EXHIBIT G · ARMENIAN LIFE BEFORE 1915
Armenian Life Before 1915
The Interactive Atlas
A world of lives, before a world of loss.
Enter an expanding digital exhibit documenting Armenian communities, institutions and economic life before the Armenian Genocide. Move between cities and villages, follow the evidence and discover the schools, places of worship, workshops and commercial connections that shaped everyday life.
Estimated Armenians living across the Ottoman Empire before the Armenian Genocide.
Estimate: USC Shoah Foundation · IWalk ↗Local census records below retain their own dates and scope.FOUR WAYS INTO THE EXHIBIT
Follow a place.
Discover a community.
Constantinople / Bolis
Explore the capital’s Armenian population record, trading houses, transport supply networks, pharmacy sector and women’s enterprise. Earlier amira influence is dated separately from evidence on the eve of 1915.
Explore Constantinople ↗Adapazar / Adabazar
Read named church and school entries alongside printing and community organizations. Discover why a cemetery chapel, a parish and a church building cannot be treated as interchangeable categories.
Explore Adapazar ↗Ayntab
Follow documented textile production, commercial organization and medical expertise. Economic life is presented through occupations, production and connections, rather than unsupported wealth rankings.
Explore Ayntab ↗Kharpert’s village records
Use the Kharpert village group on the map to move from regional context to individual settlements. Compare local records while retaining their own dates, geographic scope and limits.
Browse the place directory ↗A village is more
than a population.
Behind every count were people: children walking to school, families gathering for worship, craftspeople at work and neighbours building a shared life. This atlas brings documented traces of Armenian communities into one navigable space.
The Armenian Genocide left 1.5 million Armenians murdered. Preserving the record of life before 1915 is part of remembering those who were murdered, honouring survivors and protecting the history their descendants carry.
Continue through the museum ↗BUILT TO KEEP GROWING
From a place.
To a deeper history.
Places & records
Population, households, churches, schools and economic indicators with source-level context.
Journeys & loss
Deportation routes and massacre locations can be added as independently sourced, dated layers. These layers are not yet populated.
Voices & objects
The data structure supports licensed photographs, survivor testimony and video, with provenance and permissions attached to each item.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ATLAS
Where did Armenians live before the Armenian Genocide?
Armenian communities lived in cities and villages throughout the Ottoman Empire, including the Armenian Highlands, Cilicia and Constantinople. This first research edition maps selected documented localities and the six eastern provinces; it is not a complete inventory of all Armenian settlements.
How many Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire before 1915?
USC Shoah Foundation’s IWalk educational material gives an estimate of 2.5 million. This atlas attributes that estimate and preserves local survey figures separately. Different historical surveys have different coverage and methods; their counts are not interchangeable.
Can I compare Armenian populations, schools and churches?
Yes. Select places and add up to three to the comparison tray. Each record retains its geographic scope and year. A city and its surrounding province overlap and must not be added together. Population shares appear only when a compatible total population is available.
Does a missing number mean there was no school or church?
No. “Not yet documented” means a verified figure has not been added to this edition. A recorded zero is displayed only where the cited source explicitly supports it.
RESEARCH EDITION 0.4.0 · SELECTIVE COVERAGE
Evidence is part of the exhibit.
This edition contains 44 city, village and provincial records, with 60 named or grouped institution entries. Named entries and grouped school categories can overlap; they are not an additional census total. Nine locations currently have economic profiles. Other places and institutions remain to be researched.
Churches, chapels, monasteries and parishes retain their definitions. Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical evidence is identified where documented. A missing number means a complete figure has not been established for this edition; it does not mean a community had no institutions. The source links in each map record make the evidence and its limits visible.
Research foundations
Every mapped record links to its historical source. The atlas credits research published by Houshamadyan, USC Shoah Foundation IWalk, the Gomidas Institute and the International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies. Inclusion does not imply a partnership. The first edition uses modern geographic reference outlines; verified Ottoman administrative boundaries remain a future research layer.
Explore the museum’s Survivor Testimonials, Artifact Collection, and Women & The Genocide exhibits, or learn how to contribute an artifact.