An Armenian family from Shushi

The photograph shows an Armenian family from the town of Shushi. Family photographs like this are an important historical source: they show the way of life, clothing, family relations and cultural setting of the Armenians of Artsakh at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

For a long time Shushi was one of the cultural, educational and public centres of Artsakh, where Armenian families of the intelligentsia took shape and crafts, art and education developed.

Three people are in the picture: a bearded man in a dark suit, a seated woman in a white lace veil, and a teenager leaning on a carved wooden railing.