Location

Syra (Syros), Greece

Year

1927

Item Detail

Syra (Syros), Greece, June 11, 1927. A girl stands on the shore as orphan children bathe in the harbor shallows below Hermoupolis, the town climbing the hills across the bay.

Context

Fred and Carrie Midgley of Worcester, Massachusetts, served with Near East Relief on the island of Syra (Syros), Greece, from 1926 to 1928, Fred as agricultural director at the orphanage. The institution sheltered some 1,400 Armenian and Greek children orphaned by the genocides and the 1922 destruction of Smyrna (İzmir). The Midgley papers were given to the Near East Foundation by their granddaughter, Nancy Winter Taylor, and are held at the Rockefeller Archive Center.

Recreation and camp - These show recreation at the orphanage: swimming in the harbor and the summer camp at Vari. Both ran alongside the children's school and farm work.

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Orphan children bathe at Syra, June 1927