2013.089.001

This textile is a black velvet banner with gold lettering, gold tassles and gold borders. The banner is attached to a wooden rod. The banner is 31" x 24". The words "Societa'M.S. Unione D'Italia Fon. 7 Gennaio1907 Lawrence, Mass." There is a cross pictured on the banner as well as 2 hands shaking.

The society that this banner is from is written about in the manuscript "Generations of Change Within the Dialects of Work and Protest: Italian Mothers and DAughters, 1895-1930" by Colette Gianna Matzzie, Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in American Civilization at Brown University, December, 1988, which is part of the LHC collection. Matzzie writes that:

The informal networks among women in the immigrant neighborhoods were complemented by formal mutual benefit associations and social clubs among Italian men. Early mutual benefit associations were formed on the basis of regional origin. Sicilians and Calabrese had settled in the four blocks bounded by Essex, Union, Summer and Jackson Streets. Neopolitans lived on Chestnut, Elm and Oak Streets bounded by Jackson and Lawrence. The officers of the Societa di Mutuo Soccorso headquartered at 263 Essex were respectively Leopoldo Tortoro, an operative who boarded at 116 Common; his next door neighbor Vincenzo Santapaola who ran a small grocery with his wife Concettina at 188 Common and lived at 115 Common; Sebastiano Rizzo, an operative, who boarded at 105 Newbury; and Salvatore Busca, an operative, who resided at 255 Oak with his wife Sebastiana. All four men were close neighbors.The club provided insurance for members and their families in case of accident, illness or death. Additionally, mutual benefit societies planned community wide celebrations and festivities.