Fonds F0661 - George Papadatos fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

George Papadatos fonds

General material designation

  • Textual record
  • Graphic material
  • Sound recording
  • Moving images

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Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

F0661

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

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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

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1941-)

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

Related 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.

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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.

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Accession area