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Dear IDARM Network member,
We write to you with the news of the recent cancellation of our Collections and Reference Resources grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). We know that many of you have also been impacted by the recent changes to federal agencies that support the work of the nation's museums and libraries. We share your concerns.
We are one year into our two-year planning phase of the foundational work for the Italian Diaspora Archive Resource Map (IDARM) Project and have made the decision to proceed with our work as planned. This includes building a directory of resources in the IDARM network and conducting on-site visits to learn more about repositories in the OH-PA-WV tri-state region. If you'd like to request a site visit from the IDARM co-directors, we'll have a sign up form available in the next issue of the newsletter.
Later this week, we will travel to the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute in New York City to present at the Calandra Institute's annual interdisciplinary conference. The 2025 theme is "The Bitter Bread of War: Multidisciplinary Perspectives from Italy and the Diaspora." Our session, "Untangling the Strands of Italian Wars in Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia" will highlight archives from the Detre Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center, Archives & Special Collections of the University of Pittsburgh Library System, West Virginia and Regional History Center at West Virginia University, and the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum to illustrate how archives from our tri-state region can be used to locate and excavate the transnational connections between Italian wars.
We encourage you to lean on the IDARM network and the greater community of national and state humanities organizations during this challenging time. This is the best way to receive up-to-date information on the impact of legislation affecting our field and opportunities to make your voice heard. To that end, we will host an IDARM webinar on Wednesday, May 21 to regroup the network and review the current state of the IDARM project. Details about the webinar can be found below.
With gratitude,
Melissa, Lina, and Nancy
| | Meet the IDARM Network Partners | | |
Photo courtesy of Melissa E. Marinaro
Meet Giulia DeCastro
La partecipazione al progetto IDARM ci permetterà di integrare le nostre testimonianze con una serie di fonti parallele che ci consentiranno di avere una conoscenza più approfondita della vita degli italiani nelle “terre di arrivo”, perché conservare implica proteggere ma anche valorizzare una storia. Quella della migrazione italiana è una storia che lega le due sponde dell’oceano e che ci riguarda e coinvolge tutti.
Our participation in the IDARM project will allow us to integrate our documentary materials with a number of parallel repositories. This will allow us to have a deeper understanding of the lives of Italians in their “receiving countries”: by preserving these materials we are protecting but also promoting the stories they tell. The history of Italian migration not only bridges sending and receiving countries, but touches and impacts us all.
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Image courtesy of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, a university-wide institute under the aegis of Queens College, The City University of New York, is offering a fellowship for graduate students who are writing their dissertation specifically on Italian emigrant and/or Italian ethnic labor and/or working-class life either in the United States or in the wider Italian diaspora. Submissions may come from all relevant fields of study in the social sciences and humanities, including, but not limited to, history, literary studies, film studies, gender studies, and political science.
The fellowship is named after dockworker and labor activist Pietro “Pete” Panto (1910–1939), who was murdered for leading rank-and-file stevedores in a struggle for safe and democratic working conditions on the Brooklyn waterfront, which had long been in the grip of mobsters and corrupt elements in the union. The fellowship will run for six years with one award given each year. The fellowship award is $1,000 per year, distributed by check or bank transfer after the awardee is announced.
Submissions are due May 1, 2025. The announcement of this year’s winner will be made on Labor Day, Sept. 1, 2025.
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IDARM Webinar
Join us for a lunchtime webinar on Wednesday, May 21 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m to discuss the current status of the IDARM Project and review plans for the future.
Topic: IDARM Webinar
Time: May 21, 2025 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://heinzhistorycenter-org.zoom.us/j/87099255159?pwd=KQUxTbWKGs1HeS4dmhD7hYa1PNAPDG.1
Meeting ID: 870 9925 5159
Passcode: D8xb4LrPWk
If you cannot make the webinar, please consider sending us an update about your institution, especially if the impact of recent legislation has jeopardized your ability to participate in the IDARM Project.
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Senator John Heinz History Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Senator John Heinz History Center traces its roots back to 1879, when the Old Residents of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania established a historical society to help preserve local history. Today, the Heinz History Center is Pennsylvania’s largest history museum and a proud affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. Devoted to the history and heritage of Western Pennsylvania, our family of museums includes the Heinz History Center, Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, Fort Pitt Museum, and Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village.
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Italian emigration certificate, 1929, Gift of Michael Cosentino
The History Center is home to the Thomas & Katherine Detre Library & Archives. More than 250 years of Western Pennsylvania regional history can be found in collections, which include 700,000 photographs, prints, and negatives, 40,000 books, pamphlets, and monographs, 3,500 individual archival collections of families, organizations, businesses, and industries, 600 periodical titles, and 500 maps and atlases. This non-circulating collection is accessible to researchers, students, and the general public.
If you have a question about what is in the Detre Library & Archives collection, please view our online catalog, which contains a full listing of our holdings, including books, periodicals, maps, atlases, and archival collections of families, businesses, organizations, and industries.
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Midwife record book, 1909, Gift of Deborah Bertolino
Also embedded at the History Center is the Italian American Program. Founded in 1990, it is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history and culture of Italian Americans in Western Pennsylvania through exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and community outreach. The Italian American Collection is one of the largest repositories of Italian American artifacts, photographs, oral histories, and archival materials in the United States. For over three decades, it has documented the pivotal role Italian Americans play in shaping the region’s political, economic, religious, and cultural landscapes.
The institution houses 1,000 textiles, tools, housewares, decorative objects, and other three-dimensional items reflecting the Italian American experience. In the Detre Library & Archives, there are thousands of primary records including manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, immigration documents, records from clubs and fraternal societies, and oral history interviews. Together, these remnants of lives lived tell a rich story of the Italian American experience and how Italian immigrants shaped the region.
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Page from Dante DiLillo's Photo Album, 1920s, Gift of Marietta Morrissey and Maureen Brown
The History Center Affiliates Program (HCAP) includes more than 125 regional historical societies and organizations dedicated to preserving local history. HCAP members include history, genealogy, and library organizations located primarily within the counties of Western Pennsylvania.
Membership in the program brings the extensive expertise and resources of the History Center’s staff to these organizations, especially in the areas of museum and archival work that enable each affiliate organization to reach its goals.
Contact Information
Senator John Heinz History Center
1212 Smallman St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Detre Library & Archives is free for all visitors. Visitors coming to the History Center solely to use the Library & Archives will not be charged admission; they will be directed to the sixth floor, where they will sign in.
Appointments are recommended for researcher visits to ensure availability of materials. Please contact to schedule your appointment.
Open Wednesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
412-454-6364
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
For more information about the History Center's Italian American Program, please contact Melissa E. Marinaro at 412-454-6426 or memarinaro@heinzhistorycenter.org.
For more information about the History Center Affiliates Program, or to become a member, please contact Robert Stakeley at 412-454-6359 or rostakeley@heinzhistorycenter.org.
| | Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this newsletter, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. | | | | |
