GUIDE
TO SONS OF ITALY RECORDS & ARCHIVES
AVAILABLE IN REVISED
EDITION
Press
Contact: Kylie Cafiero, (202) 547-2900 kcafiero@osia.org
WASHINGTON, D.C.—July
12, 2004
A guide to the history,
major accomplishments
and leadership of
the Sons of Italy
has been published
by the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC)
at the University of Minnesota.
A Guide
to the Records of the Order Sons
of Italy in America lists
the entire contents of
nearly 1,000 linear feet
of OSIA documents that
are housed at the IHRC. These
include original founding
charters, minutes of pre-World
War I meetings at the local,
state and national levels
and newspaper clippings
about OSIA over the past
10 decades.
The
first guide to OSIA’s
records was published in
1989. The 2004 edition includes
an update on the history
of OSIA to 2004 and a new
selection of historic photographs
that date back to OSIA's
earliest years.
The
archives also document
such recent events in OSIA
history as the founding of
the Commission for Social
Justice (1979) and OSIA's
successful legislative campaigns
that made Columbus Day a
federal holiday and opened
the Justice Department files
on the treatment of Italian
Americans during World War
II.
The
OSIA archives are the keystone
of the IHRC's Italian American
collection of more than
1,500 books, 450 newspapers
and countless personal papers
of journalists, labor leaders
and writers. Since
1984, OSIA has pledged more
than $167,000 to catalogue
and maintain these archives.
A
Guide to the Records
of the Order Sons of
Italy in America is
an important reference
tool for researchers studying
OSIA's history as well
as the history of the Italian
American experience in
the United States over
the past century, according
to historian Stefano Luconi
of the University of Florence.
"This
ethnic association has
been so influential and
involved in multifaceted
activities that any study
of the Italian American experience
in the United States can
hardly ignore such holdings," Luconi
says.
A
Guide to the Records
of the Order Sons of
Italy in America was
compiled under the direction
of Rudy Vecoli, Ph.D.,
the IHRC director and noted
historian of Italian Americana,
with assistance from OSIA
historians Dominic Massaro,
Joanne Strollo and Peter
Zuzolo.
The
book is available through
OSIA for $24.95. Free
shipping and handling. To
order, send a check payable
to "OSIA" to:
The Order Sons of Italy
in America.
219 E Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
OSIA is the largest and
oldest national organization for men and women of Italian heritage in the United
States. It has more than 600,000 members and supporters and a network of more
than 700 chapters coast to coast. OSIA works at the community, national and international
levels to promote the heritage and culture of an estimated 26 million Italian
Americans, the nation’s fifth largest ethnic group, according
to the U.S. Census Bureau.
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