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Event Details
Join us as local author Dean Calamaras discusses the research and writing of his 2024 book The Baron of Second Avenue: Nicholas Calamaras and the Archive of the Greek-American League, which provides unique and rich primary source information about a little-known aspect of the tightly knit society of the Greek immigrant, and of an association created to assist those new Americans in their new world.
"From time to time, the chance discovery of documents will shine new light on people and organizations long gone and largely forgotten. Such a case was the discovery of the personal papers of Nicholas Calamaras – a seemingly obscure candy vendor on New York’s Second Avenue.
To assist his fellow Greeks, Nicholas founded – and from his candy shop led, the Greek-American League, to advocate for Greek political and economic needs. This is the story of the discovery of the archive of the Greek-American League, and how Nicholas led it to benefit the early Greeks in America."
Dean G. Calamaras is a native of New York City and longtime researcher in Greek and Polish history. A graduate of Hartwick College and the Pennsylvania State University, he is retired from teaching economics at Hudson Valley Community College. He lives with his extended family in the Albany area. He has lectured extensively on history and exploring the world, and has recently published a series of articles in Rodziny: The Journal of the Polish Genealogical Society of America.