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Oct 12, 1492
christopher Columbus is the first Italian to land in US soil.
It was an italian that started the story of Immigration in America and contributed to the flood of migration that still remains in motion until today. Despite Italy not being a unified nation until 1861, the Italian peninsula has sent millions of its people to the shores of North America. These Immigrants thought of themselves as Neopolitans, Sicilians, Calabrians, or Syracuseans. -
Period: Oct 12, 1492 to
Italian Immigration in America
Today, Italian Americans are in every part of U.S. society, from the Supreme Court to the National Academy of Sciences to the National Basketball Association. As Italian Heritage Pride remains prominent and strong among the following generations and from those who left their legacy engraved in American history, like Fiorello LaGuardia, Joe DiMaggio, Perry Como, Rocky Marciano, Marlon Brando, Diana Di Prima, Enrico Fermi, Frank Sinatra and many others. -
May 1, 1497
New Arrivals
The Genoese navigator Cristoforo Colombo, known to us now as Columbus, was only the first of many Italian explorers who would come to shape the Western Hemisphere as we know it today. In In 1497, the Venetian Giovanni Caboto, sailed to newfoundland and became the first European to see the shores of New England. By 1502, the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci had deduced that these new discoveries were part of one great continent. Within a few years, It became America. -
1607-1815 Period
Throughout the colonial and early national periods, immigrants from the Italian peninsula immigrants maintained a small but well-established presence in North America. In this first fairly small wave of italian migration to United States. Most of the Italians were predomintly from northern parts of Italy. -
1820's -1870's
Italian immigration continued to migrate throughout the19th century across the Americas, mostly chosing to settle in Argentina and Brazil. From 1820 to 1870, fewer than 25,000 Italian immigrants came to the United States, mostly from northern Italy. Some made great contributions to America's history in Art.The poet Lorenzo da Ponte, who built the first opera house in the United States and painter Constantino Brumidi that created the paintings and frescoes that adorn the United States Capitol. -
The Grand Arrival (1880's-1950's) 1987 Painting
Most of italian generations in America came after the 1880's through Ellis Island also known as "La Isola del Lacrime" ( Island of Tears). A New york harbor that becamea historic for opening the doors for immigrants arriving in United States. By the 1920's, Italian-Americans, represented more than 10 percent of the nation’s foreign-born population. -
Undesirable Immigrants” ( NY times Article)
Immigrant families were relieved to arrive in United States confident of a better future, but not everyone was happy to see immigrants pouring into ports of New York, New Orleans, and others. Many existing United States citizens were nervous about the continuing influx of immigrants. -
"Little Italies" 1890's - 1900's Picture of Litte Italy in the Bronx
Italian Immigrants were settledand still remain highly concentrated in cities of the Northeast region. Utilizing an interconnected migration network based on villages, they formed "Little Italies." Immigrants viewed Little Italies as a refuge from hostility they suffered in American society. In addition to that, they suffered widespread discrimination in housing and employment. Often criticized as a degenerate race that sould be denied entry in United Sates. That unity empowered them. -
"The Grand Arrival Period" 1880's-1950's
This great wave migration of Italian immigrants was different from those that had come before. No more did the immigrant population consist mostly of Northern Italian artisans and shopkeepers, they were mostly from Southern italy.They scattered all over the New York region, settling in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and nearby towns in New Jersey. The biggest concentration of all, though, was in Manhattan. The streets of Lower Manhattan, more specifically in Mulberry Street. Known today as Little Italy. -
"Festa"
Festa was a parade celebrating the feast day of a particular village’s saint. Many residents would follow the image of the saint in a procession through the streets of the neighborhood. New York police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt described his view of Festa and it was published in an article in Century magazine in 1899. -
The busiest year and day of Ellis Island
1907 - The year when the most immigrants arrived to the Island, approx 1.004,756. The day when most immigrants arrived was April 17 with 11.747 people -
1921,1924 Restrictive Immigration Acts
Italian immigrantion slowed down significantly after the Restrictive Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924. which was pointed against the mass migration of Italian, Slav and Jews. Picture of Italian immigrants in Little Italy, New York City in the 1900's. -
1930's-1940's
Throughout the 20th century, Italian Immigrants strived for better quality of life, better work conditions and more education. With the birth of the American born kids, United States had Italian-Americans in almost every part of the nation and in many levels of American society. Now more prominent and more powerful in the American Society. -
"Columbus Day"
Although "Columbus Day" had been celebrating by many Italian-Americans since October 12, 1866 on its first ocassion in New york City, It became an official holiday in 1906 in Colorado State and declared a federal holiday in 1934 by the Congress. Italain-Americans view Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage. -
Ellis Island Closes its doors in 1932
Ellis Island saw more than 12 million immigrants, at a rate of up to 5,000 people a day. For many generations of Americans, and for almost all Italian Americans, Ellis Island is the first chapter of their family’s story in the United States. -
Italian-Americans today
Today, Italian Americans are everywhere from U.S. society, from the Supreme Court to the National Academy of Sciences to the National Basketball Association. As Italian Heritage pride continue live on through generations and by those who have left their legacy in the American history. Like John Sirica, Frank Stella, Marlon Brando, Diana Di Prima, Rocky Marciano, Perry Como, Joe DiMaggio, Enrico Fermi and New Jerseyan Frank Sinatra who was at one point, the most popular artist in United States.
