About the George Finlay Papers
The George Finlay Papers contain materials created by and related to the British Historian and Philhellene George Finlay, his father John Finlay, Greek-American Philhellene George Jarvis, and British Philhellene Captain Frank Abney Hastings, dating from 1791 to 1949. Most of the collection consists of George Finlay’s meticulous records of his travels, personal and official correspondence, his personal expenditures, copious memoranda on strategy and on military and political organisation, journal entries, maps, facetiae, scrapbooks, personal notes on people—Greeks and others—and on revolutionary events, newspaper cuttings mainly on Greece and international affairs, as well as Finlay’s original manuscripts of the History of the Greek Revolution (1861) as well as corrected proofs of Finlay’s other published works.
Also included are the papers of Finlay’s father, John, two journals of Greek American philhellene, George Jarvis, and those of Finlay’s fellow British philhellene, Captain Frank Abney Hastings. The Hastings papers, which Finlay purchased in 1830, include personal and official correspondence, ship’s logs, notes that he took on board or ashore, as well as memoranda on strategy and on the naval organisation of the revolutionary forces. Collectively, these records reveal a great deal about the character, motivations, ideas, as well as the military and political judgements of these British individuals, as well as of many others, both British and Greek, with whom they interacted during the Greek War of Independence as well as many of Finlay's other interests, such as Classical and Byzantine history, natural history and politics.
Rudolph Rohrer to George Finlay. n.d. Visiting card with note asking for payment of bill (in German, stuck on front flyleaf of Aristotelis Categoriae . . ., Leipzig, 1832).
Draft letter by George Finlay describing his collection of Byzantine coins, No date. (loose in M. Pinder and J. Friedlander, Die Munzen Justinians, Berlin, 1843).
Newspaper clipping on gold coins of Philippi. In Greek. (loose in M. Pinder and J. Friedlander, Die Munzen Justinians, Berlin, 1843).
Antonios Miaoulis to George Finlay. n.d. Concerning dispatch of a letter (in German, stuck on front flyleaf of P. K., Ἡ νῆσος τῶν Σπετσῶν [1850]; bound in with A. Miaoulis, Ὑπόμνημα περὶ τῆς νήσου Ὓδρας, Munich, 1834).
Wood to George Finlay. Hotel de la Grande Bretagne, Athens, n.d. Desires to visit George Finlay's collection of antiquities (stuck on front flyleafof S. Birch, History of Ancient Pottery, vol. i, London, 1858). Also pasted at front: cuttings from Elite des Monuments Ceramographiques by Ch. Lenormant. Also added: The British Museum: A Guide to the First Vase Room, London, 1866.
Alexander M. Apostolides to George Finlay. 28 June, n.y. Sends George Finlay copies of article on the killing of Greek patriots (in French, stuck on front flyleaf of Ἐφημερὶς τῆς κυβερνήσεως τοῦ Βασιλείου τῆς Ἐλλάδος, Regierungs-Blatt des Koenigreichs Griechenland, January 1835).
Handwritten itineraries by George Finlay bound in William Gell, The ltinerary of Greece . . ., London, 1819, pp. 317 ff.
James MacGregor to George Finlay. 22 September n.y. Lord Brougham would like George Finlay to visit him. Personal news (stuck on front flyleaf of Brougham, Political Philosophy, London, 1843).
Ernest Beule to George Finlay. n.d. Discusses George Finlay's collection of drachmae and problem of weight of copper coins; requests casts of Greek coins (in French, stuck on front flyleaf of E. B., Les Monnaies d'Athènes, Paris, 1858).
Visiting card of Ernest Beule (stuck on front flyleaf of E. B., Les Monnaies d'Athènes, Paris, 1858).
Death notice of M. Beule, 1874 (stuck on front flyleaf of E. B., Les Monnaies d'Athènes, Paris, 1858)
Press cutting on protest of M. Beule against the removal of statues of Plantagenets from Fontevrault (stuck on front flyleaf of E. B., Les Monnaies d'Athènes, Paris, 1858).
Obituary of the Earl of Ellenborough, 1871 (previously loose inside John Hobhouse, Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold, London, 1818)
Clipping on 'The Cape Constitution' from The Times, 8 January 1852 (previously loose inside Greek, Ionian and Turkish Papers 1862-1863, London)
Letter from Sotirios Sotiropoulos to the President of the Committee of Greek bondholders (Athens, 18/30 September 1862) (in French).
Decree of the Provisional Government expressing recognition of the Greek nationality of Greeks resident abroad (Athens, 11/23 November 1862) (in French).
Letter from Count Sponneck to M. Rouffos, President of the Cabinet (Copenhagen, 1 September 1863). (in French).
Programme of the Deligeorges Cabinet (Athens, 2 November 1865) (in Greek and French).
Parliamentary resolutions presented to King Otho by A. Koumoundouros (Athens, 4 August 1856) (in Greek).
Subsection article 3 of the 'Community of Corfu' (Corfu, 22 March 1864) (in Greek).
Copy of Ἀναγέννησις for 21 March 1864 (in Greek).
Copy of L'Observateur d'Athènes for 27 October 1853 (in French).
Pages 67-70 of Athens newspaper of 1856 (in French).
Parliamentary resolutions presented to King Otho by P. Argyropoulos (Athens, 8 June 1855) (in Greek).
Treaty of Commerce, etc. between Greece and the Ottoman Empire-Koundouriotis (27 May 1855) (in French).
Document addressed to King Otho concerning the charges for hot baths in Kythnos (Athens, 18 July 1838) (in Greek).
2 coloured portraits of Lloyd George and 2 coloured portraits of Lord Kitchener distributed in Athens during the 1914-18 war as propaganda.
Black mottle boards, dark crimson calf spine, pasted on front cover: 'Picture of Greece 1866: Statistics of Turkey and its nationalities', paginated, pp. 1-192, handwritten, bound.
Includes notes on brigandage, arbitrary conduct of Government, murders, affairs of Crete, ethnography of European Turkey.
Paper covers, printed cutting pasted up and bound.
An article by George Finlay from the Saturday Review, 11 April 1869, and a duplicate of FIN/GF/E/55.
On the front flyleaf is a note by George Finlay:
'The author was induced to write this paper from observing the general ignorance of the historical side of the ecclesiastical dispute between the Greeks and Bulgarians manifested both by the Greek and English newspaper writers in the east. Athens 25 March 1869. George Finlay.'
At the end 6 notes on the sources are appended in George Finlay's hand.
Blue mottle, faded cloth spine, gilt lettering on spine 'Statistics and Foreign Affairs and Literature', unpaginated, except for pp. 1-7, bound.
A scrap-book containing a few pasted-up cuttings (pp. 1-7) and many loose ones for 1869-72. Most of these do not deal with Greek or east Mediterranean affairs but illustrate George Finlay's wide range of interest (e.g. reviews of Forster on Dickens, Mrs. Oliphant on George II, cuttings on the Fenian troubles).
Printed report, boards, paper cover, 351 pp. Ὑπουργεῖον Ἐξωτερικῶν.
Ἔγγραφα κατατεθέντα εἰς τὴν Βουλὴν περὶ τῆς ὑποθέσεως τῶν ἐκβολάδων καὶ σκωριῶν Λαυρίου 1872-3
A series of letters and telegrams (all in both Greek and French) on the question of the Laurion mines and concessions, June 1872-March 1873.
Miscellaneous notes. Unbound, handwritten except for FIN/GF/E/54/6.
Characters': rough notes mainly on Greek or British diplomats or political figures (e.g. Sir E. Lyons, Mavrocordatos, King Otho, Thomas Gordon) .
Trade of Greece with Trieste 1843.'
Copy of an article, headed ' "On the change which the treaty of 1871 closing the Dardanelles to ships of war will create on the policy of Great Britain written during the mission of Server pasha to Egypt when there was supposed to be danger of the Porte attacking the Khedive" inserted in "The Times" of the 19th Oct long after it was written for it was sent to England in July'.
A number of random bibliographical notices.
Printed article (in Greek) from Νέα Πανδώρα 18, 367-76, on Saint-Marc Girardin's book on Greece (see FIN/GF/E/49/1).
Water-supply of Athens' (in Greek, with rough notes in English).