Coming to America

Patrons interested in donating artifact(s) to help illustrate or interpret the Arab American experience, please click here.

Kindergarten Uniform

This bright jacket was worn by a son of Oraha Hermiz Jamil while attending kindergarten in Iraq. The Jamils were Chaldeans – Aramaic-speaking Iraqi Christians – who, like many other Chaldeans, went into the retail business upon arrival in America. They owned and operated several “party stores” (Detroit’s colloquial term for convenience stores) where family members were employed as soon as they turned 16. One of Jamil’s daughters, Asmaa, capitalized on her early entrepreneurial experience by going to college and earning an MBA.

Water Bottle

Donated by Mohamad and Erma Abdallah of Delano, CA, this water bottle, made of suede and plastic, was used by Mohamad when he worked as a migrant on California farms. It’s on display, along with his worn straw hat, in the Museum’s Coming To America exhibit. Mohamad was an orphan from Yemen who immigrated to the U.S. as a teen in the 1950’s. He ended up doing physical labor for little pay as a migrant worker, but eventually rose to manage the farm where he worked. Mohamad married Erma, a Mexican American, in 1962. The couple raised two children who are both college graduates.

Coffee Pots

This set of two Turkish coffee pots was donated to the AANM by Claudia Thomas of Swannanoa, North Carolina. Called rakwe in Arabic, these brass pots were used for boiling coffee grounds in water. One is 4 1/2" high, handle engraved with number 10; the other is 5 1/4" high, handle engraved with the number 14. Thomas is a relative of B.K. Forzley, who is featured in the Museum’s Ellis Island vignette. Forzley immigrated in 1897 from Karhoun (in modern-day Lebanon), became a peddler in Worcester, MA and in 1905, earned U.S. citizenship. Forzley brought these coffee pots to America upon returning from one of his many trips to Lebanon and Syria. 

Embroidered Handbag

This cloth bag with wooden handles was donated to the AANM by Hanan Jaghab of Livonia, MI. Used to carry school books, it belonged to Jaghab’s mother, Najla Ghannan, who immigrated to U.S. in 1964. The fabric is off-white with green, brown, pink, red and orange threads embroidered over much of the exterior. It’s reminiscent of the embroidery style in the Museum’s current exhibition Threads of Pride: Palestinian Traditional Costumes.

Toys

These 14 charming wooden figurines belonged to Rafeef Ladki, who brought them with her to the United States in the early 1970s as her family escaped war in Lebanon. Rafeef’s mother, Joanna Ladki, who donated the toys, works for the AANM’s parent organization, ACCESS. The toys, 2-3” tall, include a giraffe, stork, kangaroo, cat, deer, mouse, dog, donkey and four people.