This collection features meeting minutes, annual budgets, constitutions, bylaws, correspondence, handbooks, programs, and publicity materials, specifically related to the activities of the Sons of Italy from 1926-1966. The Sons of Italy was one of Vancouver’s main Italian mutual aid societies in the early 20th century. This content offers insight into its governance structure and activities in support of both recent and established Italian immigrants in Canada.
Highlights
The Ray Culos Vancouver Society of Italians Collection details the social and cultural life of the Italian immigrant community in Vancouver. The archive also includes documents from its sister organization, the Lega femminile, enabling researchers to better understand the way that family, gender, and the public and private sphere functioned in the early twentieth-century for Italian immigrants to Vancouver. This collection offers an extensive record of the successes and challenges experienced by the Sons of Italy and its sister organization. Researchers will be able to trace the expanding Italian community in Vancouver and the strategies they deployed to maintain and deepen their sense of identify and community through banquets, recreation, and religion.
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Acknowledgements
The Italian Cultural Centre Museum (Il Museo) and SFU Library gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre’s B.C. History Digitization Program.