NAASR Library Receives Greppin Collection
BELMONT, Mass.—The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) this week announced that it has received a significant donation to its Edward and Helen Mardigian Library by John A. C. Greppin, professor emeritus at Cleveland State University. Greppin, a linguist and specialist in Classical Armenian (grabar), has published 15 monographs and edited books on Armenian linguistics and the history of Armenian medicine. He is the author of many articles in scholarly journals, and founded the Annual of Armenian Linguistics in 1980 and edited it for 25 years.
Greppin’s donated Armenian collection consists of approximately 900 titles and arrived in 46 boxes just after Christmas 2012. In making the decision to donate his collection to NAASR, Greppin wrote, “I’ve dealt with NAASR for 37 years now, and know it as the primary Armenian research association in the U.S., and certainly the one with the best research facilities. It is most satisfying to donate a scholarly collection to an association where the books will be cared for and, especially, used.”
NAASR Director of Academic Affairs Marc A. Mamigonian expressed his gratitude on behalf of the organization, saying that “everyone at NAASR is extremely pleased and gratified at Prof. Greppin’s kindness and generosity. This is a collection that substantially bolsters our holdings especially in the area of language and linguistics. It is commendable, too, that Prof. Greppin has shown the foresight to insure that his collection will continue to be a resource for generations of scholars to come.”
The Greppin collection will be catalogued during the months ahead. “The bulk of the books are in the Armenian language,” Greppin explained. “They were acquired first when I was living in Yerevan, 1974-75, and I continued to acquire more when I lived in Ohio, by mail, and when I was in Yerevan” on numerous occasions since the 1970’s.
Greppin noted that of special interest “are the runs of Soviet-Armenian journals,” such as Tghekagir (later Lraber) and Patma-Banasirakan-Handes. “The rarest set, held complete in very few Western libraries, are the 45 volumes of the concordance series, Haykakan Hamabarbar. Also I was able to acquire volumes dating back to the 1940’s of studies of Urartian loan substratum in Armenian,” he said. “In addition, there are a large number of books on the natural sciences, the Armenian vocabulary of which I studied.”
Other significant collections received
The collection arrived at the end of a year in which a number of other important collections of various types and sizes came to NAASR. Mamigonian pointed to smaller but very interesting collections, such as an archive of Edward Alexanian, donated by his daughter Adrienne of New York, which includes important materials relating to the Hamasebastahay Verashinats Miutiun/Pan Sebastia Rehabilitation Union, dating between the 1940’s-1970’s; materials belonging to noted Ramkavar leader Dicran Simsarian, donated by his son Edward of Worcester; as well as the large library of the late Hagop Atamian of Watertown, which is especially rich in literary and politico-historical works.
The Edward and Helen Mardigian Library is named for major NAASR benefactors, the late Mr. and Mrs. Mardigian of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. The Mardigian Library holds over 25,000 books and many thousands of periodicals and newspapers, as well as a number of important collections of personal papers and archives. Its catalogue may be accessed through the NAASR website, www.naasr.org. For information about the Mardigian Library or NAASR and its programs for the furtherance of Armenian studies, research, and publication, call (617) 489-1610, e-mail hq@naasr.org, or write to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
