site.btaExhibition at Archives State Agency for 120 Years of Bulgaria-US Diplomatic Relations

An exhibition entitled Discovering America. 120 Years of Diplomatic Relations between Bulgaria and the United States opened at the Archives State Agency on Monday. The idea for the exhibition came from the Foreign Ministry's Americas Directorate. It was organized by the Archives State Agency with the participation of the Scientific Archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with support from the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA).

The Archives State Agency President, Assoc. Prof. Mihail Gruev, said that although the exhibition is devoted to Bulgaria-US relations, it shows a broader panorama of the cultural, religious and economic ties between the two peoples before the formal establishment of relations. Emphasis is on the establishment of diplomatic relations itself, he said.

"As Bulgarians and citizens, we cannot but be grateful to the foundations involved in supporting the Bulgarian cause," said Gruev. "At the end of the exhibition, we have presented the new dynamics in post-Cold War relations."

Desislava Atanassova, Acting Director of the Foreign Ministry's Americas Directorate, said Bulgaria and the US were destined to travel a long and bumpy road, but the bonds of trust and friendship remain and the two countries continue to strengthen them. She recalled that the exhibition was opened at the Foreign Ministry on June 28 by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel.

The exhibition shows some of the first Bulgarians who studied in the US and those fascinated by the American Dream who settled there. A special place is given to bilateral relations in the last 20 years.

The exhibition features documents and photographs from the collections of the Central State Archives, the State Archives of Shumen, Blagoevgrad, Lovech, Plovdiv and Sliven, and the Scientific Archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. For the first time on display are journalist Januarius McGahan's order for free movement in the Ottoman Empire, a portrait of Woodrow Wilson by Sirak Skitnik, a portrait of Charlie Chaplin by Konstantin Shtarkelov, a photo of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a dedication to writer, journalist, diplomat and historian Simeon Radev, a photo of the first American Consular Agent in Bulgaria, Asen Kermekchiev (later Ace Kermek), Boris Zografov's painting Types from Chicago, and albums of the Bulgarian participation in trade and cultural exhibitions in the US.