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The Angel (originally Angeliniadis) family often had holiday picnics on the beach—and they remember them today with great fondness. This one took place on July 7, 1929—the date carved in the watermelon. Left to right, they are George Angel,…

Anna Smolios Kouskoutis Ioanidis (right) worked in Sylvia Billiris’ (left) gift shop during the 1950s. With the decline of the sponge business in the late 1940s and early 1950s, tourism based on Greek culture and the sponge industry became Tarpon…

Uncle and godfather Theophilos Samarkos hands young Anna Tsoukalas Billiris to Father Constantinos Raptis for her immersion into the baptismal font at St. Nicholas in 1956. Baptism marks the entry of the child into the church, and usually occurs a…

With the spongers came many other Greeks working in related maritime businesses: ship chandlers, machine shops, boat builders, a sail loft, and sponge packing houses. Antonios Avgerinos (1860-1930) was a successful diving helmet maker from Symi who…

Piles of all types of sponges fill the courtyard of the Sponge Exchange on an auction day in 1921. Most of the men in the courtyard appear to be Greek, except for the African American man walking towards the camera. He was one of many who worked in…