Institution : National Documentation Centre (EKT)
The collection includes documents—such as correspondence, administrative and business records—as well as photographs, technical and artistic drawings, and ephemera from the archive of the Kourtzi family, dating from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. This archival corpus constitutes an important source for the study of the history of Lesvos and the wider region of the eastern Mediterranean, offering valuable information on the economic, social, and political conditions of the period.
The documents of the archive highlight the family’s commercial and entrepreneurial activities, as well as the networks of trade and communication they developed within the framework of the economic life of the Ottoman Empire and modern Greece. At the same time, the archive records aspects of significant historical developments that affected the Balkans and Europe during this period.
Through these materials, elements of the culture, customs, social relations, and everyday practices of an urban family in Mytilene during the previous century emerge, offering a multifaceted view of the society in which the Kourtzi family lived and operated.
Year range: 1855 - 1977
