Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan
American School of Classical Studies at Athens

“Knowing your feelings for Hellas and the knowledge that you always carry with you of the Hellenic culture. . .”. Exploring the relationship of the American School of Classical Studies with the Greek ομογένεια in the 1940’s.

In 1947, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) produced a color movie entitled Triumph Over Time. Directed by the archaeologist Oscar Broneer and produced by the numismatist Margaret Thompson with the aid of Spyros Skouras, the Greek American movie mogul and owner of Fox studios, the documentary portrays Greece rebounding from World War II and the staff of the ASCSA hard at work preparing archaeological sites for presentation to post-war tourists. The film was made to promote the first post-war financial campaign of the American School, whose goal was to increase its capital and finance the continuation of the Agora excavations.

The main target group of this campaign was the affluent Greek-Americans who had already generously supported the rehabilitation of Greece; not surprising, since all three contributors to Triumph Over Time had served in the Greek War Relief Association (GWRA). An investigation in the archival collections of the American School indicates that its members kept close contact with the most influential members and organizations of the ομογένεια and supported the Greek cause with passion. At the same time, Greek-Americans greatly admired and respected the American archaeologists who worked in Greece.

The papers of Oscar Broneer, archaeologist and Executive Vice-President of GWRA, and the papers of Nicholas Mavris, a prominent member of the Greek ομογένεια and first governor of the freed Dodecanese (and closely connected with archaeologists George H. Chase, Theodore L. Shear and David M. Robinson) allow us to explore

the two-way relationship of the American archaeologists with the Greek ομογένεια during and after the war.