Visit Live From Athens, a Special Collections is on display at WAC Bennett Library

About the exhibit

Live from Athens showcases some highlights from the McDonald Hellenic Collection. These objects, alongside the rest of Robert McDonald’s personal archive, are housed in Special Collections & Rare Books, here at the Bennett Library. 

Born and raised in BC, Robert McDonald is a retired freelance writer, reporter, and broadcaster. Having worked in Greece for many years, he is a long-time specialist in Greek, Cypriot, and Turkish affairs. Much of his collection of print and recorded media was amassed in Athens in the 1960s and 1970s, while he worked as a correspondent for the BBC. 

McDonald’s time as a foreign correspondent coincides with a particularly turbulent period in Greek history. In April 1967, a group of right-wing military colonels staged a coup, overthrew the democratic parliament, and formed a new junta government. Greece was effectively a dictatorship until the full restoration of democracy in 1975. Many journalists and political opponents of the colonels were either arrested and imprisoned, or fled the country. 

The actions of the junta government contributed to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. This conflict, which led to a partition of the island, has never been fully resolved. To this day, Cyprus is home to a UN buffer zone. In subsequent decades, Canadian peacekeepers have played a major role in maintaining Cypriot stability. 

What's on display?

The McDonald Hellenic Collection provides vital firsthand information about Greece, Cyprus, and beyond during a remarkably eventful period in history. A selection of the archive’s most noteworthy and interesting artifacts are on display here. Some objects, like newspapers and resistance print media, go hand in hand with the tumultuous events of the late 20^th century. Others, like bookmarks, travel guides, and material on ancient history, speak to the rhythm of everyday life as a foreigner in Greece. 

• Greek newspapers from the 1960s-1990s, with coverage of major historical events
• Anti-dictatorship flyers, pamphlets, and magazines
• Print media about modern Greek cultural icons, including composer Mikis Theodorakis and actress/politician Melina Mercouri
• Pocket guides for UN peacekeepers in Cyprus
• Travel books, a press dispatch pass, and other objects used by a Canadian journalist in Greece 

About the curator

Nina Houle is a graduate student in SFU's Department of Global Humanities. Her research centres around depictions of ancient Greece and Rome in contemporary board games; she is also interested in modern Greek social and cultural history, collective memory of the distant past, and the reception of Mediterranean antiquity across space and time. Nina is a lifelong lover of Greek culture, language, and society, holding a bachelor's degree in history and Hellenic studies from SFU. In fall 2025, she will begin work on a dual master's of library science and archival studies at UBC: she hopes to eventually work as an archivist or an academic reference librarian. Nina lives in East Vancouver, on unceded Coast Salish territory, with her partner and a small army of houseplants.