The self-taught scholar K. Kanelakis from Chios was a multifaceted personality with valuable work in many fields. He is best known for his folklore work, but in the memory of his descendants, he remained as an archaeologist and guide for those who arrived on the island and as the one who created the first map of Chios. He was Siór Kostis, the companion of Psicharis,
who characterizes him as "a Greek among the rare ones, who does not resemble the others, has a curious mind and always wants to learn". As accurately described by H. Pernot, he was simultaneously a "historian, linguist, folklorist, numismatist, palaeographer, epigraphist, topographer, art dealer, cultivator, commissioner of the peasants who came down to the city, and guide for foreigners who went up to the villages".
He also pioneered the establishment of the Nenites Parthenagogeion, which he directed as a curator for thirty years. He left behind significant written work, published and handwritten, artistic creations, and many other things in which he excelled, despite the lack of formal education, through lifelong personal study. From the folders containing the remnants of his documents, discovered in the "Korais" Library, especially letters, many from important figures, information about his life and work becomes known, shedding light on political, social, economic, intellectual, and other events of Chios and broader history.
