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Old Armenian Postcards Preserve the Past
By Levon A. Saryan
Old postcards exude a certain charm. Faded pictures of bygone eras, people, and places, sometimes mailed with short snippets of correspondence, they tantalize the viewer with even more hidden within.
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How did Orlando Calumeno end up owning so many old Armenian postcards? Where did he find them? What made him collect those postcards?
Mr.Levon,I am from Albania , Stafa family that during years 1920-1936 lived in Shkodra (Iskander) north part of Albania and there my family had great friendship with armenian family Jahanexhian.I have also at home an postcards of Armenian Club of Eskisehir (1907-8) very interesting.Me also,after my visit to Ani town I writte in Tirana newspaper “Shqip” the article “Ani , the town of 1001 churches” If you want I can send the postcard of Eskisehir.
Congratulation
I am the author of the article on the postcards.
To answer Armen_yan’s question, postcard collecting is a well-developed hobby in many countries. In the USA, for example, there are many dealers who have an incredible number of cards, some numbering in the hundreds of thousands, in their stock. I think the collector searched these cards out in various shops and stores internationally. The collector was part Armenian in ancestry.
Thank you Veli for your kind words. You can contact me at lolopeeg@aol.com.
Osman Koker’s book is wonderful. I had a chance to meet with him when he was in Chicago… he is also a wonderful person. He is a humanitarian, deep thinker, and quite knowledgeable about where Armenian churches were and where the stones of those churches are now. If you study things Armenian, Koker’s book must be part of your collection.
Excellent article Levon.
The book is a priceless treasure documenting the extent of Armenian presence throughout Turkey during the Ottoman period. It is replete with documentation of schools, business, churches, social clubs, etc., as well as comments on the postcards testify to the nature of life (good and bad) within Turkey. I recommend that this book be widely supplied to our church libraries and to our community libraries. It is a rare treasure. Koker has contributed significantly to the study of Armenian history and Turkish history.
Thee are very important postcards missing from this book.Please read the here below:
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Sourcing material from his personal collections, the Rev. Dr. Nerses Nersessian, Pastor of St. Yeghiche Armenian Church has organised the first of many evolving exhibitions using the exhibition cabinets donated to the church by Dr Nerses Nersessian. The exhibition cases were used by the British Library in their ―Evolving English exhibition. The exhibits consist of photographs, books, documents, and bank notes which outline the history of Armenia from 1915 to 1921. The display begins with the showing of black and white photographs depicting the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915. The pictures are familiar. What is not familiar is who made these so called ―POST CARDS‖, for whom were they printed, and what purpose did they serve? Was it meant to shock the conscious of the buyer or were they propaganda material for the western powers. This is a question that has not yet been answered by the numerous experts of the ―Armenian Genocide.‖ Other notable images include ‗Armenian girls [kouyser] sitting on a bench in the company of Turkish soldiers‘;
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The postcards/artocities mentioned above were of our forefathers hung…
You could contact Father Nerses at Fr.Nerses@armenianchurchlondon.org.uk