Special Collections: Dorothy Baldadian Papers

Dorothy Paroonagian (1911-2008) was just a girl at the outbreak of the Armenian Genocide, fleeing with her family to safety and eventually ending up in America. They lived in hiding in Turkey for a year before emigrating to the United States. They left everything behind, including several family members who did not survive the persecution. She became a central figure in the American Armenian community in New Jersey, advocating to bring awareness to the reality of the genocide. Dorothy married Sarkis Baldadian in 1933, another Armenian immigrant, and they raised their family in Camden County, New Jersey.

The collection was acquired in January 2024 by Stockton University Special Collections via a donation from Dorothy Baldadian’s granddaughter, Lisa Melian. It includes photographs, immigration records, vital statistics, newspaper clippings, obituaries, oral history interview notes, digital audio recordings, as well as handwritten and typed biographical and autobiographical accounts, primarily from the early 1900s to the late 1980s.

Collection processed by Mariyah Black, Special Collections Intern, Fall 2024.

While Stockton University’s Bjork Library’s Special Collection and Archives owns the collection, Stockton may not own the copyright for all of the items. Researchers wishing to reproduce materials are responsible for obtaining the proper permissions.