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Children receive bread and cocoa at the Tiflis cocoa kitchen. Tiflis, c. 1919–1920.
Location
Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia
Year
c. 1919–1920
Item Detail
Children came to the Tiflis cocoa kitchen with tickets and were given bread and cocoa. Three hundred were fed there each day. A 2022 history published by the National Archives of Georgia and the U.S. Embassy to Georgia captions this print as a cocoa kitchen set up by the American Relief Administration. Cocoa kitchens gave children supplementary nourishment of cocoa and bread. In the Caucasus the Commonwealth Fund gave $750,000 for a special feeding program for children. Near East Relief's own monthly report for February 1920 lists cocoa lines at Alexandropol and none at Tiflis. In September 1921 Near East Relief was giving cocoa and bread once a week to 6,000 children in a children's garden in Tiflis. From August 1919 to July 1920, relief in the Caucasus ran under Colonel William N. Haskell, named joint relief administrator and high commissioner for Armenia through the American Relief Administration and Near East Relief. Near East Relief agreed to pay the orphanage costs, and its workers took their assignments from Haskell and cared for the children and the orphanages.
Context
The American Relief Administration (ARA), Herbert Hoover's relief agency in postwar Europe, was re-formed in July 1919 as a volunteer, non-profit body. From August 1919 to July 1920 it worked jointly with Near East Relief in the Caucasus under Colonel William N. Haskell, joint relief administrator and high commissioner for Armenia. Near East Relief agreed to pay the administrative, orphanage and transportation costs, and its workers took their assignments from Haskell and ran the orphanages. The people they served included Armenian refugees who had fled Turkey during the Armenian Genocide. When Haskell withdrew to Constantinople in 1920, Ernest A. Yarrow took charge of the workers who stayed.
This photograph is one of 67 prints from the ARA European operational records at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Seven show child feeding and institutions in Tiflis (Tbilisi). Nineteen filed as ARA operations in Armenia are mostly marked "Near East Relief" on the back, and one is an American Red Cross photograph. Four more, filed as starving children, are marked as Armenian refugees and an Armenian child. Thirty-seven come from an album that Hoover describes as work of Near East Relief in Erevan. Its captions also name places in Georgia and Turkey.
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Holding Institution
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
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External Link
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Attribution
Photograph of children at the Tiflis cocoa kitchen, Tiflis, c. 1919–1920, American Relief Administration European operational records, Box 858, Folder 11, Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
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Rights
No known copyright restrictions. Based on available information, NERHS is not aware of copyright restrictions on this material. Items are presented for non-commercial research and educational use. Users are responsible for determining rights status and compliance with applicable law. If you believe you hold rights in this material or have information about rights holders not currently reflected, please contact [email protected].
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Notes
Verso label (typed, Hoover ARA Box 858-11-3): "The Tiflis Cocoa Kitchen. The children arrive with their tickets and receive bread and cocoa. Three hundred childred are fed daily in this kitchen."
Hoover title: "7 prints depicting child feeding in cocoa kitchens, Tblisi." Box 858, Folder 11. Digitized by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Hoover record: https://n2t.net/ark:/54723/h31834c7k
Sources for the Item Detail:
• Sophio Jobava, ed., Georgia and United States: A History of Diplomatic Relations (Tbilisi: National Archives of Georgia and U.S. Embassy to Georgia, 2022), ISBN 978-9941-8-5000-4, p. 12 ("Soup kitchens were set up for adults; milk stations assisted nursing mothers; and “cocoa kitchens” provided supplemental nutrition to children.").
• Barton, p. 125 ("The Commonwealth Fund co-operated in a special feeding program for children through an appropriation of $750,000."). James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), HathiTrust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b744679
• The New Near East, June 1920, p. 29, "Consolidated Monthly Report of Relief Activities—February" (Alexandropol: "16,490 / 3 Cocoa Lines" under "Number of Children Aided in Soup Kitchens". Tiflis: "1,930 Arm. Orph. (1 S. K.)"). NERHS: https://neareastrelief.org/asset/87385/
• Near East Relief (NER Weekly), 3 December 1921, p. 3, extract from letter of Theodore Elmer, District Commander, Tiflis ("We fed in September in our Dining Rooms and Orphanages in Tiflis, 2944 children. In addition to this we gave cocoa and bread to 6000 children once a week in our children’s garden."). NERHS: https://neareastrelief.org/asset/90050/
• Barton, p. 124 ("the appointment of Col. William N. Haskell as joint relief administrator and high commissioner for Armenia ... The Near East Relief agreed to pay all administrative, orphanage and transportation charges, which were estimated at $500,000 per month."). James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), HathiTrust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b744679
• Barton, p. 124 ("Col. Haskell and his mission took charge of the relief activities in August, 1919, and remained in the Caucasus until July, 1920. The Near East Relief workers were given assignments by Col. Haskell and were made responsible for the care of the children and the orphanages."). James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), HathiTrust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b744679
• Sophio Jobava, ed., Georgia and United States: A History of Diplomatic Relations (Tbilisi: National Archives of Georgia and U.S. Embassy to Georgia, 2022), ISBN 978-9941-8-5000-4, p. 6, caption to this photograph ("Cocoa kitchen, set by the American Relief Administration (ARA) in Tbilisi, feeding children with cup of cocoa and bread. Circa 1920.").
About this group: American Relief Administration European operational records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
• Hoover Institution Library & Archives, American Relief Administration European operational records, collection guide, biographical note quoting Herbert Hoover, An American Epic, vol. III ("to set up a volunteer successor under the same name" ... "On July 12, they formed the new American Relief Administration, which was registered as a non-profit corporation"): https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf9779p02m
• Barton, p. 124 ("the appointment of Col. William N. Haskell as joint relief administrator and high commissioner for Armenia ... The Near East Relief agreed to pay all administrative, orphanage and transportation charges, which were estimated at $500,000 per month."). James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), HathiTrust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b744679
• Barton, p. 124 ("Col. Haskell and his mission took charge of the relief activities in August, 1919, and remained in the Caucasus until July, 1920. The Near East Relief workers were given assignments by Col. Haskell and were made responsible for the care of the children and the orphanages."). James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), HathiTrust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b744679
• Barton, p. 10 ("It was learned that Armenians from the eastern part of Turkey, alarmed by the hostile attitude of the Constantinople government, were in exodus by the tens of thousands into Russia" ... "there was an assemblage of more than two hundred thousand Armenians, Assyrians and Nestorians in abject destitution in the Russian Caucasus"), from the State Department dispatches the committee read when it was formed in 1915. James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), HathiTrust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b744679
• Barton, p. 127 ("Col. Haskell and his military aids withdrew to Constantinople and Ernest A. Yarrow was placed in charge of the civilian workers, who remained to carry on the relief activities."). James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), HathiTrust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b744679