PA Photos and Documents

The Italian Heritage Collection at Citizens Library, founded in 2017, honors hundreds of Italian immigrants who settled in the City of Washington between 1880 and 1930. They were part of the great wave of more than four million immigrants, mostly from southern Italy and Sicily. The collection includes dozens of photographs, oral histories, family trees, publications and other items from local families. The printed materials in the Collection are available in a dedicated location at Citizens Library. The Italian Heritage Collection is recognized as a key resource for the local population, as well as historians and genealogists. We regularly share stories from the Collection through newspaper articles, presentations, and at the annual Washington Italian Festival as well as at the annual conference of the Italian American Studies Association, hosted by the Heinz History Center.