In the early 1980s, the film archive of the Hellenic Maritime Museum started to be formed. At first, nine film reels, eight of which were silent, were gathered and registered. They deal with the first years of the establishment of the Hellenic Maritime Museum in the building at 18 Akti Moutsopoulou, the following relocation to a building on Bouboulinas Street and finally the move into the present building (1955-1969). The films present maritime events of that period as well as external and internal shootings of the facilities of the three above-mentioned buildings which housed the Museum. Film reel No1 is of historical value for the Museum and the protection and promotion of the Greek maritime heritage since it presents snatches from the inauguration ceremony for the present building which took place on 4th August 1969. At the same time, the audiovisual archive includes a large collection of transparencies and negatives. Demas Collection On 21st June 1982 the collection of Epaminondas Demopoulos was donated to the Museum. The collection constitutes the most impressive part of the audiovisual archive. Epaminondas Demopoulos, known as E. J. Demas, participated in the exploratory expeditions of Admiral Richard E. Byrd in the North and the South pole in 1926. The relevant audiovisual material consists of ten silent black and white film reels. The films present the transatlantic flight of Admiral Byrd in 1927, with the aircraft “America”, the sea expedition to the South Pole on the sailing ship “City of New York”, the crossing of the Panama Canal, the visit to Easter Island and New Zealand, the Antarctic station “Little America”, snapshots of life at the station, the flight over the North Pole in 1927, the victorious return to New York as well as the awards ceremony held for the exploratory team by the President of the United States. There are four more audio tapes from 1972, where the now aged Demas narrates and describes the scenes in the silent films of the archive.

Reels of film from the archives.