Lyman Center Lobby Gallery at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) will host a photo exhibition entitled “Bearing Witness to the Lost History of an Armenian Family through the Lens of the Dildilian Brothers” from September 10 through October 18.

The images, from SCSU Philosophy Professor Armen Marsoobian’s extraordinary family collection, tell the story of his family against the backdrop of events during the World War and the collapse of the empire, Massis Post reports.

At the exhibition’s opening reception on September 10, SCSU President Mary A. Papazian will bestow the SCSU President’s Medal upon special guest Ruben Mirzakhanyan, President of Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan, in recognition of his commitment to improving the quality of education in Armenia by establishing international exchange partnerships with SCSU and other institutions in Europe and beyond.

Marsoobian’s grandfather and great-uncle, Tsolag and Aram Dildilian, were photographers employed by Anatolia College in Marsovan, a town in Ottoman Turkey, as well as the local government.

From 1890 to 1922, Tsolag was a well-known photographer in the region. A large collection of photographs and glass negatives came down to Marsoobian: he now possesses over 900 photographs from the Dildilian brothers’ collection, many of which date from the period 1888 to 1922, including the years of the Armenian Genocide (1915-1922).

In April, Marsoobian published a book titled “Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia,” based on the photographs and memoirs of family members, as well as family letters and diary entries.

The exhibition, which has previously been shown in Turkey’s Marsovan, Istanbul and Diyarbakir, has received a great deal of international press coverage. This fall, the exhibit will also be held at The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London, as well as in Ankara, Yerevan, and Watertown.