A line of barefoot girls in headscarves and long patterned skirts carry large clay water jars on their backs past a brick wall. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 50 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; published in The Living Races of Mankind (1901) as "Armenians water-carrying (Nestorians)" and by D'Allemagne (1911) as "Jeunes filles Nestoriennes faisant le métier de porteuses d'eau" (young Nestorian women working as water carriers).

Nestorian (Assyrian) girls carrying water jars

Page of colour photographs printed with the caption "Consecration of the Assyrian Apostolic Church of the Virgin Mary, April 7, 1968": the archbishop celebrating at the altar under stained glass, clergy and deacons, and the full church.

First liturgy at the newly consecrated Paramus church, 1968

Colour photographs of the consecration of the Virgin Mary church in Paramus on April 7, 1968: the archbishop anointing the walls, clergy reading at the altar, and the congregation in the new church.

Consecration of the Virgin Mary church in Paramus, 1968

Mar Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, Assyrian (Syriac) Orthodox Archbishop of the U.S. and Canada, with Rev. John Khoury and trustees president Thomas Esehak at the laying of the cornerstone, dated 1967, of the Virgin Mary church in Paramus on September 17, 1967.

Archbishop Athanasius Samuel lays the Paramus cornerstone, 1967

Page of six photographs showing the construction of the church and church hall in Paramus, New Jersey: the domed roof framing, the cross being raised and the hall under construction.

Building the Virgin Mary church in Paramus, 1967

Cover and menu of the printed program for Consecration Day of the "Assyrian Apostolic Church of the Virgin Mary", 644 Paramus Road, Paramus, New Jersey, Sunday, April 7, 1968, with a drawing of the new church. The menu notes altar flowers donated by St. Leon's Armenian Church of Fair Lawn.

Consecration Day program of the Virgin Mary church in Paramus, 1968

Urmia refugees on horseback trekking through Bijar, 1918

View over the rooftops of Urmia

Mar Eshai Shimun with the patriarchal family, about 1924

Bear hunters at Qudshanis

Jilu Assyrian orphans breaking stones for the Persian road

Two monks at the gate of the new monastery of Rabban Hormizd, Alqosh, 1897

Al-Shahba Sports Club after winning the second division, Aleppo, 1968

Priest Abraham of Urmia, 1843 lithograph

Priest holding a gospel at the Church of the Virgin, Hah, 1909

Syrian (Assyrian) women of the Kurdistan mountains in flight

Refugee children on Christmas Day 1915, Urmia

Jilu Assyrian refugees coming over the Asadabad Pass

Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Behnam II Benni, 1898 engraving

Monastery of Mor Awgin on Mount Izla, 1909

Iraq Levy with raised dagger, photographed by Cecil Beaton, 1942

Iraq Levies recruits drilling at Habbaniya

Text and miniature, folio 21r of a Syriac lectionary, about 1220

Mrs. Khnan-Eshoo Abraham in mountain Nestorian costume

The patriarchal house at Qudshanis, 1912

Leaders of the 1898 union of Urmia Assyrians with Russian Orthodoxy

Assyrian printers at the mission press, Urmia, c. 1900

Mutrâv Paulus, Syrian Roman Catholic bishop in Mosul

Five elderly Assyrian men, Van Province

Patriarch Ruel Mar Shimun

Assyrian woman spinning wool at Tel Tamer, 1938

Six Assyrian Levies at camp in Baqubah, 1920

Rubbing of the gravestone of Elizabeth, Yangzhou, 1317

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.

First liturgy at the newly consecrated Paramus church, 1968

Consecration of the Virgin Mary church in Paramus, 1968

Archbishop Athanasius Samuel lays the Paramus cornerstone, 1967

Building the Virgin Mary church in Paramus, 1967

Consecration Day program of the Virgin Mary church in Paramus, 1968

Every family has photographs that belong here.