiplied, including major collections from the Bedoukian families, numerous inscribed Armenian rugs from the late Arthur T. Gregorian, Kutahya tiles from the Karabians, among many other gifts donated to build the collections.

Since 1996, its holdings have multiplied. In the past four years, it has acquired the Yousuf Karsh collection of photographic portraiture, post-Soviet Armenian paintings from the Norton Dodge collection, the Berj Garabedian Metal Arts collection, the Almasian Family Map collection, and numerous other accessions. Its holdings exceed 20,000 objects and is buttressed and enhanced by its ever-growing Mesrop Boyajian Research Library, now with more than 27,000 titles.

In addition, the museum has created travel exhibits for display anywhere from coast to coast. Its three major travel exhibits are, respectively, “Who Are the Armenians,” the “Gamavor Exhibit” and the “The Ongoing Armenian Genocide: Death, Denial and Desecration.” The Gamavor Exhibit is being translated so as to be able to be shown in France. The travel Genocide Exhibit was shown primarily in various non-Armenian sites including an eight-month showing at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, the third largest such museum in the United States. That Holocaust Museum was impressed sufficiently as to seek to develop its own permanent Armenian Genocide Exhibit.