Alixa Naff

Alixa Naff (September 15, 1919 – June 1, 2013) was a Lebanese-born American historian. She focused much of her research on the first wave of Arab American immigration to the United States at the turn of the 20th Century.^[1][2][3]

Naff was born in Rashaya al-Wadi, a village located in present-day Lebanon within the Anti-Lebanon mountains.^[3] Naff immigrated to the United States with her parents, Faris and Yamna Naff, as a toddler.^[1] She arrived in Spring Valley, Illinois on January 1, 1922, where she lived until the family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1929.^[3] Her entire family moved to Detroit, Michigan in June 1931, where her father worked in the grocery industry.^[1][3] She resided in Falls Church, Virginia, for many years before moving to Mitchellville, Maryland.^[1]

Naff documents Arab immigration to the U.S. during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This first wave of mostly Christian immigrants was the first major emigration from the Middle East to the U.S.^[1] Naff donated her collection of artifacts and oral histories from early Arab immigrants to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.^[1] Naff had driven throughout the U.S. in a blue Volkswagen Beetle to collect oral histories and family heirlooms for the collection.^[1] She amassed more than 450 oral histories, 2,000 photographs, and more than 500 artifacts.^[1] The personal and household objects included kibbe pounder, Middle Eastern musical instruments, and clothing.^[1] The Faris and Yamna Naff Collection, which was named in honor of her parents, is available for research through the National Museum of American History.^[1]

Alixa Naff died from a short illness at her home in Mitchellville, Maryland, on June 1, 2013, at the age of 93.^[1]

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