History Center and Partners Awarded National Grant to Support Italian American Research

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Senator John Heinz History Center and its partners at the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University to support and grow the Italian Diaspora Archive Resource Map (IDARM) project, which catalogues archival materials that document the Italian American experience in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.

The grant is one of 33 new NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grants that will help preserve and expand public access to important historical records and humanities collections at archives, libraries, and museums across the country.

IDARM is the first archival project of its kind in the fields of Italian American and Italian Diaspora studies. This project identifies, catalogues, and maps archival materials relating to the Italian diaspora in this region to make them more accessible to students, researchers, and the public throughout the world. The NEH grant will pave the way for the creation of a digital map where the institutions’ information (including representative samples of digitized materials) may be easily viewed and their resources aggregated. 

“We are grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for supporting this important project,” said Melissa E. Marinaro, director of the Heinz History Center’s Italian American Program. “IDARM has the potential to re-center the field and open the door for a more nuanced understanding of the Italian American experience and the incredible material culture in our region.”

Marinaro’s partners in the IDARM initiative and co-grantees are Nancy A. Caronia, Associate Teaching Professor at West Virginia University, and Lina Insana, Associate Professor of Italian at the University of Pittsburgh.

Founded in 1990, the History Center’s Italian American Program is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history and culture of Italian Americans in Western Pennsylvania through exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and community outreach. The Italian American Collection is one of the largest repositories of Italian American artifacts, photographs, oral histories, and archival materials in the United States. 

For over three decades, it has documented the pivotal role Italian Americans play in shaping the region’s political, economic, religious, and cultural landscapes.