November 24, 2025 — The IU Indianapolis University Library has published an online, fully digital open-access archive of the Midwest Federation of American Syrian Lebanese Clubs (MFASLC). Containing over one thousand items ranging from annual convention programs and legal documents to photographs and correspondence among Arab American leaders, the archive is a unique addition to the sources available for the study of Arab American and Midwest history and life. Records for the group’s sister organizations, the Eastern Federation and Southern Federation, were previously available for research via, respectively, the Smithsonian’s Naff Collection and the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, but this is the first collection focusing on the Midwest Federation.

Originally called the Midwest Federation of Syrian American Clubs, the organization was established in 1936 when hundreds of delegates from local clubs and other voluntary associations came together for a meeting at the Syrian American Brotherhood Hall in Indianapolis. The group appealed to Arabic-speaking immigrants and their American-born heirs, almost all of whom had roots in the Ottoman-ruled Levant and subsequently the nations of Lebanon and Syria. The archive reveals the serious and sometimes merry business of forging Syrian and Lebanese American communities that were proud of their roots, desirous of public respect and recognition, and committed to their Midwestern towns and cities. While today’s MFASLC has a smaller footprint than it once it did, it remains active with an annual convention and a scholarship program, among other activities.

This archive was funded by the Arab Indianapolis Foundation, Inc. and all materials were provided courtesy of MFASLC historian Thomas Tadros of Michigan City, Indiana, in coordination by Dr. Edward Curtis, the William M. and Gail. M. Plater Chair of the Liberal Arts. Anna Proctor of the IU Indianapolis University Library oversaw a team of librarians, including Parimala Anjanappa, Lucille Brys, Katrina Earle, and Raneem Hijazi, who digitized the materials and added metadata to the archive, which is published on ContentDM, the OCLC digital asset management system.