ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Rodanthi-Rosa Florou, Chair
Roderick Beaton
Peter W. Graham
David mcClay
ACADEMIC COMMITTEE
Peter W. Graham, Chair
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA,
Roderick Beaton
Kings College London και British School at Athens,
Stephen Minta
University of York, UK,
Andrew Stauffer
Virginia University, USA,
Maria Schoina
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Naji Oueijan
Notre Dame University, Lebanon.
Υπό την Αιγίδα και την Στήριξη του Υπουργείου Πολιτισμού
OUR HISTORY
The Messolonghi Byron Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 in Messolonghi, Greece. We are devoted to promoting scholarly and general understanding of Lord Byron’s life and poetry as well as cultivating appreciation for other historical figures in the 19th-century international Philhellenic movement, idealists who, like Byron, gave their fortunes, talents, and lives for the cause of Greek Independence.
With gracious cooperation from the local people and Authorities, the International Byron Societies and individual Byronists from around the world, the Messolonghi Byron Society has grown in size and prominence by organizing many local, national and international activities dedicated to the memory of the poet. Among these activities have been International Conferences, lectures, one-day sessions, staging of plays inside and outside Greece, participation in British and Greek festivals, competitions, cultural events involving speakers and groups from England and America, exchanges, hospitality to Byronists from around the world, and twinning of Messolonghi and Nottinghamshire schools.
In 2001 the society established a Messolonghi Byron Research Center that now, thanks to the generosity of the Mayor and Town Council, occupies the Byron House, a handsome stone replica of the house Byron occupied during the last months of his life. The Research Center houses a growing collection of over 3000 books, as well as prints and other artifacts devoted to Byron, Romanticism, and Philhellenism. This collection has been created almost entirely from the contributions of a worldwide community of Byronists, and the Research Center gratefully appreciates the donations that continue to make the collection grow in size and scholarly value.
On June 27, 2021, the inauguration of the newly established Museum of the Messolonghi Byron Society for Lord Byron and Philhellenism took place.
The permanent exhibition with theme the life and work of Lord Byron is the yearslong fruitful cooperation of the Messolonghi Byron Society and the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece-National Historical Museum, which undertook the museological study. It is dedicated entirely to Byron’s personality and is divided into four sections.
Upon entering the Museum, the visitor see is a chronology which includes the main phases of Byron’s life and work. The first section focuses on the poet’s early years, his life in England and his first trip to Greece; it also mentions the people he met and places he visited.
Subsequently, the second section focuses on his later connection with the European Philhellenic movement, his relations with the London Greek Committee, his arrival and his stay in revolutionary Greece until his death. In addition, in this section, extensive references are made to the development of the European Philhellenic movement and key events of the Revolution, which influenced European public opinion in favor of the Struggle for Greek Independence, such as the Exodus of Messolonghi.
The third section is devoted to the influence of Byron’s poetry on the wider Romantic Movement and the fictional heroes he created and identified with. It also includes poetic works about contemporary Greece which strengthened the philhellenic sentiment in Europe, as well as military equipment Byron brought with him to revolutionary Greece with the intention of fighting in the battlefields.
Finally, the fourth section is dedicated to the memory of Lord Byron. It also focuses on his influence on various forms of decorative and visual arts. In addition, special mention is made to-the celebrations held in Athens and Messolonghi on the centenary of Lord Byron’s death.
