History Lessons To Go
Three Traveling Exhibits About the Italian American Experience Offer a Lesson for Us All

By Dr. Peter Vellon




Perusing the guest book that accompanies the display of the Italian American Museum’s traveling exhibit, Prisoners in Our Own Home: The Italian American Experience as America’s Enemy Aliens, one finds a wide array of reactions and emotions. One visitor noted, “this was a good learning experience…it made me think about maybe taking an Italian culture class in college.” Another stated, “It filled a vacuum in general knowledge.” “Wow,” exclaimed another patron, “this important and powerful exhibit not only tells a fascinating story but is so RELEVANT today-a lesson for us all.”
The exhibit recounts the ordeal faced by some 600,000 Italian American “enemy aliens” during World War II and is one of three traveling exhibitions available to public and private organizations, schools and other forums, under the direction of the Italian American Museum. Along with Prisoners in Our Own Home, curated by Dr. Peter Vellon, the Museum boasts Evviva La Madonna Nera! Italian American Devotion to the Black Madonna, curated by Dr. Joseph Sciorra, and Angelo Spinelli: Behind the Barbed Wire, curated by Ms. Concetta Macchia.
The three traveling exhibits offer keen historical analyses, eye-catching visuals, and practical portability and assembly. Consisting of 12 lightweight panels, roughly three feet wide by six feet tall, Prisoners in Our Own Home documents the fear, uncertainty and suffering of Italian Americans who were not citizens and designated by the United States government as “enemy aliens” during World War II. Through scanned photographs, original documents, oral history and text, the exhibit examines the harrowing experience of East Coast Italian Americans and comments on the contemporary impact of enemy alien restrictions on Italian American identity. For example, government posters warning Americans to not speak the “enemy’s (Italian’s) language” were powerful symbols which expedited the process of Americanization.
Evviva La Madonna Nera, designed by visual artist B. Amore, consists of three triptychs examining the devotion to the Black Madonna in Italy and among Italian Americans. The major themes revolve around La Madonna Nera in Italy and Europe, La Madonna Nera in the New World and La Madonna Nera Rediscovered.
Angelo Spinelli: Behind the Barbed Wire presents the photos of Angelo Spinelli, an Italian American and native New Yorker, who clandestinely took photos inside a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. Shot between 1943 and 1945, mostly in a camp near Furstenburg, Germany, the photos document the grim and mundane aspects of prison life.
The evolution of these traveling exhibitions mirrors the evolution of the Italian American Museum itself. Dedicated to “exploring the rich cultural heritage of Italy and Italian Americans by presenting the individual and collective struggles and achievements of Italians and their heirs to the American way of life,” the mission of the Museum is carried out in a very concrete way by having at its disposal “portable history lessons.”
Already these three exhibitions are traveling across the country and having an immediate and lasting effect upon many. To further this impact, the Museum is working toward the goal of complementing these exhibits with educational packets, including lesson plans, which can be distributed to teachers and utilized in the classroom.
Like any other cultural institution, the Italian American Museum showcases these exhibitions as a way to raise consciousness, build bridges, and educate communities to the particular plight of Italian Americans in the United States. In doing so, a more exact portrait of the Italian American experience will emerge so as to serve to complicate and problematize many contemporary representations of this culture.
The Museum, through vehicles such as its traveling exhibitions, continually fulfills its mission, and, appropriating the words of one visitor, strives to present important, powerful, and fascinating exhibits relevant to all Americans.
For further information and to schedule a tour, please contact Maria Fosco at the Italian American Museum at (212) 642 – 2020.