Boys wash ten thousand radishes at the harbor house. Syra, November 1927.

Location

Syra (Syros), Greece

Year

1927

Item Detail

Fred and Carrie Midgley directed the agricultural work at the American Orphanage on Syra from 1926 to 1928. The boys stand in the water at the harbor house washing the crop, with the radishes piled in a bank along the edge above them, ten thousand by the album's count. The leaf also carries the children in the water at the Near East Relief summer camp at Vari in September, and two sisters, Suzanne and Sevart, photographed by a commercial photographer on Syra in November.

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.

View in the Digital Archive

  • Holding Institution

    Rockefeller Archive Center

  • External Link
    https://dimes.rockarch.org/collections/7cMpMmcqYKq9Wte7ayDUAo

  • Attribution

    Rockefeller Archive Center. Near East Foundation Records, Fred and Carrie Midgley Papers (Accession 2012:071, RG 6)

  • Rights

    No known copyright restrictions. Based on available information, NERHS is not aware of copyright restrictions on this material. Items are presented for non-commercial research and educational use. Users are responsible for determining rights status and compliance with applicable law. If you believe you hold rights in this material or have information about rights holders not currently reflected, please contact [email protected].

  • Notes

    Typed caption: "This is taken at the harboose where the boys / are washing the radish, notice them piled a- / round the edge, 10,000 of them. Nov.1927."

    Typed caption: "Taken at Camp Vari. / Sept 22d, 1927."

    Typed caption: "Taken at Syra, Nov.17th,1927 / by a photographer. The larg- / er girl is Suzanne and the / smaller one is her sister, / Sevart."

    Additional locations: Vari.

    Sources for the Item Detail

    • 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

    • Washington Times, 16 Nov 1928, p. 4 ("by Frederick Midgley, of Worcester, Mass., past master of the Worcester Grange and director of agriculture for the Near East Relief on the Island of Syra"). "Grange Fights U.S. School Department," The Washington Times (Washington, D.C.), 16 November 1928, p. 4: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1928-11-16/ed-1/?sp=4

    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

Boys wash ten thousand radishes at the harbor house. Syra, November 1927.