Research and Study Collection of Ephemera circa 1900-1973

Some materials in this collection are in Arabic and French.

The Research and Study Collection of Ephemera contains materials related to Frank Lackteen, Marrie Bayrooty, the Morning Tribune of Detroit, Michigan, the Lebanese government’s 1955 “Summer of Emigrants” program, and other topics in Lebanese emigration.

Frank Lackteen, born in Lebanon in 1897, acted in a variety of American silent and Western films. As a child, he immigrated to the United States and worked at a textile mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, before becoming an actor. Marrie Bayrooty was a circus performer who worked with the Bayrooty Brothers Oriental Troupe in the Barnum and Bailey Circus sideshow. In 1905, she spun on her heels and toes for 32 minutes straight, breaking the record for human twirling. In 1955, the Lebanese government launched a tourism initiative titled the “Summer of Emigrants,” which encouraged members of the Lebanese diaspora to visit their homeland.

The Research and Study Collection of Ephemera includes talent cards of Marrie Bayrooty and related circus performers, photographs of Frank Lackteen, newspaper clippings in Arabic from the Detroit Morning Tribune and The Arab-American Message, postcards, a flyer for a Muslim youth camp in California, commemorative stamps from Lebanon, and an envelope and letter addressed to Nadim Attallah.

Materials in this collection are arranged in the order received.

The Khayrallah Center claims only physical ownership of the materials. Due to the nature of archival collections, information about copyright and rights ownership in the materials may be difficult to find despite reasonable efforts. Nonexclusive right to authorize uses of these materials for non-commercial research, scholarly, or other educational purposes are granted to Khayrallah Center pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. Usage of the materials for these purposes must be fully credited with the source. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials.

[Identification of item], Research and Study Collection of Ephemera, GR 0015, Hoda Z. Nassour and Herbert R. Nassour Jr., MD, Archive of Lebanese Diaspora

Materials purchased by the Khayrallah Center, 2019 (Accession No. 2023.006). Materials purchased by the Khayrallah Center, 2020 August (Accession No. 2023.007).

Processed by Celine Shay and Amanda Forbes, 2020. Finding aid created by Laura Lethers, 2023 July. Finding aid updated by Allison Hall, 2023 September.