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Title: Gino Charles Speranza papers
Dates: 1904-1941
Collection Number: 42012
Creator: Speranza, Gino Charles, 1872-1927.
Creator: Speranza, Florence Colgate, 1873-1951.
Collection Size:
15 manuscript boxes, 24 oversize boxes, 1 oversize folder
(24.4 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives .
Stanford, California 94305-6010
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.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
English and
Italian
Collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Gino Charles Speranza papers, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1942, with an increment in 1945
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
Gino Speranza Papers, New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division
Gino Speranza Papers, Italian American Collection, Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota
Comando di Fiume d'Italia. Bolletino ufficiale, Hoover Institution Archives
Luigi Aldrovandi Marescotti typescript, Hoover Institution Archives
Moses Stephen Slaughter Papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Benajah Harvey Carroll, Jr. Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin
Thomas Nelson Page Papers, University of Virginia Library
| 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.
Scope and Content of Collection
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.
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
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
D'Annunzio, Gabriele, 1863-1938.
World War, 1914-1918--Italy.
Italy--Civilization.
Italy--Description and travel.
Italy--Foreign relations--United States.
Italy--Foreign relations--Yugoslavia.
Italy--History--1914-1945.
Italy--Politics and government--1914-1945.
Italy--Social conditions.
Rijeka (Croatia)--History.
United States--Foreign relations--Italy.
Yugoslavia--Foreign relations--Italy.
Military attachés.