Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
George Papadatos fonds
General material designation
- Textual record
- Graphic material
- Sound recording
- Moving images
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
ca. 1.31 m of textual records
24 photographic prints : col. and b&w ; 20 x 25 cm or smaller
563 photographs : 20 x 25 cm or smaller
225 photographs : b&w and col. ; 35 mm slides
Contact sheets : ca. 230 photographs on sheet 20 x 25 cm
9 photostatic reproductions : 31 x 26 cm
37 prints: posters ; 58 x 89 cm or smaller
3 video reels ; 1 inch tape
37 audio cassettes : compact cassette
4 audio compact discs
1 DVD
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
George Papadatos is a Greek Canadian who lived in Toronto from 1969 to 1984. He was very active in organizing cultural activities on the Danforth and was co-owner of the Trojan Horse coffee house where a number of anti-junta activities took place. Alongside Fotis and Dimitris Stamatopoulos, he founded Eastminster Community Services in 1972, an organization that supported Greeks in their interactions with Canadian federal departments and agencies. Papadatos taught Greek language and culture courses at the University of Toronto Scarborough (then Scarborough College) between 1979 and 1984 when he returned to Greece. He was also a journalist and local community organizer who organized and promoted several music tours of Greek musicians, performers and poets who were invited to tour the United States and Canada by the Cultural Workshop of Toronto to raise awareness of local conditions in Greece. In 1979, Papadatos and Nancy White published "Ta Tragoudia tou Agona - Songs of Struggle," a collection of translated songs. A year later, he published "Anthologio Antistasiakis Technis," an edited collection of works produced by Greek artists during the 1940s. In recognition of his journalistic and publishing activities, he was awarded a Print Prize by the Canadian Ethnic Media Association. In 1984, he was awarded a metallic plate for his services as the Secretary of the Hellenic Athletic Federation of Ontario.
Custodial history
The majority of the records in the fonds were generated and accumulated during George Papadatos during his years living in Toronto. They were taken to Greece on his return there in 1984 and shipped back to Canada for donation to CTASC in 2014.
Scope and content
Fonds consists of materials created and accumulated by George Papadatos in the course of his activities as a member of the Toronto Greek Canadian political, arts and cultural community while living in exile in Canada during the Greek military junta of 1967-1974. It includes records relating to his work as a journalist and newspaper editor (as editor of Metanastis and contributor to Ta Nea, amongst other publications); political activist; music promoter, event organizer and co-owner of the Trojan Horse coffee house; East York community service worker; and as tutor of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Toronto (Scarborough College).
The fonds largely consists of photographs, newspapers, promotional material, posters, sound and video recordings. Many of these items were collected by Papadatos to document the coffee house scene on the Danforth, the Greek musical acts who toured Canada and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as student organizing and protests related to local opposition to the military dictatorship in Greece. The records reflect the impact that the cultural and political activities of the Greek community in Canada had on political affairs in Greece. The fonds also includes handwritten and typed correspondence and other printed material created or received by George Papadatos, as well as photographic material from Papadatos' later life in Greece, where he operated an antiquarian bookstore. Records in the fonds have been arranged into five series based on record genre. See series level descriptions for details.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated by George Papadatos in 2014.
Arrangement
Records were arranged by the archivist into series based on record genre.
Language of material
- English
- French
- German
- Greek
- Japanese
- Spanish
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
No restrictions on access.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Associated materials
Accruals
The fonds comprises the following accessions: 2014-044 and 2017-013. Further accruals are expected.
General note
Materials were donated as part of the efforts of the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Greek Canadian Archive (previously known as The Greek Canadian History Project). Books donated as part of the George Papadatos fonds have been catalogued separately within York University Libraries' Special Collections, as part of the Hellenic Heritage Collection (HHC) and can be located using the library’s online catalogue by performing a keyword search using the phrase, "George Papadatos fonds" or "Hellenic Heritage Collection." Translations provided by the donor and community volunteers have been incorporated into scope and content notes at file level.
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Control area
Status
Final
Level of detail
Full
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
2017/05/19. Anna St.Onge. Creation.
2017/06/12. Anna St.Onge. Update to physical extent, languages.
2019/09/29 KCP. Added GCHP name access point.
2020/03/26 KCP, N. Somerset. Added subject access points.
2023/03/29 KCP, L. Curtis. Added remaining files from 2014-044. Created series. Updated fonds level description. Added access notes to digitized material.
2023/09/18. MP. Updated biographical sketch. Generated new finding aid.
2023/12/04. MP. Added accession 2017-013 file and item-level descriptions.