THE LACONIAN DIASPORA

Laconians abroad

Like much of rural Greece, Laconia sent many emigrants abroad, especially to the United States, from the late 19th century. One commonly cited breakdown of Greek emigration to the USA: about 15,000 in 1873–1899, 450,000 in 1900–1917, 70,000 in 1918–1924, and 30,000 in 1925–1946 (from an article in Adouloti Mani – Laconia Odos, 2019, as translated by Spartan Roots).

One family story connects to this museum: Spyros Niarchos, from Vamvakou in Laconia, joined the late-19th-century wave to the United States and was a partner in a restaurant and confectioners’ in Buffalo, New York, before returning to Greece, where his son Stavros was born in 1909 (Greek Shipping Hall of Fame; SNF).

TO BE VERIFIEDNumbers specific to Laconia, and named Laconian communities and societies abroad (e.g. in the USA, Canada and Australia), still need primary sources. Lowell, Massachusetts had about 8,000 Greeks in the early 1900s (Kenngott, 1912), but this is not specifically Laconian.

Laconians in North America are organised in the Pan-Laconian Federation of U.S. and Canada, which is building a Spartan Museum at the Center of Hellenic Studies “Paideia”, at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, to house artwork donated by Nicholas Leounes (Pan-Laconian Federation).

PHOTO TO COME

Diaspora photographs: family archives welcome

Sources: Spartan Roots, “Lakonian Emigration”; Greek Shipping Hall of Fame.