Mapping Armenian Paris: A new project by CALFA

Founded in 1930 and serving as a meeting point for researchers, journalists, and historians for over eighty years, the Samuelian Oriental Bookstore (Librairie orientale Samuélian) is now at the center of a digital transformation. The project to digitize the Samuelian Bookstore archives, launched in 2024, is expanding its scope to track Armenian traces within the historical fabric of Paris through digital mapping.

From Newspaper Ads to a Digital City Map

In the first phase of the project, a massive collection of Armenian newspapers published between 1920 and 1975—ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 pages—was taken under protection. This archive, containing more than 70 different newspaper titles published in countries such as France, Lebanon, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, holds the social and cultural memory of the Armenian diaspora.

While reading these newspapers, the Calfa team noticed a vast number of addresses for associations, businesses, and offices. They decided to transform this data into a map of Paris that traces these locations over time. The new "Paris" chapter of the project aims to visualize the settlement and economic activities of the Armenian community in the city since the early 20th century.

Collaboration with BnF DataLab and AI

The most exciting step of the project is being taken on the technological front. A specialized AI model is being developed to study the advertisements within the archives and identify historical Armenian businesses. For this work, a partnership has been established with BnF DataLab, the innovation unit of the National Library of France.

The AI model will automatically analyze advertisements on newspaper pages and, in light of this information, map out "Armenian Paris" in the 20th century. In doing so, the tailors, printing houses, doctors' offices, and coffeehouses of a bygone era will be repositioned in a digital environment.

A Strong Partnership and Robust Support

The project brings together prominent institutions from the worlds of science and culture. Led by Calfa, the collaboration includes:

• BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

• EPITA (LRE Laboratory, "DECIDON" project)

• Inalco (DALiH project)

• National Library of Armenia

The project is made possible through the valuable support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Armenian Communities Department) and the Samuelian family.

Preserving Heritage: From Physical Decay to Digital Access

Following the closure of the Samuelian Bookstore about a decade ago, the newspaper collections inside began to succumb to time, with some documents becoming too fragile to handle. Thanks to the high-accuracy Optical Character Recognition (OCR/HTR) technology developed by Calfa, these documents are not just being saved as images; they are being converted into searchable, editable digital texts open to academic research.

The data obtained and the digitized pages will be made accessible to the entire world through the Fundamental Scientific Library (FSL) of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. Thus, the daily life of the 20th-century Armenian diaspora, along with its traces on the streets of Paris, will be passed on to future generations.