A SOCIOECONOMIC STUDY EXPLORING THE IMMIGRATION OF ARTISAN

STONE CARVERS FROM ITALY TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CIRCA

1830-1920

by

RUSS JOSEPH MORISI

M.A., Liberal Studies, The College of Staten Island

A thesis submitted to the

Faculty of the Department of History of the College of Staten Island of the City

University of New York

In partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

Master of Arts

History

2009

1

This thesis for the Master of Arts degree by

Russ Joseph Morisi

Has been approved for the

Department of

History

By

__________________________

Professor Sandi E. Cooper, PhD

___________________________

Professor Sandra Gambetti, PhD

___________________________

Professor Howard Weiner, PhD

____________________________

Professor Sandra Gambetti, PhDCoordinator, MA Program in History

Date_______________

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT PAGE 4

INTRODUCTION PAGE 5

CARRARA PAGE 11

VERMONT PAGE 16

NEW YORK PAGE 25

CONCLUSION PAGE 36

3

ABSTRACT

Morisi, Russ Joseph (M.A. History Candidate)

“A Socioeconomic Study Exploring the Immigration of Artisan Stone Carvers from Italy

to the United States of America circa 1830-1920”

This thesis will focus on Italian stone-carvers who emigrated to the United States

from Carrara and several other towns during the years circa 1830-1920. They were

recruited by American companies to carve intricate ornamental details designed to

decorate many of the new buildings of the burgeoning metropolis of the period. Mostly,

they boarded ships from Genoa, Italy and Le Havre, France, they traveled with fellow

artisans and their families, and, once in America, they often lived together as mobile

communities near their places of work.

Rather surprisingly, the field of immigration studies lacks any organized,

documented history of this community of elite workers. This might have been because

their skills, in high demand, necessitated mobility and provided job security and high

wages—a marked contrast to the life of the more numerous unskilled immigrants

congregated in America’s slums and low paying menial jobs. This research intends to fill

this scholarly void by providing an investigation into the reasons that compelled these

skilled workers to leave Italy for the United States. This work will also examine the

integration of the Italian stone-carvers into the American working environment, and the

socioeconomic conditions in which they built their own community within, or outside,

the larger Italian community.

4

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Skilled immigrants have not been subject to as much attention as the unskilled

masses and stone carvers in particular have eluded scholars’ attention.

There are three archetypal job titles used for stone workers. There are (1) the

stone cutters who cut and remove the stone from the quarry, (2) the stone masons who lay

the blocks for foundations and buildings, and (3) the stone carvers who carve large

sculptures from small plaster casts made from maquettes (small models of an intended

sculpture created by the sculptor). The stone carver is the most highly skilled of the stone

workers and therefore the most highly paid. The stone masons are construction workers,

the cutters are quarry workers whereas, many of the stone carvers, who are the focus of

this paper, are formally trained artists, which set them apart from the others as a group.

In some instances they were called upon to perform the work of artisans, sculpting

another’s creation in stone and at other times they were the sculptors; commissioned to

create and carve.

One of the most significant works was the sculpting of Mount Rushmore, a

monumental undertaking designed by the American Sculptor, Gutzon Borglum. One of

the carvers he relied upon was an Italian immigrant, Hugo Villa.

5

On July 4, 1930, on top of Mount Rushmore in the remote Black Hills of South

Dakota Gutzon Borglum unfastened a massive American flag which was draped across a

bust of George Washington and unveiled the first of the four sculptured faces that would

eventually come to embellish the mountain. The likeness was not entirely complete,

however Borglum had promised the unveiling to coincide with Independence Day 1930

for the anxious American public, who were contributing to the financing of his creation.

He had arranged for his stone carvers to work in double shifts to meet the deadline and

they barely completed the task. The massive undertaking had been underway for two

years; the work of carving the mountain had moved at a very slow pace.

Borglum was not pleased with the progress of the work and he wrote a letter to

Calvin Denison, his right hand man and supervisor of the day-to-day operations on the

monumental sculpture, complaining of his “careless and slipshod”1 work. Denison

resigned and departed permanently from the mountain. From Borglum’s viewpoint

Denison did not possess a “...feel for the artistic nuances of the project.”2

It came as no surprise to those close to the project that Borglum wanted to

employ the skill Hugo Villa. Villa had worked several times before with Borglum and

most recently he was the supervisor of the carving on Stone Mountain, Georgia, where

they carved the key figures of the Confederate States of America.3 Borglum wanted the

Italian artisan to be the man in absolute control of all the sculpting on this project. Villa

and his team of carvers completed the carving of George Washington. The next year

6

1 John Taliaferro, Great White Fathers: The Story of the Obsessive Quest to Create Mount Rushmore, (New York: PublicAffairs, 2002), 248.

2 Ibid.

3 Rex Alan Smith, The Carving of Mount Rushmore, (New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1985), 67.

Villa would begin the sculpting of Thomas Jefferson which was to be “...a colossal

disaster in the making”4 setting the two sculptors, Borglum and Villa, in conflict with one

another.

Borglum was leaving on one of his frequent trips to Europe and planned to entrust

the task of the sculpting of Jefferson’s bust to Villa. Villa inspected the work site, he had

concerns about the granite in the mountain. Villa argued that the granite was of inferior

quality on that portion of the mountain; it was laced with fissures and did not have the

depth necessary for the sculpture. In addition, he believed that ultimately the stone would

fail during the carving. Borglum did not agree. Hugo Villa did as Borglum directed and

began to sculpt the head.5

When Borglum returned he was outraged at the developments on the mountain.

He called Hugo Villa to task and informed him that from as far as a mile away that there

were serious imperfections in Jefferson’s face. In fact, the face was positioned so close

and intimately to Washington’s face that people watching the work thought he was

sculpting Martha Washington’s face. Hugo Villa reiterated Borglum that the stone on that

side of the mountain was not of sufficient quality or quantity to carve the face.6

Nonetheless, at the urging of Borglum, Villa and his crew of carvers would now attempt

to complete the bust in the manner Borglum envisioned. Sadly, the mountain did not have

the structural integrity and crumbled. Thomas Jefferson’s bust was now to be carved to

7

4 Ibid.

5 John Taliaferro, op. cit., 255.

6 Rex Alan Smith, op. cit., 222-223.

the left of George Washington’s and the aborted carving of the bust of the third president

was dynamited off the mountain.

Hugo Villa's part in this drama seems extraordinary; a man from Italy, an

immigrant, who, in the beginning of the twentieth century, was in such a respected

position to be able to stand at odds with one of the preeminent American sculptors of the

time and was proven to be correct. Although this was a unique incident, it was not the

only time that an Italian immigrant stone carver was sculpting an American icon.

Important stone carvers were recruited from Carrara, and other parts of Italy by

American sculptors to do the intricate stone carvings that adorn buildings and statues

throughout America, not the least of which was the Lincoln Memorial carved by Attilio

and Furio Piccirilli7 or the world famous Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York

City, which Eduardo Ardolino8 and his company carved the stone for the frontispieces9

and larger than life figures indoors such as in the baptistry where the Ardolinos carved

eight statues modeled by the sculptor Mr. Angel.10 This paper will focus on Italian stone

carvers who emigrated to the United States from Carrara and several other towns during

the years circa eighteen thirty through nineteen twenty.

8

7 Registers and Indexes for Passport Applications, 1810-1906; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1371, rolls 1-3, 13); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

8 List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the Commissioner of Immigration. S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm II arriving at Port of New York November 3 1898, passenger number 12 Eduardo Ardolino 15 years old, occupation: Sculptor, nationality: Italian, final destination: Boston.

9 Fernald (sp), “Clerk of Work Reports, 1 December, 1928.” Archive of Saint John the Divine, New York, New York.

10 Roberts, E.P., “Clerk of Work Reports, 1 January, 1928.” Archive of Saint John the Divine, New York, New York.

Decorative stone carvings were an expensive addition to any construction project,

and the Italian artisans were without parallel in their field. They were recruited by

American companies to carve intricate ornamental details designed to decorate many of

the new buildings of the burgeoning metropolis of the period. “The Beretta family came

to the United States from Carrara and Sarzana, Italy. Representatives from The Vermont

Marble Company traveled to this region of Italy at the turn of the century to recruit...

[stone] carvers to work at their mills...Giulio Beretta began working at the Vermont

Marble Company in 1904”11 Mostly, they boarded ships from Genoa, Italy and Le

Havre, France.12 They traveled with fellow artisans and their families and once they

arrived in America, they often lived together as mobile communities or near their places

of work. Many of them are documented as having worked steadily at their skilled craft

along the eastern seaboard, including New York City, Barre, Vermont and Washington,

DC13.

The three locations encompassed in this thesis include (1) The heart of the

marble quarries in the mountains towering all around Carrara where many of the stone

carvers received their training, and perfected their skills, (2) Barre, Vermont, widely

known for its high quality granite and marble, the destination of a community of Italian

immigrant carvers, and (3) New York City, which was not only the home for a large

9

11 Katherine Ferrucci, Limestone Lives: Voices from the Indiana Stone Belt, (Bloomington: Quarry Books, 2004), 68.

12 Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls); Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

13 Marjorie Hunt, Master Craftsmen of Washington National Cathedral: The Stone Carvers, (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999), 2.

community of immigrants from Europe, including many Italian stone carvers, but the

location of many of their intricately carved works.

To comprehend how great an adjustment it was for the Italian carvers transposed

to Vermont and New York, it is crucial to understand their history. This history includes

the instruction they received in their craft, their traditions, culture and politics.14 In

addition, a major influence on the carvers was the marble trade in Italy and its dynamics,

including its labor-management environment. All of these conditions were part of the

stone carvers background and determined in part how they acclimated themselves to

living in the United States and working for the major marble and granite companies.

10

14 Unknown Author, A Stronghold of Anarchists: Italy’s Action in Respect to Carrara Fully Justified. The New York Times January 19,1894, Wednesday, Page 5.

CHAPTER II

CARRARA

Carrara is a small city located in the northernmost tip of Tuscany with its port on

the Ligurian sea just south of Genoa on the coast. It stretches up into in the foothills of

the Alps Apuan mountain range which is part of the Apennine Mountains. The history of

Carrarese stone carvers dates back many centuries to Roman times.15

Marble had been quarried from the Apuan Alps near Carrara during the Roman

era when “Greek marbles started to be replaced by Apuan marbles”16 due to its superior

quality17 and it was shipped from an area called Luni. The Carrarese were renowned for

their sculpting skills and a great deal of the marble work carried out in neighboring cities,

such as Siena, was done by the Carrarese. During the Renaissance era when Carrara was

ruled by the Malespina family, the quarries were very active, mining the marble from

strip mines and deep mines for its commercial value; it was mined, sold, and shipped

overseas.18 By the seventeenth century the sculptors and stone carvers became affluent

enough to be able to buy their own quarries.19

One family that dominated the marble industry for many years was

11

15 Carrara: Il Portale del Commune http://www.comune.carrara.ms.it/Sezioni.aspx?ID=46 (May 2009)

16 Catia Bruni ed., Il Marmo ieri e Oggi, (Carrara: Societá Editrice Apuana, 1970), 161.

17 Ibid.

18 Museo Civico del Marmo, Viale Settembre Carrara, Italy: placard accessed April, 2009.

19 Museo Civico del Marmo, op. cit., placard.

“the Fabbricotti family who started out as small quarry owners but became more than a small business from a small village at the foot of the Apuane called Torano. They began working the quarries beginning at the end of the eighteenth century up until the end of the nineteenth century and came to dominate the production of marble excavated from Carrara and monopolized the commerce on the world markets.”20

The Fabbricotti family remains an affluent, influential family in Carrara.21

During the 19th century the marble carving industry remained significant in

Carrara. “...a large number of carving sheds were opened...which specialized in artwork.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, Carrara had a population of about ten thousand

people with sixty-seven carving sheds where ninety sculptors and one hundred and five

carvers...worked.”22 The carving industry was changing and by the turn of the twentieth

century “the...architectural and ornamental carving sheds came into existence replacing

the artist’s sheds. This was the beginning of commercial manufacturing of architectural

elements for private houses, cemetery and civic monuments.”23 Regardless of the

transformation of the marble industry, the Carrarese stone carvers were always very well

trained and many of them attended the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, The Academy

of Fine Arts of Carrara.

The Academy in Carrara was established in 1769 by Maria Teresa Cybo d’Este

the Duchess of Massa, Princess of Carrara and spouse of Ercole Rinaldo d’Este the third,

12

20 Roberto Musetti, I Fabbriocotti: Il Volto di una Dinastia del Marmo tra ‘700 e ‘900 a Carrara. (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2004), 14-15. (author’s translation)

21 Nicola Petrucci, lifelong resident and guide in Carrara, interview by author, Carrara, Monday, April 21st 3:00 PM. (author’s translation)

22 Museo Civico del Marmo op. cit., placard.

23 Ibid.

the Duke of Modena.24 The purpose of the Academy was to instruct students in the art of

sculpture, architecture, and architectural ornamentation, one of many such schools

located throughout Italy. Maria Cybo d’Este considered skilled artisans important to the

economy of the city. The original managing director of the school was an expert sculptor

named Giovanni Cybei who became the guiding artistic force behind the school.

Opening this academy had the result of attracting many students from not only other parts

of Italy but many other countries as well. The Este family created a large endowment for

the academy which allowed it to grow to accommodate the growing student body. When

the director Giovanni Cybei died in 1784 the school fell into decline and it wasn’t until

1814 that Eliza Buonaparte, as the head of the Ministry of Education, breathed new

financial life into the Academy. Eliza Buonaparte instituted a pension for sculptors which

lasted until nineteen fifty-three. Many famous Italian sculptors came out of this school,

Pietro Tenerani, Carlo Finelli, Pietro Tacca, Pietro Fontana, and Benedetto Ciaciatore.25

According to exhibits at the Museo Civico del Marmo, The Municipal Marble Museum,

the art of modeling in clay and making plaster molds, maquettes, was perfected at the

Academy, allowing the sculptors to duplicate work and to restore damaged works, an

important innovation26 and a skill that was carried on by the P.P. Caproni and Brother

Company in Boston by Italian immigrants from Barga, a town not too far from Carrara.27

13

24 Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, Officina dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara: materiale & immateriale (Carrara: Accademia di Belle Arti, ND), 2. (author’s translation)

25 Roberta Guazzelli Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara administrator, interview by author, Carrara, Italy, Monday April 20th 9:30 AM. (author’s translation)

26 Museo Civico del Marmo,op. cit. placard.

27 Mr. and Mrs. Leo and Joanne Caproni, grandson and granddaughter-in-law of Pietro Paolo Caproni, interview by author, New York, New York, 7 November, 2008.

The Academy in recent times has broadened its scope to include painting and other

graphic arts, but during a large part of the nineteenth century the courses given there were

only sculpting courses. By the turn of the twentieth century the market for ornamental

works in marble developed around the world, however with the onset of WW1 marble

sales decreased dramatically.

The radical political background of the Carrarese people was a binding force in

the city, many of the stone carvers belonged to various anarchist groups and much like

political organizations gave the people a sense of belonging. They had common goals

which aided in their unity. The Fascists almost single handedly destroyed the

international marble trade in Carrara when Fascists, having taken over the quarries,

jumped the price of Carrara marble to prohibitive heights and U.S. importers protested

and cancelled all orders.28

The quarry workers, including the stone carvers, had radical beliefs that set them

apart from others. Ideas from outside the city began to influence the Carrarese.

Anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers.

According to a New York Times article of 1894 many violent revolutionists who had

been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the

first Anarchist group in Italy. The district in which the quarries are situated was

consequently the original hotbed of Anarchism in Italy.”29 Carrara has remained a

14

28 No Author. Monday, 1928. Fabricotti Marble. Time Magazine, October 22.

29 A Stronghold of Anarchists: Italy’s Action in Respect to Carrara Fully Justified. The New York Times January 19,1894, Wednesday, Page 5.

‘hotbed’ of anarchism in Italy continuously30 with several organizations located openly in

the city.31 The Anarchist marble workers were also the driving force behind organizing

labor in the quarries and in the carving sheds.

“During the first few decades of the 20th century, when the labor movement emerged with new strategies and directions, some improvements were made to...working conditions. Under the leadership of the...anarcho-syndicalist Alberto Meschi, the local labor union won a number of significant labor battles. After a 1902 strike involving all sectors of the marble industry, marble workers succeeded in establishing their first collective...contract.”32

Their understanding of labor management relations, organizing and striking for

their needs as workers, stemmed from their anarchist background. These traditions of the

Carrarese stone carvers were practices they brought with them to their new homes in the

United States which played a major role in their lives in this country. Of the stone

carvers who came to Barre “...those who had developed a more marked Italian American

identity, antifascism became part of the broader radical agenda that they pursued as

members of a multiethnic and multiracial “American” organizations [and] unions...”33

15

30 During the Fascist years from 1922 onwards it was particularly bitter in Carrara. The city itself was twice liberated from the Nazis by anarchist partisans before the arrival of allied troops. Anarchist activity existed in Carrara, when the city was under siege by the Germans and was left to defend itself until allied troops arrived. German forces had retreated from the allies who were pushing them out of southern Italy north into Carrara after Italy surrendered in September, of 1943. The partisan anarchists of Carrara continued an armed resistance against the Germans, there was a popular demonstration by thousands of women outside the German military command in July 1943 which was brutally quashed by the heavily armed Germans. The Germans retaliated by killing any women they thought were the organizers. These brave women caused the Germans to relent, and remove themselves from Carrara. Before the end of the European war Carrara and the quarries were returned to the Carrarese due to the efforts of the Anarchists.

31 Circolo Goliardo Fiaschi, via Ulivi 8, Gruppo Germinal - Fai, Piazza Politeama.

32 Joel Leivick, Carrara: The Marble Quarries of Tuscany. (Stanford: Stanford University Press,1999), 66.

33 Donna R. Gabaccia and Fraser M. Ottanelli Eds., Italian Workers of the World: Labor Migration and the Formation of Multiethnic States, 186.

CHAPTER III

VERMONT

According to the Italian historian, Gianpiero Gattoni, in the latter half of

the 19th century many of the Italian quarries started to go out of business due to foreign

competition. Since there was less marble being quarried, there was less of a need for

stone carvers, and the carving sheds of Italy began to close.34

Many stone carvers were left jobless. The carvers, who were out-of-work and

with no income in the 1880’s, believed that the recently unified Italy had ruined their

livelihood. The carvers gravitated towards radical and anarchist groups to effect changes

in government policies. They participated in protests, sometimes violent, and many were

jailed and some were killed in violent outbreaks during these events. It became clear that

emigration was a good choice for survival, the upheaval in the industry was the necessary

emigration push they needed. The carvers traveled to many different European countries

to find work as well as Russia, South Africa and South America.35 Fortuitously, for the

stone carvers, it was during this same time that the granite industry was growing in Barre,

Vermont. Businesses there were in need of skilled stone carvers, and this was the

corresponding pull of immigration to the United States.

16

34 Randy Croce, Director, If Stone Could Speak: Se la Pietra Sapesse Parlare, 2007.

35 Ibid.

The first Italian carvers arrived at Barre, Vermont in the 1880s, brought by an

unnamed English entrepreneur. The granite industry was expanding in the USA and there

was a high demand for these artisans to work in the carving sheds and the newly arriving

skilled Italians were earning four times the money they were earning in Italy.36 The

number of people ‘native’ to Barre, before the Italians arrived, prior to the 1880’s, was

2,000, and it climbed to 12,000 by 1910. The chain of migration had begun, and as more

Italians settled in Vermont they encouraged friends and family to come. Italian

immigrants accounted for half of the town’s population in 1910. Of the 12,000 people

who lived in Barre, 4,500 of them were working in the granite industry. The granite that

was quarried, cut and carved in 1910 accounted for up to 30 percent of all national

production.37

The Italian families that came to Barre, Vermont were described at the time as not

of the class that comes from Italy by the thousands to make roadbeds and dig ditches, but

from the northern part of the country, skilled workmen, who have transferred their field

of labor from the marble of Italy to the granite of Vermont.38 Despite this recognition of

class difference within the working class, the stone carvers who came to Vermont were

not well received by the ‘native’ townspeople.

The Italians were consigned to living in the North end or, the rough end, of Barre

and were ostracized socially. The neighborhood was neglected by the municipality, the

17

36 Ibid.

37 Patrizia Audenino, "The Paths of the Trade: Italian Stonemasons in the United States," International Migration Review. Volume 20, Number 4. Special Issue: Temporary Worker Programs: Mechanisms, Conditions, Consequences (1986), 788.

38 A.W. Brayley, History of the Granite Industry of New England, Volume II. (Boston: E.L. Grimes Company, 1913), 36.

roads were unpaved and a sewage system nonexistent and they were not permitted into

the clubs and organizations created by the so-called native born and were excluded from

everyday social life.”39

Part of the reason for the animosity was that the carvers were earning $6 or more per

diem40 whereas the highest paid American employee in the quarries only earned $4.

The Barre Evening Telegram, a local paper concerned with the happenings within

Barre, confirmed that some of the Italians were anarchists. In articles from 1901, the

paper mentions that “...a young Italian man arrived in Barre...some Italian anarchists

believed he was a government spy.”41 Their political and social values would also come

to inspire ideas that would have a lasting effect on the granite industry in Barre, Vermont.

The stone carvers who immigrated into the United States were not a passive people who

blended into a homogeneous melting pot in America, nor were they a part of a salad bowl

being integrated with the many cultures in society. The stone carvers were a unique

group of people with different ideas about what their life was going to be in the United

States. Their radical way of thinking would soon be apparent.

The immigrants, being confined to the north end of town, often lived together in

the same homes, since housing was limited. The result of living together in such close

proximity, i.e. eating together and sleeping in the same rooms, helped bolster their

already tight bonds brought from Italy. They usually boarded with relatives or people

from the same Italian town, this class intimacy precluded sharp clashes of opinion. One

18

39 Patrizia Audenino, op. cit. 789.

40 (The Sunday Herald 1905)

41 Ibid.

unnamed stone carver commented that one can’t quarrel with the one who feeds him.42

The newly arrived Italians had to create and lay the framework for their own social

organizations and begin their own social life, networking, and systems of support if they

were to survive in Barre.

The first step in creating a community for these immigrants was to establish a

meeting place. In 1900 the Italian immigrants in Barre built the Socialist Labor Party

Hall.

“The building was constructed...by volunteers of the Italian community as a meeting hall for the Socialist Labor Party, a political group dedicated to social and labor reform...The Hall provided the [Italian] community with a place to meet, organize, and socialize. Dances, boxing and wrestling matches were held here.”43

The needs of the stone carvers and their families went beyond socializing and entertainment. A food cooperative was set up in the basement of the hall to provide for Italian stone carvers who were injured or sick and could not work, and also for the families of the stone carvers who died.”44

The Socialist Hall, in addition to serving a social networking, and food

cooperative function, also embodied the radical ideals and the strength of the working-

class movements in the United States. Socialists, anarchists, and union leaders, often

polar opposites, vigorously debated the future.45 There were many violent clashes

between the socialists and anarchists. One such meeting in 1903 resulted in the death of a

19

42 D.G. Valz, "The Diversity of Old Barre," The Times Argus, 16 November 1981.

43 Barre Historical Society, Central Vermont Socialist’s Labor Party Hall, http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/centralvermont/cv26.htm., accessed 19 May, 2009.

44 Anon., "Record of Meeting of the Co-operative Association of Consumption July 15, 1912,", Social Club No. 2/Co-operative Association of Consumption, Aldrich Public Library. (author’s translation).

45 No Author or title, The Sunday Herald, 1905.

locally famous Italian sculptor and stone carver named Leo Corti who was shot in the

stomach the by a man identified only as Garetto. “The wound was like [President]

McKinley’s”46 a not-so-subtle reminder that McKinley had been assassinated by an

anarchist’s bullet in September of 1901 just two years earlier. The perceived anarchist

threat lingered in Vermont as is witnessed by President Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to

Barre while on the campaign trail in 1905. One of his scheduled stops was Barre which

was known to have a large population of anarchists. There was concern for the

president’s life in Vermont and the President was surrounded by secret service to protect

him from the anarchists.47 The Barre Italian Anarchist group was one of the earliest in

New England, its members were stone and marble cutters from Carrara and other

northern Italian towns, who had transplanted their way of life to the United States.48

Italian immigrant women played important roles in the formation and sustaining

of these and other oppositional communities in the early decades of their immigration.

Contrary to popular impression, observes Nunzio Pernicone, there were a considerable

number of women in the radical movement49

The Italian anarchists of Barre began to spread to other areas of North America as

is witnessed by an anarchist who was arrested Quebec on suspicion of a plot against the

20

46 Mari Tomasi, Roaldus Richmond, Men Against Granite, eds. Alfred Rosa, Mark Wanner. (Shelburne: The New England Press, Inc. 2004), 58.

47 The Sunday Herald 1905.

48 Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 49.

49 Nunzio Pernicone, “War among the Italian Anarchists: The Galleanisti’s Campaign against Carlo Tresca” in Philip V. Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, eds., The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture. (Westport: Praeger, 2003), pp 77-97.

Duke of Cornwall and York from Barre, Vermont he was an Italian giving the name of

Joseph Albert Valenti.50

The Italian stone carvers of Barre were not trusted by their new government and

they were not accepted by their neighbors, but those concerns paled by comparison to the

other potential source of danger they faced. Silicosis was taking the lives of men who

were as young as 28 after only a few years of working in the sheds. Other stone carvers,

if they were fortunate could reach the age of 50 before the disease destroyed their

bodies.51 Silicosis, or stone carvers tuberculosis, became their most daunting enemy.52

Marble, on the other hand, is a metamorphic rock made mostly of calcite crystals53 and

lacking the harmful silica. Marble is formed as the result of changes that occurred to

limestone when it was subjected to heat and pressure over eons. The marble carving

‘sheds’ in Italy in the 19th century were all outdoors, with just a roof to protect the

carvers from the rain.54 The dust that the carvers in Italy were subjected to was minimal

and marble dust did not cause silicosis. This disease was something new to the Italian

carvers.

21

50 No author, No title, Barre Evening Telegram September 18, 1901.

51 Randy Croce, op. cit.

52 Silicosis is a disease of the lungs caused by inhalation of silica dust. Silica was dispersed in the air and inhaled by stone carvers. Silica in the lungs results in the formation of lesions which become fibrous tissue. Difficulty breathing, coughing, chest pain and a tendency to develop tuberculosis or pneumonia are the symptoms. The stone carvers worked in enclosed sheds year round, due to the demand for their work, in a constant cloud of dust. Later pneumatic tools were employed in the sheds which only worsened the problem. There was, and is, no cure and doctors can only manage the symptoms.

53 The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (May 22, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-metamorpsm.htm.54 Barbara Valsuani Scuola Arco Arte director, interview held during visit to the Scuola Arco Arte, Colonnata, Italy, April 2009. (author’s translation).

David Ambrosini arrived in Vermont from Italy in 1901 at the age of 19 and after

9 years of working as a carver in one of those enclosed sheds, contracted silicosis and

died when he was 28. Those who had the disease were either cared for at a nearby

sanatorium55 or the victims were cared for at home.56 According to Barre historian Mario

Barberi, the stone carvers were so terrified by the disease that many of the carvers took

their own lives to avoid the later stages.57

The stone carvers were, naturally, very concerned about the rise in deaths

of this tuberculosis related disease in Barre even though there was a general decline in the

United States of deaths from tuberculosis. The death rate from silicosis had been

approximately 40 people per 10,000 throughout most of the 19th century and by the turn

of the century it had significantly dropped to 18. Interestingly in the state of Vermont it

was only 9 per 10,000 but in Barre the rate was over 23.58 Silicosis had become the

leading cause of death in Barre amongst stone carvers, as a matter of fact 73 percent of

granite workers died from silicosis, one street in Barre was called La strada delle vedove

or the street of widows.59

The threat to the Italians lives did not end there, not only were the workers

suffering and dying from silicosis, but their families had an extraordinarily high rate of

22

55 Randy Croce. op. cit.

56 Aldrich Public Library Archives. Barre History, Tape histories (General) by Andy Sacher 1967 interviewing Adelina Frattini Ciace, daughter of stone carver.

57 Mario Barberi, Barre Historian, immigrant stone carver’s grandson, interview in the Randy Croce film op. cit.

58 David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Occupational Disease in Twentieth-Century America, (Princeton: Princeton University Press July 25, 1994), 37-38.

59 Vermont Historical Society, Freedom and Unity. 2006. (May 24, 2009). http://www.vermonthistory.org/freedom_and_unity/create_image/unrest.html.

tuberculosis.60 The carvers were dying from the disease and they were bringing it home

to their families.

To improve working conditions that would include dust collecting devices in the

carving sheds and increase wages and benefits the Barre granite workers went on strike in

1915 and 192261 The labor movement in Barre received little or no support from the

leaders of local, state, or federal government, who viewed labor unions as subversive and

radical and supporters were usually tagged by industry and local press as un-American

and under foreign influence, this sentiment stirred up the already strong anti-immigrant

feeling held by many native Vermonters.62 Regardless of the anti-immigrant rhetoric in

Barre the Italian carvers’ heritage and radical background gave them all the tools to take

action and their militancy led to strike activity that mobilized the workers and maintained

their solidarity63 It was bolstered by the writing of Luigi Galleani who was considered

the quintessential anarchist leader in their own anarchist newspaper the incendiary

weekly, Cronica Sovversiva, which despite its limited circulation had an influence

wherever Italian anarchists congregated, was published in Barre.64

Unfortunately the initial strikes of 1915 and 1922 did not have the desired

outcome for the stone carvers and it was not until years later in the strikes of 1933 and

23

60 David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, op. cit., 36.

61 Vermont Historical Society. op. cit.

62 Ibid.

63 Philip V. Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, op. cit.,15.

64 Nunzio Pernicone, op. cit. 79.

1938 that the air handlers were installed in the sheds. After that time the death rate from

silicosis plummeted to zero percent.65

Thus, leaving Italy for the United States was a mixed blessing for the stone

carvers. Despite all the obstacles many were able to adapt and settle in America, but

approximately 25-60 per cent of European immigrants returned to their homeland

permanently.66 There are still descendants of the original carvers’ families living in Barre

today.67

24

65 Randy Croce. op. cit.

66 John Bodnar, The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987), 53.

67 White Pages Barre Vermont, Eileen Corti, M47 Barre, VT and Amanda Sassi, PO Box 36 Barre, VT. http://www.whitepages.com/white-pages/Barre-VT/.

CHAPTER IV

NEW YORK CITY

There were Italian stone carvers who did not go to Barre during this period but

instead settled in New York City, their story was quite different. The focus of this paper

will be on the experiences of the individual Italian stone carvers in New York who

worked in various locations in and around the city.

The stone carvers that settled in New York tended to be private contractors rather

than employees like the immigrant Italians who worked in Barre, because of this reason it

is easier to follow the particular experiences of some individual carvers and their

families. They considered themselves sculptors, which they were, having earned degrees

in fine arts after five years of study in Italian academies such as The Academies of Fine

arts in Carrara and Rome learning sculpting. However, to support themselves and their

families while they were establishing themselves in the United States, they carved for

others.

The stone carvers were associated with many wealthy families, politicians and

architects such as Sanford White68 and Henry Bacon, who wanted their homes and office

buildings decorated with carved stone. Other staples of the stone carver’s work were the

25

68 Josef Vincent Lombardo, Piccirilli: Life of an American Sculptor. (New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1944), 115.

carving of elaborate cemetery monuments, statues, busts, and bas-reliefs for both the

private and public sector. An important aspect of their craft was working for churches,

carving statues and other architectural features.

In the social sphere these carvers were subjected to some degree of non-

acceptance by New Yorkers. On certain documents the stone carving family of Giuseppe

and Barbara Piccirilli referred to themselves as Joseph and Barbera Percy,69 Masaniello,

one of their sons, was called Tom70 and another son, Orazio, was called Horatio. These

could have possibly been attempts at Americanizing their names, a fairly common

practice among immigrants trying to shed their ethnicity. They apparently did not meet

with the same kind of systemic strong anti-immigrant prejudice held by many native

Vermonters.71 Perhaps New Yorkers were more accustomed to immigration.

Two families of stone carvers that settled in New York City were the Piccirillis

and the Ardolinos. Both members of families sculpted major works in the City and in

other parts of the country. The Piccirillis and the Ardolinos achieved a great deal of

success, receiving many lucrative commissions, both private and public. They came to

own homes and studios and garnered the respect of the art community in the United

States in their first generation in this country. This section will focus on the

socioeconomic impact on these two Italian immigrant families and how they coped with

26

69 United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.

70 United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C. 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

71 Vermont Historical Society. op. cit.

the transition to the United States and their affect on New York and the world of

sculpture.

The dealings of the Piccirilli brothers and the Ardolino brothers and cousins were

with the upper echelon of society, families like the Rockefellers72, Enrico Caruso and,

Fiorello LaGuardia in the city including the famous American sculptors of the time such

as John Angel, Daniel Chester French, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens73 who called upon

the Italians to carve into stone what they had modeled from clay or had another artist cast

in plaster.

THE PICCIRILLIS

Giuseppe Piccirilli (1844-1910), a sculptor’s apprentice, left his home in Rome in

1860 at the age of 16 filled with patriotic ambition to fight alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi

in a campaign for the unification of Italy. He heard that Garibaldi was gathering forces in

northern Italy. Giuseppe arrived in Florence but was rejected because of his age. He

learned through word of mouth that there was another army amassing forces in nearby

Massa Carrara. He made his way there where the commander allowed him to enlist, and

he began his basic training. There was little room for newcomers and Giuseppe was

assigned sleeping quarters in a local hotel. He spent his days in training and nights at the

hotel where he met and fell in love with the proprietor’s daughter, Barbara Giorgi.

When he returned from the fighting in 1863 he married Barbara and opened a

small sculpting studio in Carrara. Giuseppe and Barbara had seven children between

27

72 Josef Vincent Lombardo, op. cit., 259.

73 Josef Vincent Lombardo, op. cit., 57.

1864 and 1885; Ferruccio, Attilio, Furio, Masaniello, Orazio, Getulio, and Iole, the only

girl in 1885.

By 1873 Giuseppe was doing quite well and had amassed a small fortune, the

Piccirilli’s were thriving, but due to some bad investments this fortune dwindled and they

were left almost penniless. They struggled to get by, Giuseppe was still working in his

studio he did not make very much money. At a very young age Attilio took an interest in

sculpting “and although the family’s finances were not substantial and its income

unpredictable, his father decided to send his son to study at the famous Accademia di

Belle Arti, in Rome at the age of fourteen.”74 After five years of study at the academy he

returned to Carrara only to discover, not surprisingly, that it was difficult to find work.

Attilio, along with all of his brothers, lingered for a few years in Carrara doing what little

sculpting work they could find. Through networks of friends and relatives the brothers

heard that sculpting work could be found in various locations, both in Europe and in other

parts of the world. In 1887 Ferruccio went to Egypt on a business venture set up by his

father, which had negative results. He returned to Carrara, he and Attilio then went to

England to work in a large sculptural firm by the name of Farmer and Brindley, and Furio

went to Scotland to do sculpting on the estate of a rich landowner named John

McNiesh.75

None of the Piccirilli brothers’ ventures abroad were successful for very long;

certainly not worth sending for their family to join them. Eventually through varying

28

74 Josef Vincent Lombardo, op. cit., 270.

75 Josef Vincent Lombardo, op. cit., 285.

circumstances the brothers made their way to the United States in 1888.76 Their parents

and sister followed later that year. The original family home was an apartment in

Manhattan on East 56th Street; life was difficult for the family. To pay rent and eat, they

slowly sold off all the valuable things they owned which consisted mostly of jewelry.

They occasionally earned money working as freelance stone carvers on various jobs.

Furio and Ferruccio, at one point worked as laborers in a terra cotta factory in Perth

Amboy, New Jersey.

A break came for the Piccirilli family a year after their arrival in New York.

Giuseppe received a commission from Adler’s Monument & Granite Works to carve a

gravestone/statue for the family of a deceased young woman. Giuseppe first modeled the

statue and then, with the aid of Attilio and Massaniello, carved it from granite at Adler’s

studio on 57th street. “Samuel Adler was so...impressed by the fine artistry of the

Piccirillis that he employed them...to carve angels,...busts, lions, medallions, plaques, and

architectural decorations.”77 The wages they received from this association were able to

put food on their table and pay the rent. It would seem that the Piccirilli family was

finally achieving success. However, this was not the type of work they wanted and it did

not give them financial stability.

In 1895 the Piccirilli’s made a bad business choice, they received a sculpting

commission at the University of Virginia which never materialized because the contractor

who employed them went bankrupt. The commission was cancelled and, having bought

29

76 U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995, Southern District of New York, District and Circuit Court, 7 Jul 1899.

77 Josef Vincent Lombardo, op. cit.,52.

the marble from Carrara with their combined life savings the family was now in

tremendous amount of debt. By this time they had moved to the Mott Haven section of

the Bronx on the advise of their mother’ doctor who thought that the country air of the

then bucolic Bronx would be good for her declining health. Next to this house they

rented property and built two massive studios.

Giuseppe and Barbara Piccirilli returned to Italy for health reasons and they both

passed away in Italy in 1910 leaving Attilio as the patriarch of the family. He, along with

his brothers, submitted many proposals and were successful at procuring a large number

of commissions, the most important and prominent one was in New York City. In 1912

Attilio Piccirilli submitted a maquette to the Maine Monument Committee and it was

accepted.78 The USS Maine memorial commission was the turning point in the careers of

the Piccirillis, especially Attilio. He was finally a sculptor in his own right, not a carver

for someone else’s creation. The sculpting of the Maine Monument at the entrance to

Central Park on Columbus Circle gave the Piccirillis the prominence they needed. In

New York City and the art world and they obtained many more very lucrative

commissions, indeed “...in 1924 court papers...[it was] stated that the firm’s gross income

in 1923 was $84,213.79

30

78 An organization that came into existence to commemorate the USS Maine which sank in Havana Harbor in 1898 after an explosion, resulting in the deaths of 266 Americans and precipitated the Spanish American War.

79 The New York Times October 17th, 1999.

All the brothers, working in unison and independently were responsible for many

major commissions for sculptures and bas-reliefs in New York City, throughout the

country, and the world.80

Through different sets of circumstances regarding the tragic failing health and

eventual deaths of children and spouses, Ferruccio and Furio, naturalized American

citizens,81 returned to Italy, in Pietrasanta, just outside of Carrara to live out their days at

the Piccirilli estate. The rest of the family; Attilio, Getulio, Masaniello, Orazio, and Iole

remained in the United States, married and had children except for Attilio, who married

late in life, had no children and was later divorced. They remained sculptors until at least

the time when Attilio passed on in 1945 at 79 years of age and was buried in the family

plot in Woodlawn cemetery in the Bronx. After Attilio died the family home and studio

were demolished along with any records they may have kept. Their children moved away

from New York and the Piccirilli name appears in various census roles82.

31

80 MacDonough Memorial, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1898Indian Literature and Indian Law Giver, facade of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY 1909.Maine Memorial,Columbus Circle, New York, 1913.Firemen’s Memorial, Riverside Drive, New York City, 1913.North pediment Wisconsin State Capital, Madison, Wisconsin,1915.Mothers' War Memorial, Albany, New York, 1923.James Monroe Statue, Ash Lawn,Albemarle County, VirginiaThomas Jefferson Bust in Rotunda of the Virginia State Capital, Capital Square, Richmond, Virgina, 1931.James Monroe Bust in Rotunda of Virginia State Capital, Capital Square, Richmond Virginia, 1931Joy of Life (Young Faun),Governor’s Mansion, Capital Square, Richmond, Virginia, 1931.Eternal Youth and Youth Leading Industry,Rockefeller Center, New York City, 1935.Present Day Postman, Post Office Building, Washington, DC, 1936Gugliemo Marconi Memorial, Washington, DC, 1941.

81 United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1910. T624, 1,178 rolls.

82 United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

THE ARDOLINOS

Another family of Italian stone carvers who came to the United States during the

same period, were the Ardolinos; cousins, Eduardo and Rafael. The Italian sculptors

were self motivated by their love for the art, and self contained, having all the necessary

tools to carve marble, granite and a host of other stones, from start to finish. They

typically arrived at the work site complete with tools able to work long hours to complete

their assigned tasks.

Gail Deninger, a descendant of the Ardolino family and a cataloger for the

Connecticut State Library, while working on a project involving The Cathedral of Saint

John the Divine located in New York City, wrote a letter with some questions to the

archivist at The Cathedral, Wayne Kempton. In the letter she wrote she wanted to verify

that her great-grandfather was a sculptor who worked on the Cathedral while it was being

built. His name was Rafael Ardolino and his oldest son Arthur Ardolino worked with him

on the project. Rafael also worked with his first cousins who had a company which she

called Ardolino Brothers Inc., Sculptors, in New York.83 Wayne Kempton refers to the

sculptor’s company as Edward Ardolino Inc. It is clear the Ardolinos were responsible

for carving stone in the cathedral from clerk-of-work reports. These reports had been

written since the building of the Cathedral began in 1898, documenting the daily progress

of the building of the Cathedral, M. Fernald an inspector, wrote how when a particularly

bad snowstorm in New York had subsided it allowed the carvers to finish carving, and he

32

83 Gail Deninger, 30 May, 2003, personal email forwarded to author 15 October, 2008.

continued that Ardolino had two men carving.84 Another clerk, A.C. Ferreald, reported in

1932 that Mr. Ardolino had carved the last of the Ross statues for the buttress Niches of

the North tower.85 These reports also indicate the American sculptors they worked with,

such as in the notation in the same entry that Ardolino’s men were working on three more

statues for a portal, from models by Mr. Angel.

There were other prominent New York City sculptures for which Rafael was

directly responsible as Wayne Kempton points out, Ralph Ardolino, who died in Jan.

1937 was the one who did the altar at Saint Thomas on 5th Avenue and 53rd street. 86

Gail Deninger concurs with this in an email writing, that she knew he carved the reredos

and the altar at Saint Thomas.87 There is often confusion about which sculptor worked on

a particular project because they were not employed by the architect but rather hired by a

smaller general contractor for which there are few, if any, records existing. Add that to

the fact that the sculptors, aside from possibly leaving their enigmatic mark on the work,

did not sign them. In the case of the Ardolinos whose names were typically not recorded,

the next available sources are the surviving family’s oral history through interviews,

family tree, newspaper obituaries, letters and unpublished memoirs.

33

84 Fernald (sp), “Clerk of Work Reports, 1 December, 1928.” Archive of Saint John the Divine, New York, New York.

85 Fernald (sp), op. cit.

86 Wayne Kempton, personal email forwarded to author, 5 June, 2003.

87 Gail Deninger, personal email, 30 May, 2003, forwarded to author 17 June, 2008.

Rafael Ardolino was born between 186988 and 187089 and emigrated to the United

States in 1888. His father was a stone carver before him and Rafael apprenticed under

him in Torre le Nocelle, Campania, Italy. He later studied at a fine arts academy in

Florence.90 Rafael was a multitalented man who by the time he was 18 years old had

mastered the art of sculpting and was adept at every phase of working in stone, including

learning the blacksmith’s trade, as many carvers did, to be able to forge, repair and

sharpen their own tools.

Rafael arrived in Boston and originally lived in Quincy, Massachusetts with his

cousins who owned the carving firm, Ardolino Brothers there. Towards the end of the

19th century the firm moved to New York City where they located on Fifth Avenue and

eventually moved to 261 Broadway.91 Rafael and his family did not go with them instead

during World War I Rafael and his family moved from Boston to Tampa, Florida to live.

Rafael went into the monument business there with a partner.92

While he was in Florida, apart from monument carving with his partner, he also

executed several sculpting commissions on his own. Business in Florida was not enough

to keep him there. Angela Iamello thought it was possible that there was some anti

Italian sentiment down south that contributed to his moving to Brooklyn in 1918.93

Although Rafael worked extensively for Edward Ardolino Inc. he again had commissions

34

88 Gail Deninger, personal email to author, 24 October, 2008.

89 Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920., 1920. T625, 2,076 rolls.

90 Gail Deninger, op. cit.

91 Wayne Kempton, personal email, 5 June 2003, forwarded to author 17 June, 2008.

92 Carl E. Ardolino, Biography of a Family, unpublished paper in Angela Iamello’s files, March, 1998., 1.

93 Angela Iamello, granddaughter of Rafael Ardolino, interview held 4 June 2009.

of his own as a freelance sculptor. He traveled to worksites throughout the country but

always returned to the brownstone he owned 240 Bergen Street in Brooklyn New York.94

In 1926 Rafael took his family to a resort area in Long Branch, New Jersey.95

While driving through the area he noticed many cemeteries and several monument

studios out of business. He thought there was a need for monument carvers. All his sons

were apprentice carvers and he moved his family there and bought an old run down

monument shop and after some refurbishing raised the sign on the building calling it the

Long Branch Monument Company, in 1928. Unfortunately he never was able to see the

business grow; Rafael became ill and moved back to his home in Brooklyn where he died

in 1937.

His sons successfully ran the business after his death, renamed, Long Branch

Monument Company: R. Ardolino and Sons Inc. The Ardolino sons, in 1980 were all in

their seventies and they closed the doors to their shop, selling it to another company that

still bears their name. The family is still involved in a limited capacity, in the art of

carving in stone. The last remaining Ardolino working in Long Branch is Richard, he

carves letters in cemetery monuments,96 he is Gail Deninger’s cousin.

35

94 Ibid.

95 Carl E. Ardolino, Biography of a Family, unpublished paper, March, 1998., 2.

96 Angela Iamello. op. cit.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

Scholars approach immigration from various perspectives. In the field of

immigration research there are basically two approaches to the study of immigration. One

of these approaches is to research on a large scale, grouping immigrants homogeneously

into continent of origin, time periods and world events and studying the immigrants, their

destinations, the time frames of their migration, and numbers of people who migrate.

These historians rely heavily on government statistics and previous authors’ work to

formulate their conclusions.

Another approach to the study of immigration focuses on groups such as the work

done by Virginia Yans-McLaughlin in Family and Community: Italian Immigrants in

Buffalo, 1880-1930, (1971) or Stephen Puleo’s book, The Boston Italians: a Story of

Pride, Perseverance, and Paesani, from the Years of the Great Immigration to the Present

Day, (2007). These groups can vary widely; family groups97, religious groups98, political

groups99, gender groups100 or groups with a certain skill set such as Sicilian women

36

97 Virginia Yans-McLaughlin, Family and Community: Italian Immigrants in Buffalo 1880-1930 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1982),18.

98 Richard Alba, Albert J. Rabateau and Josh DeWind, Immigration and Religion in America: Comparative and Historical Perspectives (New York: NYU Press (December 1, 2008), 3.

99 Donna R. Gabaccia and Fraser M. Ottanelli Eds., article by Mirta Zaida Lobato, op. cit., 63.

100 Susan Migden Socolow, The Women of Colonial Latin America: New Approaches to the Americas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press May 18, 2000), 52.

”fishing-people”101 in Monterey or Italian stonecarvers brought to Mount Rushmore to

sculpt.102 They inhabited micro-locations in the new country like the North end of

Boston, the Lower East Side in Manhattan, a small quarry neighborhood in Barre

Vermont, or a Monterey fishing village in California. One of the aims of both of these

areas of study is to focus the process of assimilation, or lack of, into the new country or

community. Authors have been writing in the these two styles alternately over the last 30

years.

Patrizia Audenino states that “...the emigrants of Valle Cervo [Northern Italy]

have maintained a tradition of emigration based upon their work in stone masonry and

cutting. Since the end of the sixteenth century, every spring, the men of this valley have

left seeking seasonal employment in their work. The economic balance of the

community as a whole was based on the exportation of male while the development of

the land and livestock was worked by women; land however is scarce in the region and

what is available is of poor quality. Consequently, emigration comprised the principal

support for the community. Incapable of providing for the whole population, farming

was nonetheless essential for the survival of those who remained when the men left.”103

She gives a detailed picture or a microcosm of not only a country but of a people with a

certain skill set and a particular set of circumstances both at the familial level and the

geographic level. Audenino continues to research and focuses on the minutia of the

37

101 Carol Lynn McKibben, Beyond Cannery Row: Sicilian Women, Immigration, and Community in Monterey California 1915-99 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006), 1.

102 Rex Alan Smith, op. cit., 67.

103 Audenino, Patrizia. “The Paths of the Trade: Italian Stonemasons in the United States.” International Migration Review Volume 20 (1986): 799.

pushes and pulls of immigration when she submits that, “Migration overseas began in the

nineteenth century. The building of the large infrastructures required by the second

industrial revolution raised the demand for skilled labor offered by the men of Valle

Cervo. The men of the valley could offer the right skills for the enterprises...” [They]

emigrated in small groups of siblings formed on the basis of trade a well as kinship.

Sharing the same skills, they worked together and, when divided, maintained contacts for

future contracts.”104 Her emphasis is on the details of this particular region of Italy, the

families, the particular skill set that the people brought with them, and the unique reasons

why they migrated.

John Bodnar takes an alternate approach to his study of immigration. John

Bodnar submits as an explanation for the direction his book takes that, ”...this work seeks

to focus on the common experience of confronting capitalism and...it attempts to

synthesize the entire immigrant encounter with urban-industrial America...”105 John

Bodnar further makes his point by postulating, “The need is now to move beyond the

restricted field of vision offered by studying one or more ethnic groups.”106 Bodnar uses

wide-reaching areas to describe immigration from many countries at once. He writes

that, “... the very first emigrants from Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary and elsewhere

were often displaced craftsmen and artisans who were smaller in numbers but significant

in establishing patterns of movement that many of their rural countrymen would

38

104 Ibid.., 780.

105 John Bodnar, op. cit., xvi.

106 Ibid..

follow.”107 Although he mentions craftsmen and artisans he stays away from the

particular groups of people that Patrizia Audenino talks about and focuses on large

demographics instead. To emphasize even more the scope of his work he asserts that, “In

every time and place men and women must make some effort to adjust to the economic

realities which confront them”108 Bodnar does not seek to study single strands of

immigration.

Oscar Handlin, on the other hand, contends that he wants to, “...seize upon a

single strand woven into the fabric of our past, to understand that strand in its numerous

ties and linkages with the rest; and perhaps, by revealing the nature of this part, to throw

light on the essence of the whole.”109 Oscar Handlin believes that the way to

understanding the whole is by studying the sum of its parts. Oscar Handlin continues to

describe his methodology as not an uncommon way of confronting the individual

immigrant by stating, “I had written, as others have written, of the impact of the

immigrant upon the society which received him, of the effect upon political, social, and

economic institutions...”110 Oscar Handlin, although studying immigration on a micro

level, recognizes the fact that it is important to keep in mind the broader ideas of

immigration, he posits, “The arrival of a labor force that permitted the expansion of

industry without the pauperization of the native workers...the remarkable fluidity of a

social system in which each new group pushed upward the level of its predecessors -

39

107 Ibid., 30.

108 John Bodnar, op. cit., xvi.

109 Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations that made the American People (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973), 3.

110 Ibid.

these were the phenomena that gave immigration a prominent role in the development of

the United States.” He ultimately devotes most of his book to writing about the individual

but weaves the larger picture in as well when he explains the ultimate effects of

immigration on America when he offers, “immigration altered America. But it also

altered the immigrants. And it is the effect on the newcomers of their arduous

transplantation that I have tried to study.”111

Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale in their book on Italian immigration are among

those scholars who study immigration on a grand scale writing about nations and whole

ethnic groups, relying, in part, on quantitative statistics. They establish that, “

Demographers tell us that the great immigration began internally. From villages perched

on the mountaintops of Italy, people moved down to the plains, then to the cities by the

sea where they first heard of the New World. It was those living by the sea who began

the exodus of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, not long after Italy

became a nation. They were soon followed by the great mass of emigrants who lived in

the impoverished towns of the interior.”112 Giving a vast picture of immigration, using

demographers statistics, and sweeping events that brought immigrants first from the

seaside villages and then from the interior. Mangione and Morreale describe how a

people moved from one place to another rather than individuals. Mangione and Morreale

present the people not from the point of view of their skills, individual villages of origin

or family relationships but rather as a people when they point out that, “by 1910, Italians

40

111 Oscar Handlin, op. cit., 4.

112 Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale, La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992), xiv.

could be found in almost every nook and cranny of America-working in the textile mills

of New England, sharecropping in Bryan, Texas, onion farming in Canastota, New York,

mining and union organizing in Colorado, cow-poking in West Texas, and lumberjacking

in Seattle, Washington.”113 Mangione and Morreale forward that ”the great migration

began at a time when America was beset by bank failures, stock market crashes, panic,

and mass unemployment-a time without unions or any of the securities of the welfare

state”114 citing several nation-wide occurrences that were taking place when the Italians

arrived providing the reader with a nation-wide understanding of what was facing the

anonymous thousands of immigrants when they reached America. These immigrants

seemed to move towards complete assimilation in the dominant culture of the United

States.

Samuel L. Bailey advances his opinion about Mangione and Morreale’s

methodology in his book, “although U.S. scholars have written extensively about

migration to the United States for many years, in recent decades they have significantly

reconceptualized their understanding of the migration process...These scholars saw

uprooted and socially disorganized immigrants who were shunted from place to place by

the impersonal push and pull of demographic and economic conditions. Once migrants

arrived in the United States, according to these historians, they inevitably progressed

towards complete assimilation in the dominant host culture.”115 He maintains in his

approach that, “subsequent immigration historians...have substituted a pluralist model for

41

113 Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale, op. cit., xvi.

114 Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale, op. cit., 129.

115 Samuel L. Baily, Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New York City, 1870-1914 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999), 10.

the classic assimilationist model and have enlarged the spatial scope of their work to

include places of origin and...alternate destinations. These...historians see a more

complex, dynamic, and open ended process that began in the village of origin and

continued outward with migration.”116 Samuel L. Baily does not agree that immigrants

came to this country and simply assimilated into society. By studying the immigrants

separately as smaller units he suggests that “...some forms of ethnic identity were

maintained more intensely and longer...[and he] question[s] the adequacy of the

assimilationist model and [attempts] to reconceptualize the process of immigration along

the lines of a more pluralist model.”117 Bailey further suggests that “the diversity

of...migration suggests an issue that has increasingly interested migration historians---the

relationship of ethnicity to class and gender. Men and women, peasants, artisans and

professionals were among [those] who went abroad, and each of them experienced the

migration process somewhat differently.” He is writing micro and not macro. Another

example of Bailey’s belief that it is important that immigration should be a more focused

study rather than a worldwide study is that, “while the structural environment delineates

the general boundaries of the possible and the impossible within which people live, it is

the local level of their immediate surroundings that they make their decisions, define

purposes, and undertake actions.”118 Therefore it is the individual and the decisions he or

she makes that affect his life. Bailey also proposes through his research of immigrants in

New York that there is organization in the individual immigrants life which he or she

42

116 Ibid.

117 Samuel L. Baily, op. cit., 11.

118 Samuel L. Baily, op. cit., 12.

controls and that although “...the migrants are historical actors of varying class...identities

with meaningful ...parts in a global drama...[with] hardship...and suffering-but not, for the

most part, [having] social disorganization.”119 Bailey asserts that “...because of the

particular historical development of Italy, a greater number of those from the

economically more developed North were skilled and literate than were those from the

South”120 differentiating between the immigrants helping to give insight into immigration

trends. His information was gained through his close study of the immigrants and where

in Italy they came from and how it might effect where they settled and how they earned

wages.

Virginia Yans-McLaughlin contends that “ the older school of immigration

historians...assumed121 that family stability and consensus were the norm and that

immigration disrupted them”122 and after researching a small specific community of

Italian immigrants in Buffalo between 1880-1930 Yans-McLaughlin argues in fact that

“families gave emotional, practical, and financial support during the immigration crisis

and long after.”123 Yans-McLaughlin submits that in-depth close study of small groups is

the mode of research that is needed to get at the correct information. In her book she uses

statistical charts but reasons strongly against the “...inadequacy of quantitative evidence

alone...”124 “the form and availability of statistical evidence determine the kinds of

43

119 Samuel L. Baily, op. cit., 14.

120 Samuel L. Baily, op. cit., 66.

121 Author’s italics.

122 Virginia Yans-McLaughlin, op. cit., 21.

123 Ibid.

124 Ibid.

questions posed, and narrow the historian’s vision. It is not enough to know that Italian

families experienced low rates or illegitimacy, high population turnover, and significant

male unemployment. By themselves these facts give us a one dimensional view of Italian

immigrant life...The use of both quantitative and qualitative evidence permits an

understanding in which the subtle ways in which family, culture, and class can interact

and adapt, suggesting a wholeness of experience that one-dimensional quantification

cannot describe.”125 Yans-McLaughlin argues that “definitive statements on...qualities of

family life cannot be inferred solely from census data fixed on one point in time;

nonetheless this information, supported by other sources, can be used to hint at a possible

range of human experience”126 pointing out that she feels it is necessary to temper

statistical data with other sources to gain a better picture of immigration. McLaughlin

uses case studies like the Barone family and presents how “...Frank arrived with his wife

and children. Next came John, Michael, Louis, Thomas, two Josephs [etc.]...”127 with

information from “Mrs. Isabella Ianuzzi a relative, [who] identified the Buffalo Barones

as related kin from Valledolmo”128 in the form of an interview.

Timothy J. Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson contend that their “approach is

economic and unabashedly quantitative. [They] do not seek to undermine or reject the

microanalysis of historians but rather to build on this by examining the causes and the

consequences of mass migration at a more macro level. Only then it is possible to infer

44

125 Ibid.

126 Virginia Yans-McLaughlin, op. cit., 57.

127 Virginia Yans-McLaughlin, op. cit., 55.

128 Ibid.

historical lessons useful for contemporary debate.”129 Timothy J. Hatton and Jeffrey G.

Williamson reason that they “ provide fresh and in some cases different answers to the

questions that have long been deeply imbedded in the literature. Above all [they] attempt

restore to center stage the fundamental economic and demographic forces that pushed and

pulled the mass migrations as well as the economic and structural changes they

wrought.”130 They make considerable use of statistics when they report, “ ...statistics

suggest that the surge in Italian gross immigration around the turn of the century is

exaggerated.”131 Their methodology is to pose a question and then to “estimate a times

series model ...to explain emigration from northern Europe...[and] construct... indices of

economic activity based on deviations from per capita GDP trend.”132 Hatton and

Williamson manage the topic of migration from a global perspective in an effort to find

new answers.

Stephen Puleo, when looking for answers did an in-depth study of the Boston

North End Italians. Puleo puts forward the point that “...many elements of the Boston

experience were unique. Italian immigrant leaders like Donnaruma and Scigliano had a

greater proportional impact than their counterparts in other large cities thanks to the

relatively small footprint of Boston in general, and the Italian neighborhoods of East

Boston and the North End in particular.”133 Stephen Puleo writes about these individuals

45

129 Timothy J. Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson, The Age of Mass Migration: Causes and Economic Impact (New York: Oxford University Press 1998), 5.

130 Timothy J. Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson, op. cit., 6.

131 Timothy J. Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson, op. cit., 98.

132 Timothy J. Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson, op. cit., 103.

133 Stephen Puleo, The Boston Italians: A Story of Pride, Perseverance, and Paesani, from the Years of the Great Immigration to the Present Day (Boston: Beacon Press, 2007), XII.

who helped shape the North End such as “James Donnaruma...[who] used his

newspaper’s voice to help Italian Americans,...immigrants with little more than the

clothes on their backs and a flicker of hope in their hearts”134 and George Scigliano,

another immigrant, who was the “ chairman of a local vigilance committee”135 combatted

the infiltration of La Camora, a Sicilian criminal organization. Scigliano refused to

curtail his efforts to rid the North End of Italian immigrant criminals in an effort to

maintain a better quality of life for other Italian immigrants. Puleo’s book represents that

he “...[looked] at the Boston Italians within the broader context of the overall Italian

experience in America...” much the same as Yans-McLaughlin studied the immigrants in

Buffalo; on an individual basis.

To conclude, the immigration historians work from two different standpoints, to

research on a large scale, grouping immigrants homogeneously and studying the

immigrants, their destinations, the time frames of their migration, and numbers of people

who migrate and the pushes and pulls of migration. Another standpoint is to the study the

immigration of more focused groups according to different job skills brought with them

to the new country, the chain migration of family groups, political groups, gender groups,

and their particular locations in the new country. Both frames of reference are valid and

useful to historians. On the one hand it is important to know why they left and why they

went to a specific place, but on the other hand, the peculiarities of the individual groups

or the individuals opens up another area of history that is equally important. Determining

the different needs, experiences and reactions of a small community can help historians

46

134 Stephen Puleo, op. cit., XI.

135 Stephen Puleo, op. cit., 18.

work from the inside out, focusing on the individual and building outward from there to

understand the larger statistical information that is so important to other scholars and

therefore to better interpret what those statistics mean. The trend toward the study of a

reduced or restricted size of immigrant populations is an area that will grow, the larger

broad immigrant histories are in place and the detailing of those histories will shed new

insights onto it.

Despite scholarly efforts in the American understanding of immigration there is a

recurring theme of the tired, wretched and poor immigrants teeming to our shores to be

saved from starvation and tyranny. The other notion of the immigrant is that he or she is

ignorant, possessing no skills and everything they accomplish is somehow related to

being saved by the United States. It is imperialistic thought being applied to immigrants,

removing agency from the individuals who then become passive objects; civilizing the

savage. In the worst case scenario the immigrant has been assigned traits that go beyond

ignorance and having no skills. Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a Danish American writer

and social reformer writing during the time when the stone carvers were coming to this

country. He is known for helping the poor in New York City, however, in one of his

books he wrote about Italian immigrants as being “...not very tidy...elect[ing] to stay in

New York...and promptly reproduc[ing] conditions of destitution and disorder...”136 and if

the Italians do not move into a slum “...he soon reduces...[it] to his own level to follow

his natural bent.”137 Not very apropos words for a social reformer.

47

136 Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890), 48.

137 Ibid.

Thus these ideas about the Italian immigrant being at best ignorant and at worst

turning New York into a slum, or being some sort of underworld character have been the

archetypal view of the Italian in this country.

There is a need for more studies about these and other skilled, important

Italian immigrants and their impact on American society. The further the information

drifts into the past it will be all the more difficult to formulate who the real Italian

immigrant was. To emphasize the importance of doing this research now Cannistraro

included a poignant anecdote in the introduction to The Lost World of Italian American

Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture.

“On March 4, 1912, in the midst of the famous Bread and Roses strike

in Lawrence, Massachusetts...a young girl named Cammella Teoli,

daughter of Italian immigrant parents, sat before a congressional

committee in Washington D.C., testifying about working conditions in

the factories of Lawrence where she lived...sixty-four years later...a

reporter...was stunned to discover that Cammella’s daughter...knew

nothing about Cammella’s past.”138

This paper has attempted to offer the larger setting between the American sculptor

and the Italian carver. At the beginning of this paper Gutzon Borglum and Hugo Villa

had argued about the placement of Jefferson’s face on Mount Rushmore and Villa had

been proven right and Jefferson was moved to the left of the more conservative

Washington where he belonged. The two sculptors parted company briefly after that

48

138 Cannistraro, Meyer Eds., op. cit.,1.

incident but Borglum was not one to hold a grudge. Through the years he always spoke

highly of Villa and magnanimously forgave him for being right and they remained

friends.

The stone carvers broke the archetype. They were accomplished artisans before

they came to the United States, they were sought after by American architects and

sculptors to for their expertise. Italian carvers were still sought later in the 20th century

when in 1948 the granite carving industry in Vermont had a great need for carvers. The

first generation of carvers had died and the generations after that were reluctant to go into

the industry for fear of contracting silicosis. Immigration from Italy had reached its

quota in the United States which prevented the Vermont granite companies from hiring

Italians as they had done in the 19th century. Congress passed a special waiver allowing

carvers to come to Vermont from Italy to mentor American born carvers and rejuvenate

the industry.139 The Italian stone carvers were an educated, political, cultured, and

organized caring community of people; a valuable part of the American community.

They performed the tasks other Americans could not. They earned more than many

‘native’ Americans, owned cars, houses and businesses. These people must be included in

the history among those who immigrated into the United States.

49

139 Angelo Bardelli, Italian born stone carver emigrated from Gazzada, Lombardia in 1948, interview in the Randy Croce film op. cit.

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56