Gino Charles Speranza papers, 1904-1941

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Summary

Creators:
Speranza, Gino Charles, 1872-1927
Abstract:
The papers primarily document Gino Speranza's work as a journalist and foreign correspondent for Outlook and the New York Evening Post in Italy during the war and political and military attaché for the United States embassy in Rome from 1917 to 1919. The papers are comprised of writings, diaries, clippings, correspondence, reports, pamphlets, notes, photographs, and printed matter relating to Italian politics and diplomacy during World War I and in the postwar period. Also available on microfilm (34 reels).
Extent:
17 manuscript boxes, 30 oversize boxes, 1 oversize folder (35.5 Linear Feet)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Gino Charles Speranza papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

The papers primarily document Gino Speranza's work as a journalist and war correspondent for Outlook and the New York Evening Post in Italy and political and military attaché for the United States embassy in Rome from 1917 to 1919, with materials relating to Italian politics and diplomacy during World War I and in the postwar period.

A highlight of the papers are Speranza's Diaries, which run from June 1915 to May 1919. His almost daily entries reflect on the news of each day, his interactions with Italian and American officials, stories of the Italian people during wartime, and his travels with his wife, Florence Colgate Speranza. The diaries from 1918 to 1919 include entries on the debate over Italian territorial claims and other issues discussed at the Paris Peace Conference. Letters, telegrams, photographs and postcards are interfiled with the diary pages.

In 1941, Speranza's diaries were edited and published in two volumes by Florence Colgate Speranza, who also volunteered for various war relief agencies in Italy during the war. In preparation for this publication, Florence Colgate compiled seventeen Scrapbooks containing photographs, clippings, letters, printed matter, and ephemera that correspond to the pages of the published diaries. Some notes on the photographs and correspondence are in Speranza's handwriting however clippings and postcards dated after 1927 confirm that the scrapbooks were compiled after his death. Florence Colgate's own personal diary is in the Florence Colgate Speranza file.

As a journalist embedded with Italian soldiers along the Isonzo river and in the Alps, Speranza's Writings are comprised mainly of his firsthand reports from the frontline. Some topics he addresses include America's role in the war, the Adriatic question, the effects of war on Italian towns on the front, and the difficulties of fighting at high altitudes. Many of these experiences are also recollected in his Diaries. The series also contains some articles written after the war as well as Speranza's writings and reports from his time as an attaché to the American embassy in Rome.

In the Correspondence series are the letters Speranza received from an Italian American soldier stationed in Bari named Esterino Alex Tarasca. Speranza's interactions with Tarasca inspired a series of short stories titled "American I.," a draft of which is included in his Writings. Other correspondence of note includes letters exchanged with U.S. ambassador to Italy Thomas Nelson Page and American consul to Italy B. Harvey Carroll, Jr.

The container list for the papers includes a numbering system taken from envelopes that originally housed the collection materials. The numbers refer to a preliminary inventory of the papers most likely created when they arrived at the archives in 1942. Although the numbers do not appear to have any logical sequence, they identify materials that were originally grouped together and for this reason, when available, the numbers were carried over onto the folder titles. For example, II-34 indicates Section II, Envelope 34. While this numbering system has been retained, similar materials have been combined in series to facilitate research.

Biographical / historical:
Date Event
1872 April 23
Born, Bridgeport, Connecticut
1892
BS, City College of New York
1894
LLB, New York University Law School
1895
MS, City College of New York
1897
Legal counsel to Italian consulate general in New York City
1907-1905
Founding member, Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants
1909
Marries Florence Colgate Speranza
1912
Gives up legal practice to pursue writing career and volunteer work
1915-1917
Featured correspondent for the New York Evening Post and Outlook, reporting on the war from the Italian front
1916
Chairman, Special Committee of the Committee for War Relief in Florence
1917
Member, General committee of American Relief Clearing House
1917 April
Volunteered services to Ambassador Thomas Nelson Page in Rome and became a volunteer worker in the office of the U.S. military attaché
Circa 1919
Attaché on political intelligence, U.S. embassy in Rome
1925
Author, Race or Nation? A Conflict of Divided Loyalties
1927 July 12
Died
1941
Published (posthumously), The Diary of Gino Speranza: Italy 1915-1919, edited by Florence Colgate Speranza. New York: Columbia University

Source: George E. Pozzetta. "Speranza, Gino Carlo," http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-01121.html; American National Biography Online Feb 2000. Accessed June 26, 2012.

Acquisition information:
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 1942, with an increment in 1945
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in ten series: Biographical file, Diaries, Correspondence, Writings, Italy subject file, Clippings, Photographs and postcards, Florence Colgate Speranza, Scrapbooks, and Oversize materials

Physical location:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Gino Charles Speranza papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US
Contact:
(650) 723-3563
hooverarchives@stanford.edu
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