The Italian-American Memories: Documentary Archive is a project conceived and developed by Viviana Pezzullo, Domenica Diraviam, Vincenza Iadevaia, and Federico Tiberini, in collaboration with Dr. Ilaria Serra and the Italian Program of the Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature at Florida Atlantic University. The online catalog collects miscellaneous material on Italian-American history and culture ranging from Oral History interviews to the original correspondence of an Italian-American family during the 1940s.
The letters belonging to the Badia Family Collection have been donated to the Italian Program by Patricia Badia-Johnsonn in 2017.
Photo of Danny and Leona Badia. From the Badia Family Collection.
Italian-American Memories: Documentary Archive is a project of Florida Atlantic University. Some of the collections are the result of collaboration with other institutions around the country.
Partner Institutions:
Featured Collection
The Art of Tom DiSalvo
“Quando un'anima nasce in questo paese le vengono gettate delle reti per impedire che fugga. Tu mi parli di religione, lingua e nazionalità: io…
Featured Exhibit
Postcards Badia Family Collection
The exhibition showcases the postcards from the Badia Family Collection. All the information about the Badia family can be found...
Recently Added Items
End titles of Greatest Show on Earth
In the movie's end titles, on the center top, the troupe is credited as "The Zoppes", 1952
Ringling Circus Museum timeline
The timeline records the year when the Zoppè troupe joined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Italy: The bumper car ride
With the closing of the Zoppe Circus, Guglielmo started to manage a bumper car ride in the Italian luna park. "It was not like before. Before there…
Italy: Nadia and Gabriella
“I was only 4 and I would have four or five acts. Wake up, Nadia, my mom would say, you need to work… then I would have to sleep in the afternoon or…
Italy: Mary with Dolores, Luigi and Loris
When Guglielmo closed his circus in 1953, the troupe broke apart. Rodolfo and his wife Guerrina Verzegnacci joined other circuses with their children…
The Greatest Show on Earth
Cecil DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth won five Oscars in 1953. It was a glorification of the circuses Ringling and Barnum e Bailey (that had…
Zoppe' Troupe at the Ringling Museum
The troupe's famous act, the human pyramid, is featured in the Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota. The troupe was participating in the shooting of…
Italy: Dolores as the fly woman
The act that earned Dolores the nickname of "fly woman". Her father holds the ladder.