Paul Kretschmer's expedition of 1901 to Lesbos and the local network of teachers : the example of the grammar school teacher Michail K. Stefanidis

Abstract

The research of the expedition of Paul Kretschmer (1866–1956) to Lesbos in 1901 brought into focus the person of Michail K. Stefanidis (1868–1957), who was a scientist, professor at the University of Athens and an ordinary member of the Athens Academy. The most important person in the network of Kretschmer in Lesbos, Stefanidis supported the Viennese professor in collecting his linguistic material and evaluating the data. As a result of the expedition, Kretschmer published a monograph about the dialect of Lesbos in 1905. This study seeks to analyse Stefanidis' various activities during this expedition, when he was in the early stages of his career as a grammar school teacher in Mytilini. Previously unknown archive material, such as the travel diaries and historical photographs, were investigated to achieve the goal of the present paper. This valuable material can be found in Kretschmer's estate in the Austrian National Library and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Keywords

• Paul Kretschmer
• Michail K. Stefanidis
• folklore
• Lesbos 1901
• phonographic recordings
• Modern Greek Studies