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He sails from New York warning of American softness. September 1926.
Location
Athens, Greece
Year
1926
Item Detail
A despatch filed from New York on the day he sailed, in which he sets his experience of foreign-born boys on the farm against native-born Americans and warns that the country is losing the pioneering spirit. The same column records the trunkful of seed he carried. Beside it on the leaf are a one-drachma note and a photograph of the two of them at the Erechtheion two days after they landed.
Context
Fred Midgley (1865–1939) was born in England and brought to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1869 at the age of four. He and Carrie A. Midgley, formerly Carrie A. Bancroft, ran a market garden in the city and were long active in the Grange. Near East Relief wanted an American market gardener to take charge of the farm work at its orphanage on the island of Syra, and Fred Midgley signed a two-year agreement in August 1926. The couple sailed that September and served on the island until 1928, he directing the agricultural work and she assisting him. Near East Relief's own history of the period calls Syra the last of its orphanage centers, the others having closed as children were placed out.
This album page is one of a group from Volume I of the two scrapbook albums the family kept, covering the Midgleys' appointment and outward voyage, the island and the orphanage farm, and the Grange campaign that sponsored children there. Their granddaughter Nancy Winter Taylor gave both volumes to the Near East Foundation. They are held in the Near East Foundation records at the Rockefeller Archive Center, Accession 2012:071, RG 6, finding aid FA 1309.
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Holding Institution
Rockefeller Archive Center
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External Link
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Attribution
Rockefeller Archive Center. Near East Foundation Records, Fred and Carrie Midgley Papers (Accession 2012:071, RG 6)
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Rights
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Notes
Typed slip: "Worcester Daily Telegram / September 17, 1926"
Headline: "U.S. IS SLIPPING FROM LAZINESS, MIDGLEY FEARS / Worcester Citizen, Sailing To Take Up Important Work For Near East Relief, Sounds Warning"
Dateline: "Special to The Telegram / NEW YORK, Sept. 16.—"
Typed: "a prominent farmer, who sailed today on the steamship Braca for Greece, where he will become director of agricultural education for the Near East Relief."
Typed: "Mr. Midgley has undertaken the work as a volunteer, without salary. He is taking with him a trunkful of special seeds, including enough of his own blight-proof celery seed to sow 60 acres."
Typed: "His wife, who is known as \"Mother\" Midgley to thousands of New England children whom she has helped, accompanies him to Greece, and will undertake special educational work for the orphanage girls."
Banknote, printed: "ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ... ΔΡΑΧΜΗ ΜΙΑ ... 001197 ... Bradbury Wilkinson & Co Ld"
Typed caption: "1 drachma"
Typed caption: "Taken at the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, Oct. 7th,1926."
Additional locations: New York.
About this group
Fred and Carrie Midgley Papers, Near East Foundation records, Rockefeller Archive Center, Accession 2012:071, RG 6, finding aid FA 1309. Gift of Nancy Winter Taylor, the Midgleys' granddaughter.
Sources for the Context:
• Barton, p. 450 ("Midgley, Frederick"). Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), "Overseas Personnel," p. 450: https://archive.org/details/storyofneareastr00bart_0/page/n540/mode/1up
• Barton, p. 163 ("Syra was the last orphanage center. All the other institutions were closed as rapidly as children could be outplaced. In Greece it was always called the American school and was seldom referred to as an orphanage."). James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1915-1930) (Macmillan, 1930), p. 163: https://archive.org/details/storyofneareastr00bart_0/page/163/mode/1up
• Worcester Historical Museum, Midgley Family Collection 2000.56 ("Leonard and Sarah (Clegg) Midgley were both natives of England, emigrating to Worcester in 1869 with seven of their 12 children"). William F. Carroll, finding aid, Midgley Family Collection, 2000.56, Worcester Historical Museum Archives, September 2000, p. 4: https://worcesterhistorical.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/midgley-family-2000.56.pdf
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Document Contents
A cutting from the Worcester Daily Telegram of 17 September 1926 datelined New York, with a Greek one-drachma note and a photograph at the Acropolis mounted beside it.