GENn.AL.OGY COLLECTION ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01092 6068 m Leading Americans of Italian Descent in Massachusetts By Joseph William Carlevale Author: Who’s Who Among Americans of Italian Descent in Connecticut FOREWORD By L. Daniel Marsh President, Boston University Printed and bound by THE MEMORIAL PRESS PLYMOUTH, MASS. AMERICANS OF ITALIAN DESCENT IN MASSACHUSETTS who have contributed to the progress of the State in industry, finance, business, literature, the professions, the arts, and other fields of activity. i “There is properly no history, only biography.” —Emerson Copyright, 1946, by JOSEPH WILLIAM CARLEVALE in the United States of America FOREWORD f By Daniel L. MaPvSH I President of Boston University 1255379 Mr. Joseph W. Carlevale spared neither time nor effort in writing this book, Leading Americans of Italian Descent in Massachusetts. He tells me that he has actually walked some 10,000 miles to gather the necessary material. This is a companion volume to his former work, Who’s Who Among Americans of Italian Descent in Connecticut, for which the late distinguished o Yale Professor, William Lyon Phelps, wrote the foreword. Leading Americans of Italian Descent in Massachusetts is a - book of real value and of genuine interest, not only to the people of Massa¬ chusetts, but also to the whole of America, and almost as much so to Italy. The book contains 4,000 sketches of American citizens of Italian inheritance who have variously contributed to the development of American civilization in general and to the progress of Massachusetts in particular. As early as 1640, we find the first record of trade between Massachusetts and Italy. In 1649, Robert Child and Henry Saltonstall settled in New Eng¬ land. They were themselves valuable additions to the colony they entered, and the State has been richer down to the present generation because of their descendants. Both Child and Saltonstall were graduates of the University of Padua in Italy. The Handel and Haydn Society is one of Boston’s prized musical organ¬ izations. It is interesting to note that the first conductor of that famous society was Louis Astinelli, an Italian, in 1815. American citizens of Italian descent are rendering valuable service in every field of worthy human endeavor in this State today—in education, in the arts and sciences, in business, in jurisprudence, in politics, in industry, and in everything else that contributes to the dignifying of manhood and the enrichment of our common life. Their ambition for education is illustrated by the fact that nearly 2400 of the persons written up in this book are college graduates. Seven hundred of them have graduated from Boston University, being the largest number from any one institution. The rest represent the other educational institutions of the Commonwealth. Mr. Carlevale is deserving of the thanks of all Americans—not only those of Italian extraction—for his meticulous labors in compiling this interesting book, which in itself is an illustration of the pleasant relations that traditionally have obtained and do now obtain between America and Italy, I * * . ' . J ■ ' * . I