University of Florida Homepage

Ottoman Greeks of the United States (OGUS)

The Ottoman Greeks of the United States project (OGUS) is a multifaceted endeavor to preserve and promote the history of immigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States. The OGUS project focuses on the chronological period of 1904 – 1924 in order to illuminate the peak in immigration from specific regions of the Ottoman Empire to the United States during that time. Those regions were Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace, Imbros, Tenedos, the Marmara and Princes’ Islands.


 

Archival Collections

There are four archival components that are all currently held by the project’s founder, George Topalidis. The first archival component is an oral history archive that currently contains over 100 interviews. Next is a photograph archive that currently contains over 50,000 images. This information will be used to generate academic publications and presentations, social media publications and presentations, blog articles, op-eds, podcasts, documentaries. Please visit the OGUS Archive by clicking here.

Ongoing Research

Our next research trip will be scheduled in May of 2022. Visit page for further information.

 

Ottoman Greeks of the United States Events and Research News

Presentations

Topalidis, George. Mapping Heritage: Identity Label Negotiation Through Space And Time, at the Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Kapodistrian University – Athens, Greece (Postponed – TBD). 

Topalidis, George. Residential Discrimination against Southeast Europeans in the early 20th century, at the Southern Sociological Society’s annual conference (Postponed – TBD). 

Matthews, Denise. 2019. Invisible Differences: Children of Ottoman Greek Immigrants in the US, Modern Greek Studies Association Conference. 

Topalidis, George. 2019. The Impact of Space and Time on Identity Claims of Immigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the U.S. between 1904 – 1923. Modern Greek Studies Association Conference. 

Publications

Topalidis, George. The Impact of Space and Time on Identity Claims of Immigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the U.S. between 1904 – 1923.               Journal of Historical Sociology (Under Review)

Topalidis, George. 2017. Expulsion of Refugees has Historic Parallels. Gainesville Sun.

  • SPOHP alum Dr. Jessica Taylor presents newest book
    Taylor will present on her newest book, Plain Paths and Dividing Lines: Navigating Native Land and Water in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake Bay, on Tuesday, March 5th, at 6pm at the Matheson History Museum! We invite the public to join us for this free event. Dr. Taylor’s work explores escape attempts of indentured servants and enslaved ...
  • SPOHP’s Spring Open House
    Join SPOHP for our spring 2024 open house “meet and greet” on Tuesday, January 30th, from 3-5pm in the O’Neill Reading Room on the second floor of Pugh Hall! Read more "SPOHP’s Spring Open House"
  • California, 2017
    In 1904 immigrants from the island of Marmara established the first mutual aid organization from the Ottoman Empire in the United States. It was established in Los Angeles, California and was named The Marmarinon Benevolent Society of Afthoni. It was officially incorporated in 1909. According to Dr. Jim Dimitriou, “There was a big Marmarinon organization ...
  • Connecticut, 2017
    Update in progress Read more "Connecticut, 2017"
  • Florida, 2016 – present
    Update in progress Read more "Florida, 2016 – present"
  • Massachusetts, 2015, 2017
    Update in progress Read more "Massachusetts, 2015, 2017"
  • Fieldwork Announcement – eastern Pennsylvania May 10 – 19, 2023
    Dr. Yiorgo Topalidis will visit communities in eastern Pennsylvania between 10 – 19, 2023 to conduct interviews with descendant of migrants from Asia Minor, eastern Thrace or the islands of Imbros, Tenedos or those in the Sea of Marmara please contact us to schedule an interview. Interview Scheduling Read more "Fieldwork Announcement – eastern Pennsylvania May 10 ...
  • Fieldwork Announcement – Florida
    If you are located in Florida and you are a descendant of migrants from Asia Minor, eastern Thrace or the islands of Imbros, Tenedos or those in the Sea of Marmara please contact us to schedule an interview. Interview Scheduling Read more "Fieldwork Announcement – Florida"
  • Michigan, 2017
    From left to right, these three refugee children from Buca (pronounced Bu-ja), Turkey, a town southeast of Smyrna (modern Izmir), are Irene Sklavou, Efstratia Hatziathanasiou, and Emanuel Sklavos, their brother Thanasis is not present. In an interview, her daughter Anna asked Irene to tell her story, to which Irene replied, “I will tell you my ...
  • Fieldwork Texas, May 2022
    We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the friends we made during our visit to Texas. In fourteen days, we traveled 1023 miles, visited four cities, and had the honor of interviewing 26 sets of descendants of migrants from the late Ottoman Empire who donated a total of 263 artifacts to ...

Ottoman Greeks of the United States (OGUS): The Acropolis and the Madonna – A Case Study of Refugee Deportation from the United States

This is our first podcast in the Ottoman Greeks of the United States (1904-1924) podcast series. It tells the story of the S.S. Acropolis, a ship that transferred Armenian and Greek refugees from the city of Smyrna to Ellis Island in the winter of 1922. Modern Syrian refugees are experiencing similar trials and tribulations as the Armenian and Greek refugees from Smyrna. This podcast highlights those similarities. It transports its listeners back to the early 20th century, and weaves together newspaper accounts of the Smyrna refugees’ story with recollections of descendants of immigrants from the Ottoman Empire.

Contact the Ottoman Greeks of the United States Project

  • George Topalidis

If you or anyone you know would like to be interviewed, please contact OGUS coordinators at ogus0424@gmail.com.

Follow the Ottoman Greeks of the US Project on Facebook here. Above photo from NYC Public Library, <Ethnikos Kēryx<, “Oi Ellēnes tēs Amerikēs Enischyontes to Ethnikon Komma,” October 17, 1916.