Project SAVE presents 2021 calendar

Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives has just published and released Gatherings for 2021, its 34th photograph calendar.

Gatherings expresses the times we are experiencing now and brings back memories of our historical past as preserved at Project SAVE.

Founder and President Ruth Thomasian looked through many photograph collections, knowing that our archives contain a history of our social lives with folks doing many different things together. She discovered meaningful, heartwarming photos of happy times that can help make our present situations a bit more joyful as we live in relative seclusion from extended family and friends.

You too will discover among these 25 photographs many ways of gathering that may resonate with you: wedding parties in both the homeland and diaspora; children literally “out on a limb;” healthcare workers with their patients; musicians and dancers making music and being merry; and service-oriented people doing their outreach.

Zouloumian wedding, 1892, Sourp (Saint) Stepanos section, upper Kharpert city. Historic Armenia, Ottoman Empire; photographer unknown. The whole community looks up at the photographer as they welcome the bride, name unknown, from Constantinople and groom outside his Zouloumian home. The godfather stands at bride’s left. Courtesy of Ardashess Hampar, documentation assistance from Houshamadyan; Adom Boudjikanian and Aida Karibian.

Thomasian called photo donors and their relatives to verify and expand on documentation and to get “the rest of the story.”

The photo captions extend the meaning of many photos as does the grouping of photos—an Aintabtsi picnic in Aleppo, with dinner for Antranig’s cavalry out in a Caucasian field, and a post WWII “guys drinking party” in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some images are serious, some seemingly frivolous, but all tell about people and their lives.

Gatherings Calendars can be ordered online at www.projectsave.org/shop for $15. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Armenia Fund.

1950s, Optimist Club of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Photo by Jules Schick Photography) Optimists participate in the culmination of their yearly Santa Project, giving gifts to children in need, here with children disabled by polio. Courtesy of Velda Moog, whose father Aram K. Jerrehian stands in the middle.

Our Mission

We bring to light the culture and history of Armenians by making photographs and their stories, which otherwise would be lost, destroyed or forgotten, available for public and educational use.

Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives, Inc. collects, documents, preserves and shares images of all subjects and time periods relating to the Armenian people and the work of Armenian photographers.

We are dedicated to promoting the photographic heritage of the worldwide Armenian community.