You are visiting an amazing place, created by an amazing man. Aeneas Constantine was born in 1912 at the western edge of the Ottoman Empire. He was reared in Izmir, known to the Greeks as Smyrna. He spent most of the majority of his adult life in Harrisville, Michigan, where he was known to friends and community members alike as “Doc”.

Doc’s love of collecting and horticulture began in Izmir. with ancient coins unearthed during the building of his family home. He was also fascinated by the stamps on letters sent from his uncle in America, the famous chemist Dr. Lucas P. Kyrides, by the books his father, a professor at the American college in Smyrna, collected and the vineyards and orchards his father cultivated.

The idyllic life was shattered in 1922 as the war between Greece and Turkey culminated in the burning and destruction of Smyrna, a seminal moment in modern Greek history and the history of Aeneas and his family. The Constantine family was evacuated to Piraeus, the harbor of Athens. Homeless and verging on starvation, the family made their way to Boston, Massachusetts where the young Aeneas eventually attended the Boston Latin School. He then matriculated to the University of Michigan and eventually came to Harrisville where he assisted the town doctor. When Dr. Miller was killed in an auto accident, Doc took over the practice, building the clinic and home here on the Institute grounds and living here with his wife Ann (Dragon) and two sons, John and Peter. Ann suffered from tuberculosis, and it was Doc’s belief that Harrisville offered a healthy environment with a unique blend of rich soils and clean fresh air. He put down roots and began his collections.

During his years in rural northern Michigan, Doc’s correspondence and the stories of his life read like an epic novel, sprinkled with names like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, and Leonard Bernstein. A consummate Greek scholar, Doctor possessed an intense love of knowledge (gnosis). Well beyond that, he was possessed of a deep and abiding sense of wonder. (thaumazo). Over the course of a lifetime, Doctor amassed a diverse and astonishing collections of artifacts. Among these are ancient books, artwork, medical instruments, historic letters, coins, photographic and astronomical equipment, toys trains, stamps, and exotic plant species. His intellectual curiosity was insatiable and his interests myriad. He carried out many experiments in the building and grounds, elements of which remain visible to this day.

Doc held these collections dear, not for their monetary value, but for the wonder they invoked, the study they fostered and the knowledge they imparted. Doc believed that learning begins with the individual. In the case of the collections, it begins with the acquisition of an item and the intense study of that item, it then branches out into the areas of interest it inspires and the questions it raises. The results of that study - the questions raised, and the information gathered - are then shared with others through observation and discussion. In this way “good rains down on the community,”

It was for these reasons, that Doc insisted that his gifts endow not a museum, but an institute of cultural learning. Virtually his entire later life was devoted to ensuring that this dream would reach fruition, resulting in the creation of a place that would shelter not only his collections, but also a place where those who wished to postulate a hypothesis, research a theory, launch a discussion or simply seek learning for the pure joy of attaining knowledge. The Harrisville Institute for Cultural Learning is a nonprofit charitable organization, comprised entirely of volunteers. It was created in July of 2006 to rescue the collection and fulfill Doc’s dream that his treasures be used to preserve humanistic, classical education; to inspire, foster curiosity and cultivate the individual.

Beginning with six board members our volunteer membership has grown steadily. More than 40 members, including summer visitors, have worked on the book inventory. Even more have worked on the grounds, including Alcona Community Schools students working and learning beside Master gardeners and the Lincoln Lions Club.

The Board of Directors is a hands-on working board, donating hours and money to help offset expenses. Much of the funding Doc left to sustain the collection was lost during the settlement and the transfer, of ownership to the current board, further complicating restoring and making the collection more accessible to the public.

As we celebrate 100 years of Doc’s philosophies and beliefs,, the Institute invites you to participate by researching and studying our collection. We greatly appreciate any monetary support you wish to contribute. The Institute’s Board and its volunteers value the collections for the intellectual curiosity - the eternal, internal sense of wonder - they evoke and as catalysts to exploration which may range far beyond the items themselves. As he would say “And the good showers onto the community”.

Written by Roger Lemons and Kathryn Fritz Kniep.