Collections

Photographs from 1918–1919, drawn from the U.S. War Department's American Unofficial Collection of World War I Photographs, documenting ACRNE field operations across the Caucasus, eastern Anatolia, and northwest Persia alongside American fundraising and mobilization. (U.S. National Archives, RG 165)

Harold C. Jaquith directed NER's Constantinople (Istanbul) operations from 1921, overseeing aid for 180,000 orphans and refugees. After the burning of Smyrna (Izmir) in 1922, he helped direct relief through the Greek-Turkish population exchange. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Photographs by Stanley Kerr from ACRNE service at Aleppo and Marash (Kahramanmaras), 1919–1920: relief workers, orphanage compounds, Armenian and Moroccan soldiers, and the city of Marash before and after the siege of January–February 1920. (Zoryan Institute)

Letters and diaries of Dr. Ruth A. Parmelee, who witnessed the Armenian Genocide at Harpoot (Kharpert), returned with Near East Relief in 1919, and led refugee maternity work in Greece. They document her service from Harpoot to Salonica (Thessaloniki). (Hoover Institution)

Photographic album compiled by Ernest A. Yarrow documenting ACASR (NER) activities in the Caucasus, ca. 1918–1920. Images cover relief operations, orphan care, and social services in and around Yerevan and Etchmiadzin, with references to refugees from Van and Bitlis. (Mansfield Family Personal Collection)

Nellie Miller Mann served as secretary to the NER Treasurer in Beirut, 1921–1923. This collection includes correspondence, reports, and personal records from her service during NER's postwar expansion in Lebanon and Syria. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Photographs collected by Fred and Carrie Midgley at NER's island orphanage on Syra (Syros), Greece, ca. 1926–1928. The prints show Armenian and Greek orphans, relief workers, the orphanage farm, and daily life; many carry handwritten names on the back. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Scrapbook compiled by Fred and Carrie Midgley during their service at NER's island orphanage on Syra (Syros), Greece, ca. 1926–1928. Pages combine photographs, clippings, and personal notes documenting orphan care, vocational training, and daily life at the orphanage. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Letters written by Stanley Kerr during ACRNE service at Aleppo and Marash, 1919–1920, documenting the rescue of Armenian women and girls abducted during the Armenian Genocide, the siege of Marash, and relief for its survivors. (Zoryan Institute)

Photographs collected by Dr. Ruth A. Parmelee from the prewar Harpoot mission, her Near East Relief service at Harpoot, 1919–1922, and the Salonica refugee emergency, 1922–1923. The images record hospital work, orphan care, travel, wartime destruction, and refugee housing. (Hoover Institution Library & Archives)

Silas Hertzler (1888–1975), a Mennonite Relief Commission volunteer, had charge of 300 boys at the Sidon orphanage in Syria (present-day Lebanon) in 1919–1920. His prints follow one girl, Miriam Moosa, from arrival to six months on, and record the Aleppo refugee barracks. (Goshen College Archives)

Barclay Acheson became NER's Associate General Secretary in 1922 and from 1923 directed relief work in Greece, Syria, and the Caucasus. His photographs record the orphanages and refugee operations he supervised, from Alexandropol (Gyumri) to Athens, ca. 1922-1928. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Caleb Wakefield Lawrence directed NER's Smyrna Unit from 1920 and chaired the Smyrna Disaster Relief Committee after the Turkish Nationalist army burned the city in 1922. His papers document the evacuation and relief of Smyrna's Greek and Armenian survivors. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Nellie Miller Mann served in NER's Beirut headquarters, 1921–1923, and photographed the refugee camps and orphanages she visited across Syria and Lebanon, developing many prints in her own improvised darkroom. Her images record refugee children and orphanage life. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Photograph album compiled by Bayard Dodge, who led Near East Relief's Beirut operations, documenting NER's orphanages around Beirut, 1922. The photographs show the orphans, their evacuation from Anatolia, the buildings raised to house them, and daily life inside. (American University of Beirut)

Typed field diaries kept by Barclay Acheson, NER's Director of Overseas Operations, June 1926–September 1927. Four volumes record his inspection tours from the Soviet Caucasus to Iraq and Persia, and the internal decisions that turned Near East Relief into the Near East Foundation. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

A. Gertrude Anthony served with NER from 1919 to 1923, directing the boys' orphanage at Marsovan (Merzifon), which sheltered two thousand children orphaned by the genocides until the forced evacuation of 1922. Her photographs record the children and their daily life. (UC Berkeley Bancroft Library)

Photographs by Glen Russell Carrier during a 1919 NER field survey led by Dr. Loyal Lincoln Wirt across Cilicia and northern Syria. Ninety-six images document refugee displacement, wartime destruction, and relief operations at Aleppo, Aintab, and Marash. (Harvard Fine Arts Library)

Letters and papers of Christopher C. Thurber, a Near East Relief worker who directed the Sivas orphanage and, from 1924, NER's work in Greece. Most are letters from former orphanage wards and refugees in Greece, 1924–1930, with some related reference material. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Five coded telegrams between Ambassador Henry Morgenthau in Constantinople (Istanbul) and the U.S. State Department, July–September 1915. They record the Armenian Genocide as it happened and end with the appeal that founded Near East Relief. (U.S. National Archives)

Fundraising posters and campaign graphics were essential to NER’s public outreach. Designed by leading artists, they used striking imagery and direct appeals to mobilize broad support. These materials illustrate how visual campaigns helped sustain one of the first mass humanitarian drives.

NER pioneered large-scale citizen philanthropy by mobilizing everyday Americans through school drives, church campaigns, and national events like Golden Rule Sunday. These images document how grassroots participation sustained the relief effort and reshaped American giving.

This collection brings together foundational records that shaped NER’s humanitarian response, including Morgenthau’s 1915 telegram and early analyses of postwar reconstruction needs. These documents illuminate the decisions and insights that guided NER’s work.

These minutes record NER's formal decision-making from 1915 through the early 1930s, including governance, fundraising, and coordination with U.S. officials, missionaries, and field directors. They span the organization's entire lifecycle, from founding through wind-down. (Rockefeller Archive Center)

Near East Relief published newsletters, bulletins, and magazines to report on work in the field and sustain public support. These periodicals carry staff reports, photographs, appeals, and accounts of orphan care, refugee relief, and changing regional conditions.