New Book on ‘Photographic Collective Biography’ of Musa Dagh Immigrants in the U.S.

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. — Prof. Vahram Shemmassian, Director of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Northridge, has published a new book, titled “Armenian Immigrants from Musa Dagh in the United States: A Photographic Collective Biography” (Yerevan, 2026).  Its cover design and layout is the work of Lusine Matevosyan.

This album, in a way, is a birthday gift to the American people on the occasion of the 250^th anniversary of United States Independence. The idea of publishing an illustrated volume about Armenians who emigrated from Musa Dagh to the United States before, during, and after World War I was born out of a concern that they would be forgotten with the passage of time.

In fact, they were already forsaken, when Dr. Shemmassian decided to trace their lives in the New World.  It was not an easy task as there were not any published sources dealing with the topic. This fact compelled him to obtain information by other means: correspondence, interviews, seeking family collections, revealing manuscript memoirs and autobiographies, researching newspapers, etc.  In the process, he discovered numerous pictures not seen before.

The several hundred vintage photographs and ephemera in the author’s possession reminded him that they deserved a separate treatment, hence this album that weaves the immigrants’ collective biography through visible evidence.

In addition to an introductory essay, the 200-page book includes various sections dealing with early immigrants, families, individuals, children, social life, rug and silk business, celebration of the 1915 Musa Dagh resistance to the Genocide, soldiers in the US Army, and embroidery that Musa Dagh women carried with them—some as dowry items—and/or produced in America.  For inquiries, contact the author at vahram.shemmassian@csun.edu.