Guide to the Zenas Kevorkian papers, 1921-1988

(bulk 1930-1950)


Special Collections, James P. Adams Library
Rhode Island College
600 Mount Pleasant Ave
Providence, RI, 02908
Tel: 401-456-8380
email:digitalcommons@ric.edu

Published in 2024

Collection Overview

Title: Zenas Kevorkian papers
Date range: 1921-1988, (bulk 1930-1950)
Creator: Kevorkian, Zenas (1910-1991)
Extent: 0.85 cubic feet
Abstract: Collection consists of Kevorkian’s personal photographs, which document his life, family, and community mostly in and around Providence and Cranston, Rhode Island from the 1920s through about 1960. The collection also includes correspondence while Kevorkian was in naval training in 1942, as well as publications of Providence Technical High School and Roger Williams Junior High School.
Language of materials: English
Repository: Special Collections, James P. Adams Library
Collection number: MSS-0042

Scope & content

The bulk of this collection consists of Zenas Kevorkian’s personal photographs, which document his life, family, and community mostly in and around Providence and Cranston, Rhode Island from the 1920s through about 1960. Subjects include photographs of damage left in the wake of the Hurricane of 1938; the U.S. Agricultural Experiment Station grounds in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in 1939, likely taken by his brother Arthur Kevorkian, who worked for the US Department of Agriculture; trips to New Hampshire, Quebec, Maine, and Washington, D.C. in the 1930s-40s; and scenes from Rhode Island schools where Kevorkian worked, including a National Defense Drive at Roger Williams Junior High School circa early 1940s.

The collection also includes correspondence from Kevorkian to students and teachers at Roger Williams Junior High School during his naval indoctrination at the Amphibious Training Base in Solomons, Maryland in 1942. Additionally, the collection includes Kevorkian’s resume, news clippings related to his work, and a 1988 revision of the constitution of the Barnard Club, a social and pedagogical association of Rhode Island teachers first established in 1878.

Access Points

Subject Names Subject Organizations Subject Topics Geographical Names Occupations Document Types

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into the following series:

  • Series 1: Photographs; 1921-1960.
  • Series 2: Other materials; 1940-1988.

Biographical/Historical Note

Zenas Kevorkian (1910-1991) was a career educator, a United States Naval Officer during World War II, and a hobbyist photographer in Rhode Island. In 1934 he graduated from Brown University with a major in history and a minor in education. He attended Brown Graduate School and worked as a student teacher in history at Central High School in Providence from 1934-35. After this he took numerous extension courses at Rhode Island College of Education and taught general science, mathematics, and journalism at Roger Williams Junior High School.

In 1942, Kevorkian left Rhode Island and his teaching job to join the United States Navy. He was commissioned as an ensign. He served as an executive officer, and then commanding officer, in the Mediterranean for seventeen months, taking part in twelve invasions in North Africa and southern parts of Italy. After further training in the United States, he served as a commanding officer in the South Pacific for twenty-two months, where he was in the initial invasion of Okinawa. Kevorkian was released to inactive duty as a senior grade lieutenant.

After returning from active military duty, Kevorkian worked as a personnel manager for industry in Woonsocket from 1946 until 1949, when he returned to education to work as a guidance counselor and history teacher at Cranston High School East. In 1958, he became Chairman of the Social Studies Department at Cranston High School West, where we worked for over ten years. While working in the Cranston high schools, he also established and directed adult education programs in Cranston. In 1955 he became Director of the Cranston Adult Education Program, and in 1966 he became Director of the Cranston Adult Basic Education Program. In 1970 he left Cranston High School West to serve as the full-time Director of Adult and Continuing Education for the Cranston School Department until his retirement in 1974.

Throughout his career, Kevorkian was active in over a dozen local, regional, and national educational professional associations. Among them, he served as President of the Barnard Club (1962-63), President of the Rhode Island Association of Public School Adult Education (1966-68), and Chairman of the State Membership Committee of the National Association of Public Continuing Education’s for fourteen years. Kevorkian was also deeply committed to numerous community, fraternal, religious, and Armenian organizations. He served on the boards of the Cranston Committee for Better Schools, the Cranston Historical Society, and the International Institute of Providence. He was active in the Armenian Missionary Association of America, and he served as communicant and deacon of the Armenian Euphrates Evangelical Church of Providence.

Access & Use

Access to the collection: The collection is open for research.
Use of the materials: Rhode Island College Special Collections holds copyright to materials in this collection created by Zenas Kevorkian. The collection contains materials not created by Kevorkian, which may be under copyright restrictions. Researchers are advised to contact Rhode Island College Special Collections for questions regarding permissions to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise publish material from this collection. Although Rhode Island College has physical ownership of the collection, it does not necessarily hold literary rights to all materials in this collection. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Alternate form: Select materials have been digitized and are available in RIC Digital Collections by searching for "Zenas Kevorkian".
Preferred citation: Zenas Kevorkian papers, MSS-0042, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.
Contact information: Special Collections, James P. Adams Library
Rhode Island College
600 Mount Pleasant Ave
Providence, RI, 02908
Tel: 401-456-8380
email:digitalcommons@ric.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION  
Acquisition: The collection was donated by Zenas Kevorkian’s children, Esther R. Kalajian and John Kevorkian, in August 2021. A deed of gift was signed at the time of donation.
Processing information: This collection was arranged and described by Molly Bruce Patterson in 2021. The guide to this collection was converted to current standard in 2024 by Anne Boylan.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID  
Author: Finding aid prepared by Molly Bruce Patterson and Anne Boylan.
Encoding: This finding aid was encoded by Veronica L. Denison, 2024
Descriptive rules: Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Separated material: Publications were removed from the collection and added to the Special Collections Zenas Kevorkian Rare Book Collection. Contact Special Collections for further information.
Location/Existence of copies: Select materials have been digitized and are available in RIC Digital Collections by searching for "Zenas Kevorkian".

Inventory


Series 1. Photographs, 1926-1960 (1930-1950)
0.75 cubic feet.

This series includes Kevorkian’s personal photographs. Subjects include landmarks, parks, monuments, and vistas predominantly in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, as well as friends and family members.

Container Description Date
Box 1, Folder 1 New Hampshire: Mt. Washington, Mt. Chocorua, Lake Winnipesaukee 
1932 
Box 1, Folder 2 People: Frank Lutz; Murray Hines; Mary Emma Dull, Pembroke College May Queen 1937; K.L. [possibly Kung-Lee] Wang; Helen Anne Weston 
1933-1952 
Box 1, Folder 3 Roger Williams Junior High School: Includes group photos of students, commencement photos, and photos of building exterior 
circa 1935-1942 
Box 1, Folder 4 Providence: County Courthouse, “The Scout” statue, Carrie Tower, RI State Supreme Court Building, RI State Capitol 
undated, 1936-1937 
Box 1, Folder 5 Camp Brett, Lebanon, New Jersey 
undated, 1937 
Box 1, Folder 6 First Baptist Church, Providence 
1937 
Box 1, Folder 7 Quebec, Maine, and New Hampshire 
1937 
Box 1, Folder 8 Roger Williams Park 
1937 
Box 1, Folder 9 Hurricane of 1938 
1938 
Box 1, Folder 10 Puerto Rico – San Juan and U.S. Agricultural Experiment Station Grounds, Mayagüez (possibly Arthur Kevorkian photos) 
1939 August 
Box 1, Folder 11 Washington, D.C. 
circa 1940 
Box 1, Folder 12 Theater productions: “The Servant in the House,” “The Dover Road,” “Death Takes a Holiday,” “Mr. & Mrs. North”  
1941-1942 
Box 1, Folder 13 Roger Williams Junior High School National Defense Drive “largest donater” [sic] 
circa 1942 
Box 1, Folder 14 Wedding of Louise Alma Barry and William Carleton Hogg, Jr. 
1943 November 21 
Box 1, Folder 15 Zenas Kevorkian in Naval Uniform: Zenas Kevorkian, Arthur Kevorkian, Helen Kevorkian (née Anthony) 
1944 
Box 1, Folder 16 Friends in Europe: Jean Doneux and family, Belgium; “Jenny” Guusje, The Netherlands 
1944, 1952 
Box 1, Folder 17 German Club initiation of new members 
1949 February 16 
Box 1, Folder 18 Cranston teachers 
1953 
Box 1, Folder 19 Jamestown Camp Seaside 
1953 
Box 1, Folder 20 Class reunions, 1954-1989: Pembroke Class of 1939; Brown University Class of 1934; Providence Technical High School 1928 
1954-1989
Box 1, Folder 21 Cranston Adult Education Program: Zenas Kevorkian, Marvin Rife, Haig Varadian 
1960 April 13 
Box 1, Folder 22 Arthur Kevorkian photo of Morro Castle, Havana, Cuba 
undated 
Box 1, Folder 23 House, mostly interiors 
undated 
Box 1, Folder 24 Landscapes by Stephen Willard 
undated 
Box 1, Folder 25 “Memorial Day Picnic with the gang” 
undated 
Box 1, Folder 26 “My radio class” 
undated 
Box 1, Folder 27 National Bank, Panama City 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 1 Theatrical performance in a field 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 2 Travel by ship and scenes with palm trees: Includes photos of the S.S. Ponce, which sailed Staten Island to Puerto Rico; photos on land (possibly Puerto Rico) 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 3 People at desks 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 4 Zenas Kevorkian portraits 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 5 Zenas and friends dancing 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 6 Groups of young people playing games and doing other activities: Includes photos of people in blackface/minstrel show. Also includes photos of boating, swimming, baseball, and Gillette Castle 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 7 Unidentified people: Includes photos of theatrical performances, WJAR, photo signed by “Alice,” photos of men in military uniforms 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 8 Unidentified places: Includes photo of “Massasoit” statue in Plymouth, MA; Plymouth Memorial Park; Carrie Tower; “The Falconer,” Roger Williams Park 
undated 
Box 2, Folder 9 Negatives 
undated 
Oversize Folder 1, Photographs 1-2 Photographs – Technical High School group shots 
1921, 1928 
Oversize Folder 1, Photograph 3 Photographs – International Conference of Religious Education Conference, Geneva Point Camp, Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire 
1932 August 
Oversize Folder 1, Photograph 4 American Wringer Co. Inc. Employee outing at North Smithfield Fly Fishing Club 
1947 August 23 

Series 2. Other materials, 1930-1988 (1930-1943)
0.1 cubic feet.

This series includes Kevorkian’s resume, news clippings about him, and some correspondence related to his military training.

Container Description Date
Box 2, Folder 10 Zenas Kevorkian resume and news clippings 
circa 1944-1974 
Box 2, Folder 11 Postcards 
circa 1930-1959 
Box 2, Folder 12 Roger Williams Junior High School newsletter, “What Cheer, Netop” stationery 
1940-1942 
Box 2, Folder 13 Correspondence from Zenas Kevorkian to students and colleagues at Roger Williams Junior High School during naval training 
1942 September-1943 January 
Box 2, Folder 14 Revised history and constitution of the Barnard Club 
1988