Ghazir Armenian Orphan Rug

Maurice Missak Kelechian will discuss the Ghazir Armenian Orphan Rug presented to President Calvin Coolidge in 1925.

Msar Palace in Ghazir is about 20 miles from Beirut. In 1923, the Near East Relief organization rented the Nsar palace and turned it into an Armenian girls’ orphanage; it became a haven for 1400 Armenian girls, and a rug factory. The girls made history by introducing the art of rug weaving into Lebanese culture; seven orphans wove the Ghazir masterpiece rug during a period of ten months.

The Armenian Orpan Rug is a magnificent 11.7 by 18.5 foot rug, women into 4,404, 206 individual hand-tied knots of figures of more than one hundred animals and plants. The rug stayed with President Coolidge’s family after he left office, but was returned to the White House in 1982.

The PowerPoint presentation will be in English.