Open Invitation
Cool age advances, venerably wise, Turns on all hands its deep-discerning eyes;
Sees what befell, and what may yet befall, Concludes from both, and best provides for all.
The Iliad, Rhapsody III (trans. Alexander Pope)
The Lampakis Family Archives seeks to put Homer’s advice into practice when it comes to using the lessons of the past to optimize the future. Given that the LFA seek to do so by adding to the nation’s cultural repository with a view to facilitating research, education and recreation, it is engaged in a constant search for Lampakis brothers material (primarily archival) which is not as yet held by it or any of the nation’s major archives (the Byzantine Museum and Benaki Museum archives, the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive etc.).
We would be delighted if the institutions, collections or private individuals that now own these artefacts (irrespective of their initial provenance or the manner of their acquisition) were to present these artefacts either on the LFA website itself, or via a link to their own site.
Our only concern is that the work of the Lampakis brothers should be available to researchers in its entirety.
We are therefore issuing an open invitation to anyone in possession of material relating to the Lampakis brothers to contact us.
Thank you.
The phrase “Sees what befell, and what may yet befall” is Homer’s and however far we proceed, we really do need to turn and look back at what we have done, and make sure that the road we have taken really is the one we want to be on. And we can only really know this when we look ahead and behind us at one and the same time—fixing our gaze on the future is a mistake, as we may lose our way and end up somewhere we did not want to be.