Introduction

David Taylor, photographer. *Andy Briguglio bricks up the top of his forno. San Pedro, California.* 1989. (Caption based on David Taylor's photograph log for this item.) Italian Americans in the West Project Collection. Library of Congress American Folklife Center,

American Folklife Center collections documenting Italians in Italy and the United States represent the diversity of their expressive culture. Among its unique collections are Italian songs collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell in California in the 1930s, available in the presentation California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties; Italian songs, work, and traditions recorded by Alan Lomax in Italy in the 1950s; and ethnographic study of Italian religious traditions in New York found in the Joseph Sciorra collection. American Folklife Center field projects have included documentation of Italian Americans including documentation of Italian ranchers in Nevada, available online in Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945 to 1982; documentation of various Italian traditions in Chicago, available online in the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection; documentation of Italians in Lowell Massachusetts online in the Lowell Folklife Project Collection; documentation of Italian businesses and workers in New Jersey, online in Working in Paterson; and documentation of a wide variety of Italian traditions in the Italian Americans in the West Project collection.

Italian Americans in the West Project Collection

The Italian Americans in the West Project collection contains the sound recordings, photographs, video recordings, fieldnotes, publications, ephemera, and accompanying manuscript materials associated with the American Folklife Center's Italian Americans in the West project. The purpose of the three-year field research project was to document aspects of traditional cultural expression of Italian Americans in the western United States. Field research was conducted from 1989 through 1991 and was directed by American Folklife Center staff.

Explore the Italian Americans in th West Project Collection
Fieldwork for the American Folklife Center's Italian Americans in the West Project took place in the agricultural community of Gilroy, California; the commercial fishing town of San Pedro, California; the steel mill town of Pueblo, Colorado; several small mining and ranching communities in eastern and central Nevada; several mining towns in Carbon County, Utah; and the agricultural region of Walla Walla, Washington. The project was part of the Quincentenary Celebration of Christopher Columbus sponsored by the Library of Congress in 1992.

Additional Collections of Interest

The following materials link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to digital content are provided when available.

Alan Lomax collection
Call Number: AFC 2004/004
Published/Created: circa 1933-2004
Collection comprises manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, film, and videorecordings created and collected by Alan Lomax in his work documenting song, music, dance, and body movement from many cultures. Includes field recordings and photographs Lomax made in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, England, France, Georgia, Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and Wales, 1930s-2004; plus his worldwide collection of ethnographic documentary materials from many collaborators for his studies of cantometrics and choreometrics.
Online resource: Italian portions of this collection have been made available online by the Lomax Digital Archive External
W.P.A. California Folk Music Project collection
Call Number: AFC 1940/001
Published/Created: 1936-1991
The California Folk Music Project of the California Work Projects Administration (WPA) was conceived and directed by Sidney Robertson Cowell and co-sponsored by the Music Department of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Music Division, Library of Congress from 1938 to 1940. Additional support was provided by the New Music Society of California and the Society of California Pioneers. The resulting collection of sound recordings, photographs, correspondence, field notes, and drawings documents the musical culture, including religious music and folk song, of many ethnic and English-language performers in northern California. The collection includes the documentation of the music of Italians.
Online resource: California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell
Discoteca di Stato (Italy) canti di Lucania
Call Number: AFC 1958/021
Published/Created: ca. 1956
Recordings of folk music and songs from Lucania from the collections of the Discoteca di Stato, Rome, Italy, donated by Dr. Anna Baroni, in 1956.
Joseph Sciorra collection
Call Number: AFC 2018/065
Published/Created: 1980s-2018
Collection of fieldwork conducted by Joseph Sciorra and his collected papers and materials, 1980s-2018, relating to Italian American folklife primarily in New York City but also in Massachusetts and Italy. Topics include Catholic religious expression and material culture in the form of altars, processions, shrines, social clubs, feasts, games, puppeteering, visual arts, folk poetry, and music.
Chicago Ethnic Arts Project collection
Call Number: AFC 1981/004
Published/Created: 1976-1981
The collection consists of sound recordings, photographs, manuscript materials, videorecordings, publications, ephemera, administrative files, and field notes produced and collected during the 1977 Chicago Ethnic Arts Project field survey from 1976-1981; but primarily during fieldwork conducted by fourteen folklorists directed by the American Folklife Center in 1977. Includes documentation of Italians.
Online resource: Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection
Lowell Folklife Project collection
Call Number: AFC 1987/042
Published/Created: 1987-1988
This year-long study conducted by the American Folklife Center yielded an ethnographic collection consisting of 196 hours of sound recordings covering a wide range of subjects and activities, including oral history interviews, religious services and festivals (Catholic and Greek Orthodox holy week and Easter services and religious processions; a Cambodian Buddhist wedding ceremony; Cambodian and Laotian New Year's celebrations; Puerto Rican festivals), musical events, parades, ethnic restaurants, and neighborhood tours. Includes documentation of Italians.
Online resource: Lowell Folklife Project Collection
Paradise Valley Folklife Project collection
Call Number: AFC 1991/021
Published/Created: 1978-1982
Field collection documenting the history and culture of the ranching community in Paradise Valley, Humboldt County, Nevada. A team of fieldworkers documented the distinct ethnic groups in the area including Italians.
Online resource: Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945 to 1982
Working in Paterson Project collection
Call Number: AFC 1995/028
Published/Created: 1993-2002
The collection consists of manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, artifacts, publications, and ephemera from an ethnographic field project conducted by the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, which documented occupational culture in Paterson, New Jersey in 1994. Subjects include the textile industry, industrial architecture, machine shops, labor unions, family-owned businesses, dressmaking, and ethnic restaurants. Includes Italians.
Online resource: Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting

Podcasts and Blog Posts

Alan Lomax in Italy: a letter to Goffredo Plastino
Folklorist Stephen Winick discusses some new discoveries about Alan Lomax's research in Italy. (Folklife Today blog: May 21, 2015)
Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Goes Online
Folklorist Ann Hoog discusses the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project AFC field collection.(Folklife Today blog: May 24, 2016)
Homegrown Plus: Newpoli’s Mediterranean Pulse
Folklorist Stephen Winick discusses the new events videos of the musical group Newpoli along with an interview with band members. The videos are included in the blog. (Folklife Today blog: February 7, 2019)
New Collection Online: the Italian Americans in the West Project
Folklorist Stephanie Hall presents the online collection Italian Americans in the West. (Folklife Today blog: February 12, 2021)

Public Programming

Lou Maiuri, 92, is the son of Italian immigrants who arrived in West Virginia in the early 1900s. "Italians are big on food," Lou says from his basement cellar, where the shelves are lined with preserved peppers, canned beans, and a family-recipe pasta sauce he's been making for 70 years. Mike and Amy often find themselves exploring Italian-American foodways in West Virginia in places like Clarksburg's historic Glen Elk District with its bakeries and delicatessens, at traditional spaghetti houses, and with seasoned cooks like Maiuri, who shares his recipe for homemade pasta sauce and ravioli in this video. (Event Date: September 15, 2021)

Additional Public Programming

Built with Faith: Place Making and the Religious Imagination in Italian New York
In this presentation, folklorist Joseph Sciorra examines how Italian Americans create and use vernacular architecture, material culture, and ceremonial display to inscribe meaning on New York City's religious and cultural landscapes. Yard shrines, sidewalk altars, Christmas displays, and other creative productions transform everyday urban space into unique, communal sites of religiosity. Sciorra is especially interested in how people remember, imagine, and interpret the city, as well as people's relationships to the divine at these sites during times of changing, global forces such as de/post-industrialization, suburbanization, migration, and gentrification. (Event Date: September 23, 2009)

American Folklife Center Collections: Italy

American Folklife Center: Ask a Librarian

About AFC Geographic Guides