Blogs
It?s Catholic Schools Week!
By Olivia Gillingham, Library Specialist in the Marian Library
Celebrate Catholic Schools Week by taking a look at the Marian Library’s collection of mixed media scrapbooks by Italian primary students in 1952 and 1953. Seemingly created as a part of the school curriculum to study the Blessed Virgin Mary, the scrapbooks contain both handwritten and typewritten essays on numerous Marian topics ranging from Italian sanctuaries to stories from the life of Mary. As you will see in the images of the pages below, the students labored over these books, carefully pasting cut out and colored print images, including intricate hand drawn illustrations and artwork in the margins, and adding beautiful calligraphic headings to many of the pages.
The scrapbooks come from three schools. The Istituto San Giuseppe was founded by Marist Brothers in 1904 in Genoa, and in 1940 became the Istituto Champagnat, a primary, secondary and high school for boys. It is believed that other scrapbooks labeled Istituto San Giuseppe came from the Istituto S. Giuseppe Per Fanciulle Derelitte (Orphanage for Girls), also in Genoa. The third school, also founded by Marist Brothers, is the Scuola Media Parificata Principe Umberto in Naples.
Click through the photo gallery for several selected pages from these scrapbooks.
