Orphan boys washing radishes at the harbor house, Nov 1927

Location

Syra (Syros), Greece

Year

1926–1928

Item Detail

With campers at Camp Vari (Sept 22) and sisters Suzanne and Sevart (Nov 17).
Original Caption: "…the boys are washing the radish, notice them piled around the edge, 10,000 of them."

Context

The Near East Relief orphanage on the island of Syra (Syros), Greece, operated in the years after the destruction of Smyrna (Izmir) in September 1922 and the forced displacement of Armenian and Greek populations from Anatolia. As survivors of the Armenian and Greek genocides were resettled across Greece, NER established and expanded its facilities on Syros to shelter, educate, and train the orphaned children in its care.

Fred and Carrie (Bancroft) Midgley of Worcester, Massachusetts, arrived on September 16, 1926. Fred served as agricultural director, overseeing the orphanage's crop and orchard work, seed saving, and farm instruction. Carrie took part in the daily life of the orphanage and recorded it in her letters home. They remained at Syra until mid-1928.

The Midgleys' papers were donated to the Near East Foundation by their granddaughter, Nancy Winter Taylor, and are held in the Near East Foundation records at the Rockefeller Archive Center (Accession 2012:071, RG 6).

View in the Digital Archive

  • Holding Institution

    Rockefeller Archive Center

  • External Link
    https://dimes.rockarch.org/collections/7cMpMmcqYKq9Wte7ayDUAo?category=&limit=40&query=midgley

  • 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

    The Midgley papers comprise two volumes. Volume I, the scrapbook, holds Fred's Near East Relief work contract and commission, pre-departure newspaper articles, ephemera from the voyage out on the S.S. Braga, photographs of the orphans, the farm, and the island, NER service medals and certificates, and press features about the Midgleys' work from their departure into the early 1930s. It also documents the March 1928 distribution of 2,000 "St. Louis" dolls to Armenian orphans.

    Volume II is a set of transcribed letters, written mainly by Carrie (and some by Fred) to their son William Bancroft Midgley. They record daily life at the orphanage (meals, chapel services, hospital care, and individual children by name), the Winters' visit in December 1926, a trip to Constantinople (Istanbul), and the family's return through Athens, Venice, Paris, and London in June 1928.

Orphan boys washing radishes at the harbor house, Nov 1927