The Mount Athos Foundation of America (MAFA), in collaboration with the Mount Athos Center of Thessaloniki (Αγιορειτική Εστία), presents Mount Athos & Meteora 1929 Princeton’s Hidden Treasure, a traveling exhibition offering American audiences a virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain.

The exhibition features 65 historic photographs, eight interpretive panels, and a documentary film drawn from an expedition undertaken in 1929 by three traveler-artists from Princeton University to Mount Athos and Meteora.

The expedition team comprised the Russian émigré painter, explorer, and gifted communicator Vladimir “Vovo” Perfilieff; photographer and accomplished cinematographer Floyd Crosby, who later became an Academy Award–winning filmmaker; and architect Gordon McCormick, a graduate of Princeton University. They were accompanied by Anastasios Chatzimitsos, a young interpreter from Thessaloniki.

The photographs and film document places that were then regarded as mysterious, unique, and largely untouched by the passage of time. They capture the dramatic natural landscape, the architecture of the monasteries, and the daily life of the monks, including their encounter with Elias, a cave-dwelling hermit.

This exceptional collection brings to light rare visual material and historical information of significant value to the fields of history, social studies, folklore, and architecture. It expands the range of original sources available to scholars and contributes invaluable new data to research on two of the most important monastic centers of the Orthodox Christian world: Mount Athos and Meteora.

This exhibition is designed to travel. To propose a venue, please contact info@mountathosfoundation.org.

Photo captions from above.

Esphigmenou Monastery. The expedition members photographed outside the monastery entrance with their laden mules. From left to right: Vladimir Perfilieff, Gordon McCormick, muleteer, Floyd Crosby, Anastasios Chatzimitsos.
Original material: coloured glass lantern slide

Dionysiou Monastery. Vladimir Perfilieff with a party of laymen and monks rowing to the monastery, which looms impressively in the distance.
Original material: silver print on Velox paper