[Note: In the Scope & Content section, the notation "folder 2-5" means "Box 2, Folder 5"]

Arrangement: Alphabetical, by document type. Arrangement supplied by processor.

Volume: .25 cu ft; 1 Box

Geographic Coverage: Philadelphia and Wheaton in the United States, Lebanon, Syria

Type of Materials: Personal correspondence, newspaper clippings, programs, tracts, researcher notes, a 1933 Wheaton College yearbook, and miscellaneous articles.

Correspondents: Dicran Kassouny, Loyal L. Wirt, Vartan (last name unknown), Enock Dyrness, single letters from several others

Subjects: The massacres of the Armenians in the early twentieth century, Arousiag Stephanian's status as a minor Christian "celebrity" in the United States, Wheaton College in the 1930s, the Armenian Church in Lebanon in the 1940s, marriage and family life

Notes:

Photocopied items were present in the collection when it was received by the Billy Graham Center Archives.

The information in the collection on Arousiag's experiences during the Armenian massacres can be found in the articles from The Sunday School Times and other publications in folders 1-5, 1-8 and 1-9. These are often sensational in nature. A handwritten article and other material on Arousiag written after her death in folder 1-7 contains some additional information. The support she received from The Sunday School Times, under the editorship of Philip Howard, is shown by correspondence in folder 1-1 as well as material in folders 1-7 through 1-9. Because of the coverage of her experiences in the Times, Arousiag became well known to the readership of that publication in the United States. Folder 1-1 contains some of the correspondence she received as a result of this celebrity, including offers to speak or write her story. The same folder has letters from Loyal Wirt, a missionary who knew her as a child. A few clippings in folder 1-5 contain some details of her education in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Her years at Wheaton are documented by correspondence from in folder 1-1, articles in folder 1-5 and her yearbook in folder 1-10, which contains brief comments from many of her friends. There are also several letters from a man named Vartan, who apparently had been her beau for a time.

She was a student in Wheaton's Conservatory of Music (and continued to give musical performances the rest of her life). Programs for some of the Conservatory concerts and recitals in which she participated during her Wheaton years, as well as one for a Women's Glee Club concert, are in folder 1-6. Other information on her Wheaton years, including comments from J. Oliver Buswell, Enock Dyrness and Katharine Shapleigh, can be found in folder 1-8.

Dicran's letters to Arousiag during their courtship and engagement (folder 1-2) and the early part of their marriage (folder 1-3) deal largely with his love for her and his thoughts on their life together. They illustrate many aspects of one Christian's view of love, marriage and family.

Dicran's letters in folder 1-2 and 1-3 also contain much information on his Christian Endeavor work in particular and the Armenian church in Lebanon and Palestine in general, including mentions of Aleppo, Beirut, Tripoli, and other cities of the area. These letters contain some interesting glimpses of congregational life. They also have a few details about the influence of World war II on the area, such as censorship and contacts with Allied soldiers. There is no reference to the events that led to the founding of the state of Israel. Additional information on the Armenian church can be found in some of the clippings in folder 1-8. Information on Arousiag's work as an educator is occasionally referred to in the letters in folders 1-2 and 1-3 and in articles in folder 1-5 and 1-8. A pamphlet on the Armenian Missionary Association of America is in folder 1-4. This is the group that supported the school for educators at which she taught.

Exceptional Items: Folder 1-4 includes a tract on unanswered prayer by Clarence Edward Macartney.

Related Materials: Further articles about Arousiag can be found in The Sunday School Times, January 17 and May 15, 1920.