Press Releases

The Vovolini family archives at the disposal of the research community by the Historical Archives of the Bank of Greece

05/03/2020 - Press Releases

The Historical Archives of the Bank of Greece (IATE) have the pleasure to announce the addition of the archives of Vovolini family, following the generous donation of Alexandra K. Vovolini.

The donation includes more than 1,750 individual files and consists of the personal archives of journalist and politician Konstantinos A. Vovolinis (1913-1970) and of his brother, publisher Spyros A. Vovolinis (1910-1995), as well as the archives of the family publishing enterprises: the newspaper Hellenikon Haema (Hellenic Blood, 1942-1948), the short-lived publishing company “Ekdoseis Ethnikon Agonon” (“National Struggles Publications”, 1948) and the economic monthly magazine Viomichaniki Epitheorissis (Industrial Review, established in 1934 and remaining in circulation up to today as Oikonomiki Epitheorissi).

Konstantinos Vovolinis engaged in an array of other activities apart from journalism; he was a prolific writer and an active member of the Greek political scene. Among other positions, he served as Secretary General of the Municipality of Piraeus, Greek Parliament Member and Secretary General of Parliament, as well as State Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office. His archive contains documents relating to his journalistic and political activity, the publication of the Megalo Helleniko Biographiko Lexicon (Great Greek Biographical Dictionary), personal correspondence and press clippings.

In the first months of the German occupation, Konstantinos Vovolinis together with journalists L. Piniatoglou and J. Milios established the resistance movement “Hellenikon Haema“ (“Hellenic Blood”), aiming to keep the national spirit of the Greeks high; a newspaper of the same name was published until 1948. The archive of this newspaper comprises correspondence and various other documents. It also includes the statutes, general meeting minutes and other documents of the company “Ekdoseis Ethnikon Agonon”.

Spyros Vovolinis also pursued a journalist career, actively participating in a number of unions and organisations, such as the Press owners and managers unions (EIPT and EDET). His personal archive comprises documents that relate to his journalistic activity and his involvement with these unions, along with personal documents and correspondence.

In 1934, Spyros Vovolinis started publishing the monthly financial magazine Viomichaniki Epitheorissis, with a vision to fill an information gap in the fields of industrial economics and entrepreneurship activity. His original aim was to research and study the operation of industrial concerns, as well as to support private entrepreneurship; later on the subject-matter of the magazine was expanded to all economic fields. The magazine archive consists of correspondence relating to its activities, financial statements and other relevant data, documents pertaining to typographic issues and material, anniversary editions as well as articles published.

The bulk of the Vovolini family archives pertains to the period 1920-1995. More documents however, dating back to 1826-1929, were added later on. Such documents were collected by Spyros Vovolinis, along with subsequent material relating to the history of the monthly Viomichaniki Epitheorissis (up until 2013). The issues dealt with in the archive can be of particular interest to researchers of various fields, such as economic and political history of Greece in the 20th century, the history of Greek industry, individual businesses and journalist and publishers’ unions, the history of the Greek Press, events of the Greek Resistance and the Civil War, etc.

Researchers enjoy free access to the Vovolini family archives as well as the archives of other historical figures, held by IATE.

More about the Historical Archives of the Bank of Greece

IATE is a Section of the Centre for Culture, Research and Documentation of the Bank of Greece and one of the most important historical banking archives in Greece. They highlight Bank of Greece’s contribution to the economic, political and social history of Greece and constitute a valuable source of information for researchers seeking historical data not just from the establishment of the Bank onwards, but from earlier dates as well, since IATE incorporate the personal archives of Bank of Greece’s Governors.

IATE was established in 1999 and, apart from the general archive of the Bank of Greece, it also includes the personal archives of former Governors Emmanuel Tsouderos, Kyriakos Varvaressos, Georgios Mantzavinos and Xenophon Zolotas, of the former Deputy Governor Ioannis (Yangos) Pesmazoglou; the archive of painter Michael Axelos, who was the first Greek banknote and coin designer; photographer Konstantinos Megalokonomos’s archive (the part of it that relates to the Bank).

IATE are housed at the Head Office of the Bank of Greece. Their repositories meet all necessary environmental and security conditions for the storage and safe-keeping of materials, in accordance with international archiving standards. IATE are also equipped with a modern digitisation and photography lab, as well as a reading room for the facilitation of researchers.

Contact details: Tel. 210 3203530, 210 320 3555, 210 3203564-65, e-mail: sec.HistArchives@bankofgreece.gr

Images from the Vovolini family archives:

1. Konstantinos and Spyros Vovolinis reading the Megalo Helleniko Biographiko Lexicon (Great Greek Biographical Dictionary), for which they received the Academy of Athens award in 1964.
2. Front page of the opposition newspaper Helleniko Haema (Hellenic Blood), edition of 10.10.1945 (no. 342).
3. Advertisement for the promotion of Megalo Helleniko Biographiko Lexicon at Viomichaniki Epitheorisis (Industrial Review) periodical, issue of April 1960.
4. The first issue of Viomichaniki Epitheorisis periodical (July 1934), published by Spyros Vovolinis.