Archive

The   Foundation has been compiling an archive in order to achieve its main goal: the research and study of the era and work of the great Greek statesman. The archive collections relating to the life and activity of Eleftherios Venizelos of the period starting at the mid 19th century until the end of the 1960s are accessible through the link Digital Archive of the Foundation.
The archival collection of the Foundation consists of the following categories:  Manuscripts, Graphic Material (Postal Cards and Lithographs – Posters) Photographic and Cartographic material.
The manuscript collection presents documents mainly of public content (political) -epistles with Venizelos as receiver or recipient, correspondence handled through political bureaus, e.tc. Also, the personal and private correspondence of Venizelos himself, of his wife Elena and his son Sophocles – as well as documents related to historical events of Crete, the political and social life of the island. Indicatively, part of the archive is the file of the Council of Misdemeanors of Athens against Venizelos’ assassination attempt in 1933, in which there are attached the forensic examination and the special thumb expertise (file, photographs). Also, the file of the case’s lawyer, Petros Fikioris, with the complete case file.
A significant part of the collection “Eleftherios Venizelos” of the Foundation’s archive is part of the Venizelos’ manuscript translation of Thucydides’ History and the comments thereon, a work that Venizelos began in 1921 during his self-exile in Paris.
There are also presented, among others, the collections of “Klearchos Markantonakis” (personal secretary of Venizelos), of “Sophocles Venizelos” and the “Liberal Party” and the collection of “Emm. N. Georgakakis “with historical and military information from the Balkan wars until the Asia Minor campaign and destruction.
The artwork and photographic material of the Foundation consists of original works of great painters, lithographs, maps, and photographic plates, rare photos, cartes-postales, slides and photographic negatives.
A great part of the Foundations’ collection is its Museum Collection consists of the following general categories: Works of Art, Furniture, Objects, Lighting, Carpets, Fabrics – Clothing, Vehicles.
The collection of microfilms and audiovisual material of the Foundation consists of: The Consular Archives of the Great Powers: an archive of microfilms of the series “Politics – Consular Archives – Crete” from the British Foreign Office archives (1837-1905). There is a series of cinematographic archives of the period of the First World War from the “Etablissement de Communication Audiovisuelle de la Defense” of the French Ministry of National Defense.  Also, there is a series of films from the cinematographic archive of ERT relating to Eleftherios Venizelos and his era and cinematographic archives from foreign institutes on the same subject.
The Foundation has a collection of newspapers of the Cretan, Greek and international Press from the end of the 19th century until 1936. Apart from numerous volumes of Greek and foreign newspapers, the collection includes single pages (approximately 2.500) relating to milestone dates of the Greek history. Furthermore, it includes the complete series of the “Official Newspaper of the Cretan State”, part of the newspaper “Crete” of the General Administration, and the “Newspaper of the Greek Government” until 1980. The microfilm archive from the Library of the Greek Parliament is equally significant, comprising a series of Cretan and Athenian newspapers dating from the end of the 19th to the mid 20th century.

Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe – MICHAEL  – ATHENA -EUROPEANA

The Foundation is also involved in the Michael project, which is a multilingual inventory of cultural heritage in Europe presenting its digital collections, promoting this way its scientific work around the world. For more information: http://www.michael-culture.org. The Foundation also participates through its digital content in the ATHENA program and in the European digital library Europeana all three of them programs that are aiming at the collection of the cultural content by publishing information of digital collections, achieving with this, apart from the promotion, and the interoperability with digital collections of other museums, archives, libraries and cultural institutions in Greece and abroad.