'Assyrians from Persia (Iran) to the United States' Exhibit

Assyrians are the last Aramaic-speaking group indigenous to a homeland between Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. Their communities were transformed by missionary education beginning in the 19th century; but documenting this history through Assyrian voices has proven elusive in the wake of their genocide and displacement during World War I. 

This exhibit's unique collection of rare letters, photographs and objects from the Lake Urmia region, Iran, documents the life, travels, and education of one Assyrian-Iranian family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These items survived because they were sent out of the region to friends and family living in the United States. Written in English and modern Aramaic, the oldest alphabetically written and spoken language in the world, the letters, journals and other items offer research sources for study of the ancestral people of Mesopotamia. 

This exhibit is presented by the Arizona chapter of the Seyfo Assyrian Genocide Research Center, the Naby Frye Assyrian Fund for Culture, the Assyrian Foundation of America and Fletcher Library, Arizona State University. 

The exhibit is on display at Fletcher Library from Jan. 15 until Feb. 23, 2024.