Preserving and Sharing the Rich History and Heritage Through Stories, Photographs, and Artifacts
PRESERVING THE LEGACY OF CHICAGO'S LITTLE ITALY
"We are more than artifacts and objects. Our legacy is the sum of our stories." Vincent J. Romano, Editor, Taylor Street Archives.
The focus of the Archives is to preserve, for posterity, the stories of those who shared the near west side immigrant neighborhood that later came to be known as Chicago's Little Italy. That legacy, by definition, includes the stories of those who emigrated from the shores of southern Italy at the turn of the twentieth century.
The offspring of those who settled on Taylor Street, the port-of-call for Chicago's Italian Americans, and who lived the Italian American experience of growing up on Taylor Street, are a salient part of this anthology—a time, a place, and a people that were and can never be again.
It is to this end that the Archives preserve those memories that capture both the essence and spirit of growing up on Taylor Street, the near-west side immigrant community that became the laboratory upon which Jane Addams tested her theories and formulated her objections to the establishment. The immigrant community that Jane Addams had labeled "The Hull House Neighborhood."
Vincent J. Romano, Editor
Vincent W. Romano, Ass't Editor
June 2006:
"We must never allow others to tell our story to their liking."
