FROM THE FAMILY ALBUM

Photographs paired with the memories, people, places, and stories behind them.

Margarit Sarvarian and her Three Children -Around 1912, Tehran

At first glance, this is a simple family portrait: Margarit Sarvarian with three of her children, Napoleon, Mushegh, and Sonia. But knowing what was happening in her life around the time this photograph was taken changes the way we see it.

Margarit was still a remarkably young woman. She had already graduated with training in pedagogy, traveled through a volatile region to Tabriz to help fellow Armenians advance modern education, and eventually made her way to Tehran in search of new possibilities. By the time of this photograph, she was raising three young children while taking on another formidable challenge: establishing a kindergarten of her own.

For a woman in Tehran more than a century ago, creating and running an educational institution was no small undertaking. It required more than professional training. It demanded independence, confidence, persistence, and an extraordinary willingness to turn ideas into action.

There is nothing dramatic happening in the photograph. A mother simply sits with her children. Yet perhaps that is precisely what makes it so revealing. Behind the quiet family portrait is a young educator, mother, immigrant, and entrepreneur carrying enormous responsibilities while laying the foundations for something that would eventually touch the lives of generations of children.

Looking at the photograph today, it is difficult not to wonder what was already going through Margarit's mind as she sat for the camera—and how much of the story that followed had already begun.