Hagop Bogigian and The Bogigian Gallery

Hagop Bogigian was born in 1856 on the remote Anatolian Plain of Turkey in the town of Hussenig in the Provence of Harpoot, a region where his ancestors had lived since the eleventh century. His father died when he was four, leaving his mother to raise five children on the meager wages of a weaver. Hagop learned of the western world and gained an interest in America from the mission school he attended in Harpoot. At nineteen, he decided to see America and headed west.

Hagop arrived in Boston in 1876 and after difficult starts and a brief return to Armenia, life began to improve. By 1882, Bogigian was doing business with Boston’s elite. As time passed, his customers would include New England’s most prominent families; the Vanderbuilts, Pullmans, and Astors. He would befriend Presidents, Senators, and have an open invitation to call on the Prime Minister of England. He would cross the Atlantic eighty-seven times, export the first windmills and pumps to Egypt, the first American plow to Siberia, and the first winnowing machines to Europe. He became exceeding wealthy, but never forgot his humble beginnings.

In 1895, a ruthless campaign of extermination of the Armenian people began by the order of the Sultan of Turkey. These massacres would continue intermittently for twenty-seven years. Death tolls are thought to have been as high as 1.5 million. 

Hagop Bogigian experienced deep loss in these events and called upon President Cleveland for assistance. He involved Clara Barton and the American Red Cross in relief efforts, and became an outspoken supporter of human rights and fought to right social injustice.

Later in life, he moved to Washington, DC and befriended Wilson College President, Dr. Ethelbert D. Warfield (Wilson College President from 1915 – 1936) through Presbyterian minister, Rev. Dr. Joseph Sezoo, Pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Bogigian took a great interest in women’s education and became a regular visitor to Wilson College. He saw the college as a place where self-respect was honored and where human injustice was addressed. 

Upon his death, Bogigian left the bulk of his estate to Wilson College, which included a large collection of oriental rugs, many being of museum quality. Unfortunately, with the financial crises of 1979, the college sold the rugs in its effort to remain open. The Bogigian Gallery was named in his honor to secure the link between Hagop Bogigian and Wilson.

Taken from Dr. H. Martin Deranian’s article, Hagop Bogigian and His Passion for Wilson College. Published in the Wilson Alumnae Quarterly, Summer 1988. Dr. Deranian is the nephew of Hagop Bogigian. The author’s mother was Hagop’s niece, a miraculous survivor of the 1915 forced deportation of Armenians through the Mesopotamian desert. Her husband was killed and her six children, one of whom was born in route, perished during the forced march.