A donkey carries 500 pounds of building stone. Syra, c. 1927.

Location

Syra (Syros), Greece

Year

1927

Item Detail

Near East Relief ran a summer camp for the Syra children at Vari, a bay on the same island, where the orphanage put up sleeping tents and the personnel took their turn. Children crowd round a donkey loaded with stone brought down off the hill for building, five hundred pounds tied on with ropes. The other two photographs were made on Syra on 11 June 1927, among boys at the shore with towels over their shoulders and children running up from the water.

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: "Children at Camp / Vari and the man / with the donkey / has been up on / the hill and load / ed the donkey / with stones for / building a house. / 500 lbs.of stone / for one donkey, / tied on with / ropes."

    Typed caption: "June 11th,1927. Is- / land of Syra, Greece."

    Typed caption: "June 11th,1927. / Island of Syra, / Greece."

    Additional locations: Vari.

    Sources for the Item Detail

    • Springfield Weekly Republican, 4 Nov 1926, p. 10 ("On the Island of Syra, when vacation camps were started and 100 children were taken to the seashore for two-weeks' recreation, it was found that their leaders must compel them to play."). Miss Addie M. Harris, NER director of recreation, quoted in "Refugee Children in Camps Have to Be Taught to Play," Springfield Weekly Republican (Springfield, Mass.), 4 November 1926, p. 10: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83020847/1926-11-04/ed-1/?sp=10

    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

A donkey carries 500 pounds of building stone. Syra, c. 1927.