Since at least 1871, Armenian students have been attending the University of Illinois. Early Armenian Illini have included agriculturalists, chemists, dentists, electrical engineers, farmers, medical doctors, ministers, photographers, professors, and transfer students too.

Read on to learn about early Armenian Illini!

Early Armenian Illini

Before the Armenian declaration of independence on May 28, 1918, a significant amount of Armenians studied abroad and some Armenian students came to the University of Illinois. Of course, Armenian student enrollment did not end with the establishment of an independent Armenia. In fact, while Armenian students have been among the first foreign students to study at the University, this great, old Illini tradition continues to today.

The first Armenian student was Mr. Gregory Gabrialial Dabraskian, (B.S. 1874), of “Nicomita, Turkey”, who came to Illinois to study agriculture. His life as a student is documented by at least one photograph, found in the “John L. Pierce Memory Book”, (Record Series 26/30/4). During Mr. Dabraskian’s senior year, he likely wrote an essay titled “Agriculture in Asia Minor” about the physical and political difficulties of Armenian agriculture work in Asia Minor. After graduation, Mr. Dabraskian returned to “Bardizag” (or “Bakdjedjk” now Bahçecik, Turkey) where he continued his career as a farmer. [1]

The second Armenian student was Mr. Avedis Vartanian (Agriculture 1873-74) who studied agriculture for two years, The Illini reported. [2] At the time of enrollment, Mr. Vartanian was 29 and a Christian minister too. Unfortunately, at this time, more information has not been identified yet.

Ten years later, Mr. Bedros Tatarian, (B.S. Chemistry, 1887), of Constantinople (now Istanbul), left home for a life of travel and a career in science, spanning from Constantinople, to East Central Illinois, to Keokuk, Iowa, to Tucson, Arizona, and finally to Mexico. [3] Before coming to Illinois, Mr. Tatarian began his studies at the elite American high school “Robert College” in Constantinople. However, by the age of seventeen, The Illini reported, Mr. Tatarian left home against the wishes of his widowed mother, his sister, and his uncle. It was October 1, 1882, when Mr. Tatarian arrived on campus with $2 and no ability to pay for his tuition. Caught in a difficult situation, Regent John M. Gregory decided to waive tuition fees, until the Board of Trustees decided further action. By January 1883, the local Presbyterian Church and some faculty members donated money to buy Mr. Tatarian a military uniform.

It was November 1883, after a year of study in town without visiting his family, The Illini reported that Mr. Tatarian had successfully acclimated to American life and “his cheeks were rosy and he’s considerably fatter than a match.” After graduation, Mr. Tartarian remained in town. In short time, he became Second Assistant in the Chemistry Laboratory before being promoted to First Assistant in 1888. By 1892, he was inspecting gold mines in the state of Georgia, and by 1905, he was a gold mine manager in Dale, California, before joining the Agriculture College of Arizona (now University of Arizona). Unfortunately, the University and Alumni Record lost contact with Mr. Tatarian around 1905. Not much longer, another Armenian student arrived on campus.

Mr. Garabed E. Garabedian, (A.B. Medicine, 1910), of Constantinople, came to Illinois after attending an American high school (Bithynia High School in Bardizag) and the Syrian Protestant College (now American University of Beirut). [4] On October 21, 1908, at the first Cosmopolitan Club meeting of the semester, Mr. Garabedian gave a talk “The Turkish Revolution and the Present Situation in the Ottoman Empire” about his experiences and contemporary politics during revolution in Turkey. The following year, after Dean Davenport opened the Armenian Relief Fund to support Armenians, Mr. Garabedian was cited again as the local expert on Armenia, and he described the destitution of Armenian peoples in cities like Mersina (now Mersin, Turkey), Latakia (now Latakia, Syria), Alexandretta (now İskenderun, Turkey), Hadjin (now Saimbeyli, Turkey), and Tarsus (now Tarsus, Turkey). During Mr. Garabedian’s senior year, a Mr. Nazareth Abraham Jerejian, (Science, 1910-1911), arrived on campus to study science; however, not much more information has been located yet.

Early Armenian Guests and Early Armenian Women

There are records of Armenian guests as early as the 1900s, including prominent Armenians in the United States. Chicago native Ms. Christine Zabelle performed “When Dreams Come True” at the Illinois Theater on November 20, 1913. (To the embarrassment of the local community, the lack of a large hotel resulted in Pullman train cars requested from Indianapolis to provide housing accommodations for performers and other guests, The Illini reported.) At the same time, an Armenian woman displayed and sold handmade dolls at the annual YMCA winter holiday sale, The Illini reported. For years, the dolls and other Armenian gifts were popular. Then in 1915, local Armenian Ms. Harignaz Hovigamian was invited to give a talk about Armenian cultures at the Y.M.C.A. of the Indiana State University. For years later, in 1919, Reverend Manasseh G. Papazian spoke to both cities and the campus about needs of Armenians abroad, as part of a national fundraising program called the “Armenian Relief Fund”.

Armenian Relief Fund

From 1909 through the early 1920s, many communities on campus and off campus had organized to send money to support Armenian peoples (as well as Assyrians, Syrians, and others in the Near East) suffering a great humanitarian crisis. It was 1909 when College of Agriculture Dean Eugene Davenport opened the “Armenian Relief Fund” sometimes known as the “Armenian Relief”, to locally organize financial donations to be routed to the National Armenian Relief Committee to transfer funds, food, and clothes to support the Red Cross to help Armenians. By 1915, the Armenian Relief Fund merged with the Syrian Relief Fund to create the Near East Relief Fund which continues today as the reorganized Near East Foundation.

Local fundraising came through a variety of programs including, garden parties, furniture sales, dinners prepared by the wives of University faculty, multiple film screenings of Alice in Wonderland and Kidnapped (based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson) too, a letter writing campaign, theatrical performances by the Devereaux Players, community card games, food sales, a French military band performance, Women’s League organized relief fund stands in University Hall, off campus church subscriptions, to provide relief supplies and clothing abroad, a musical performance by the French military band, more relief fund stands, and annual Christmas or winter community fund drives too.

Following the establishment of an independent Armenia, it was during the spring term of 1919, when the Friendly Relations Among Foreign Students Club of the YMCA organized a biweekly, afternoon series of hour-long talks given by foreign students at the fire place of the Y Hut, the Daily Illini reported. On February 23, the program was kicked-off with Armenian graduate student Arshag Killijian Seuerian (M.S. Zoology, 1919) giving the talk, “Armenia, Yesterday and Today“. Later that year, Mr. Seuerian wrote an editorial in the Daily Illini arguing that recently independent Armenia would benefit from a United States mandate. Meanwhile, other students had more to share with the University community too. For example, graduate student Mr. Arshag O. Sirkissian (PhD History, 1934) spoke at locations like University High School, to describe his scholarship and his firsthand accounts of life in the Near East.

By the 1930s and 1940s, Armenian American culture was prominent on the University of Illinois campus, through the writings of Armenians local and remote. In 1934, in a two-part series, Mr. Vahe Zorthian retold his father’s account of escaping Turkey with other Armenians during the war, The Daily Illini reported on April 29 and on May 27. Later, in 1942, Mr. William Saroyan‘s “The Beautiful People” debuted in the Midwest at the Illinois Theater and it was favorably reviewed in The Daily Illini too. In fact, the following year, Mr. Saroyan’s My Name is Aram was featured as a campus Book-of-the-Month selection and it was positively reviewed in the DI too.

For almost as long as the University has existed, Armenian students have been coming to the University of Illinois. While many early students left few records behind, some notable exceptions can be found in university archives across the county and continent. Indeed, like many Illini, Armenian Illini might just be found almost everywhere.

Are you an Armenian Illini? Do you know someone who is? We’d like to hear from you! Please send us a message or leave a comment below. We want to include you and your story, as we celebrate the first 150 years of the University of Illinois.

Happy First 150 everyone!

References

[0] For an early history of Armenians in the United States, please see: The Armenians in America by M. Vartan Malcolm, Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1919. In fact, some University of Illinois students have written about Armenian cultures and history too. Please see: The Beginnings of the Armenian Question 1870-1881, by Arshag Ohan Sarkissian, Dissertation, 1934; Examining Ethnic Identity Among “White” Ethnics: The Case of Armenian Adolescents in America by Ani Yazedjian, Masters Thesis, 2000; Experiencing Ethnicity: A Case Study of White Black Latino and Asian Adolescents in an Urban High School by Ani Yazedjian, Dissertation, 2003. Of course, the University Library has an Armenian language collection too, which was receiving at least newspapers as early as 1917, The Illini reported.

[1] “Gregory Gabrialial Dabraskian”, The Semi-Centennial Alumni Record of the University of Illinois, Edited by Franklin W. Scott, page 5.

[2] “Avedes Vartanian”, Alumni Directory, 1916, page 1251.

[3] “Bedros Tatarian”, The Semi-Centennial Alumni Record of the University of Illinois, Edited by Franklin W. Scott, page 49.

[4] “Garabed Arshag Zacar Garabedian”, page 377.