Italian American Heritage Month

October is Italian American Heritage Month. This is the time to recognize the experiences and contributions of Americans of Italian heritage. Starting in 1980 the United States Congress designated October 12th through 19th as Italian American Heritage week, and it was upgraded to a month in 1989.

2016 US Census Bureau estimate of Americans with Italian ancestry in the lower 48 states.
Created by Joshua Wallace with tools from the American Fact Finder website.

The US Census Bureau estimates that there are 16,896,518 Americans of Italian ancestry as of 2016. That's about 5% of the total population. The high point of Italian immigration to the United States was in the early 20th century. A little over 3 million Italians immigrated to the US from 1900 to 1914 (Iorizzo and Mondello 285).

Timeline of Italian-American History 
Click on the links below to find library resources on each topic. 

1492-1493 - Christopher Columbus, native of Genoa, discovered the New World and began the colonization of Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands on behalf of Spain.
The Log of Christopher Columbus by Christopher Columbus

1499-1503 - Amerigo Vespucci, native of Florence, led multiple expeditions to the Americas on behalf of Spain and Portugal. He is credited with deducing that the lands discovered by Columbus were previously unknown continents and not islands off the coast of Asia. A German mapmaker in 1507 named this new world "America" in his honor.
Amerigo and the New World by Germán Arciniegas

1524 - Giovanni Verrazzano, native of Florence, explored the east coast of North America on behalf of France.
The European Discovery of America by Samuel Eliot Morison

1678 - Henri de Tonti, native of Gaeta, explored the Mississippi River on behalf France under the command of Robert de la Salle. He spent the rest of his life in French Louisiana.
On the Discovery of the Mississippi by Thomas Falconer

1778 - Francis Vigo, native of Mondovi and fur trader living in Spanish Louisiana, supported American independence and provided money, supplies, and information to aid the cause. He became a US citizen in 1783 and spent the rest of his life in America.
The Conquest of the Illinois by George Rogers Clark

The Frieze of American History in the United States Capitol Rotunda.
By Farragutful (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

1860 - Antonio Meucci, Italian immigrant living in New York, developed the first working telephone but he never obtained a patent for it. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented his phone and the rest is history.
"Antonio Meucci: Telephone Pioneer" in Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society by Basilio Catania

1877 - Constantino Brumidi (known as the "Michelangelo of the United States Capitol") began work on the Frieze of American History in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol.
Art in the United States Capitol by Architect of the Capitol

1880 - Il Progresso Italo-Americano became the first Italian language daily newspaper in the United States.

1880-1924 - Escaping extreme poverty, over 4 million Italians immigrated to the US.
The Italian Emigration of our Times by Robert F. Foerster

1887 - Francis B. Spinola, from New York, was the first Italian-American to serve in the US Congress.

1891 - An angry mob attacked a jail in New Orleans and lynched 11 Italian immigrants being held there.
"The Lynching of Sicilian Immigrants in the American South, 1886-1910" in American Nineteenth Century History by Clive Webb.

Italian immigrants faced discrimination in the US. This cartoon was printed in a New Orleans' newspaper in 1888.
By No signature seen on cartoon [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1906 - Charles J. Bonaparte was first Italian American to serve on the US Cabinet.

1913 - Rudolph Valentino immigrated to the US. He became a major film star in the silent movie era.
Idols of Modernity: Movie Stars of the 1920s by Patrice Petro

1924 - National Origins Act severely limited Italian immigration to the United States.

1941 - Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees baseball player, sets 56 game hitting streak record.
Joe DiMaggio: the Hero's Life by Richard Ben Cramer
Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in Baseball by Lawrence Baldassaro

1942 - Charles Poletti, of New York, became the first Italian American governor of a US state.

1943 - Frank Sinatra began his solo singing career.
Sinatra's Century: One Hundred Notes on the Man and his World by David Lehman
The Frank Sinatra Show with Bing Crosby, Dean Martin

1945 - John Basilone became the only enlisted Marine to receive both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross in World War II.

1950 - John O. Pastore, of Rhode Island, became the first Italian American to serve in the US Senate.

1956 - Rocky Marciano, heavyweight boxing champion, retired undefeated.

1966 - Jack Valenti, of Texas, began his tenure as the longest serving president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which ended in 2004.

1986 - Antonin Scalia became the first Italian American to serve on the Supreme Court.
A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law by Antonin Scalia & Amy Gutmann

2007 - Nancy Pelosi, of California, became the first Italian American to serve as Speaker of the House.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics by Ronald M. Peters & Cindy Simon Rosenthal

President Reagan and Antonin Scalia meet in Oval Office, 1986.
By Bill Fitz-Patrick, White House Photographer - http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/supreme.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9387478

Tarleton State University's Dick Smith Library has a wealth of resources on the Italian American experience. Such as these titles:
Imagining Italians: the Clash of Romance and Race in American Perceptions, 1880-1910 by Joseph P. Cosco
Italian Americans: the History and Culture of a People by Eric Martone
The Italian Texans by University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio
New Italian Migrations to the United States ed. by Laura E. Ruberto
A New Language, a New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945 by Nancy C. Carnevale

If you need assistance finding resources on this, or any other topic, then please contact us at 254-968-9249 or reference@tarleton.edu.

Works Cited 

Iorizzo, Luciano J. and Salvatore Mondello. The Italian Americans. Twayne Publishers, 1980.