Blog

An Armenian Soldier of the Cross: The Story of Joe Der Garabedian

At the turn of the 20th century, an Armenian shoemaker working on one of the “wickedest” streets of San Francisco stumbled upon Salvation Army workers and protected them against a growing mob who ...

Vessel of Hope: David Vartanian, The Titanic Survivor

David Vartanian, a 22-year-old Armenian, fled the crumbling Ottoman Empire and secured a ticket on the Titanic's maiden voyage to America in 1912. Like many young Armenian men of the time; his plan...

Before The Color of Pomegranates: The Life and Times of Parajanov in Ukraine

Before The Color of Pomegranates, there was Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Parajanov’s groundbreaking 1965 film made in Ukraine solidified his evocative and poetic style, broke away from the offi...

The Story of Ben Agajanian - The Toeless Wonder 🦶🏈

Benjamin James Agajanian, born in Santa Ana, California in 1919, was a placekicker in the AFL and NFL from 1945 to 1959 representing the likes of Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, Los Angeles R...

Carl Gugasian - The Most Prolific Bank Robber in U.S. History

"The FBI were called. It didn’t take long before they realized who was behind this. For almost three decades, someone had been successfully robbing banks with a professionalism that had earned grud...

How an Armenian Athlete Stole the First Olympic Flag, Returned It 80 Years Later & Got a Medal

It was symbol of peace, a token of renewed hope after World War I, and when the Olympic flag with the five rings representing five parts of the world - Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas and Eur...

The Eye of the Needle - The Microminiatures of Hagop Sandaldjian

Born of obsessive devotion, an individual figure could take as many as fourteen months to finish. Each sculpted micron represented not only endless hours of toil, but exacting travail fraught with ...

Komitas, The Future Thinker: The Unknown Story of an Armenian Icon

We know about his immense contributions to Armenian music and the rich legacy he left behind, as well as his tragic end. But we rarely talk about Komitas: The Man. Who was he?