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Aldino Felicani Collection: Sacco-­‐Vanzetti Defense Committee Records Scope: The Aldino Felicani Collection: Sacco-­‐Vanzetti Defense Committee Records collection documents the efforts and activities of the Sacco-­‐Vanzetti Defense Committee to free Nicola Sacco (1891-­‐1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888-­‐1927) from prison for the murders of Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli, which were committed on April 15, 1920, in Braintree, Massachusetts. The records of the Sacco-­‐Vanzetti Defense Committee span the years 1914-­‐1967, with the bulk dating from 1920-­‐1927. In particular, the collection documents the committee's propaganda campaign, defense attorney Frederick Moore's investigation and defense strategies, post-­‐trial proceedings, and the execution of the two men. The efforts, financial and otherwise, made by labor unions, defense organizations, and individuals on behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti are also documented, as are the roles of Elizabeth Glendower Evans, Mary Donovan, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in the defense, and the creation of the Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial Committee by Aldino Felicani, a personal friend of Bartolomeo Vanzetti. In addition, Sacco and Vanzetti’s thoughts regarding the guilty verdict and their impending execution are documented. Criteria: 1. Uniqueness, rarity, and value: On the day after the arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti, Aldino Felicani established the Sacco-­‐Vanzetti Defense Committee, for which he served as treasurer. The collection contains: • All of the material created by the committee during the seven years it fought to free the two men from jail, such as its financial records, correspondence, and publications and publicity material • The papers of Frederick Moore, including his trial notebooks, correspondence, and supporting material and notes • The papers of the other defense attorneys, and • Correspondence to and from Sacco and Vanzetti, Vanzetti's writings, and Felicani's correspondence. Among the collection's memorabilia are broadsides, the armbands mourners wore at the funeral procession, photographs, death masks, and Sacco and Vanzetti's comingled ashes. 2. Pre-­‐eminent among libraries and cultural institutions: While the BPL is the only library to hold the defense committee’s records, Harvard Law School houses the Sacco-­‐Vanzetti Case Records, 1920-­‐1928, which contain documents from the men’s defense lawyers, primarily Frederick Moore, and from the prosecution. Included in that collection are correspondence, trial transcripts and other legal documents, newspaper clippings, and photographs. 3. Historical significance that reflects the long-­‐term BPL commitment to the collection, buttressed by the past and current generosity of individuals: In 1979, the Library Kimberly Reynolds, Curator of Manuscripts 8/27/12, revised 10/15/12 CoD 2
sponsored a conference entitled "Sacco-­‐Vanzetti: Developments and Reconsiderations – 1979" together with an exhibit of material from the collection. The conference was held on the occasion of the formal presentation of the Felicani Collection to the Library by Felicani's sons Aneto and Arthur. A book of the same title was published in 1982 by the Trustees. 4. Central to the history of the City of Boston and the communities that inhabit it: Although the robbery and murders took place in Braintree and the trial was held in Dedham, the defense committee's office was located on Hanover Street in Boston's North End, where the majority of the city's Italian population lived. There is an historical marker on the building that commemorates both the committee and the cause they labored for. The funeral was held in a funeral home on Hanover Street, and the procession, which was attended by thousands of people, passed through the North End. During the case’s seven-­‐year span, there were several motions and appeals, particularly a motion for a new trial based on new evidence. This motion was denied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC). The legal community in Boston called for judicial reform immediately afterward. Four months after the executions, the Massachusetts Judicial Council cited the case as proof that there were serious problems in the way in which justice was administered. As a result, before the death penalty was revoked in 1984, the SJC was required to follow certain procedures, such as reviewing all death penalty cases and considering the entire case. 5. Resonates with communities of scholars and makes the BPL the destination for scholarship in a particular subject: The Sacco-­‐Vanzetti Defense Committee Records are of particular interest to researchers, students, and scholars because it provides first-­‐hand accounts of the strategies used by the committee and Frederick Moore in their defense of the two men. Researchers from Boston and from out of state use the collection regularly, and every summer a group of high school teachers from all over the country who are enrolled in the Expeditionary Learning Schools program work with the collection to learn how to teach history using primary materials. A significant number of books and articles have been written, and a documentary film was made, all using material from the collection. 6. Universality of subject matter and furthers the purpose of the BPL by contributing to a democratic education: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists who were arrested and convicted of murder during the Red Scare, a time when foreigners were looked on with hostility and suspicion. Thus, this collection not only documents the efforts of the defense committee, it also documents such subjects as anarchy and anarchists, Italian immigrant radicalism, and political activism, in addition to the legal and social aspects of the case. Provenance: Discussions for the Aldino Felicani collection to come to the Boston Public Library began in May 1966, when Francis X. Moloney visited Felicani at his office at The Excelsior Press. At that time, the BPL was developing a program in which it would be a “central reference facility for material relating to historical developments in Boston, Massachusetts, and New England” (Philip McNiff letter to Aldino Felicini, June 2, 1966). In his letter, McNiff cited several reasons why the collection should be housed in the BPL: namely, that it is a pre-­‐eminent Kimberly Reynolds, Curator of Manuscripts 8/27/12, revised 10/15/12 CoD 2
research institution, that the collection would be given an “an honored place,” and that the institution is “a public library, the use of which is free to all who seek knowledge and truth” (June 2 letter). He also discussed the Library’s plans for a major expansion that would attract writers and scholars from Boston and nationally, as well as his own personal desire for the BPL to “acquire and build, today, the collections that will draw to Boston the writers and scholars of the future. Among those collections … would be the one that concerned the life and times and the tragic fate of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti” (June 2 letter). Felicani’s response was positive. Although he had been approached by Harvard and other institutions, he was hesitant to commit to any of them because it was his hope that the material would have its permanent home in Boston, “where the whole tragic drama of the case centered” (letter to Philip McNiff, June 8, 1966). The other reason he hesitated was because none of the other institutions made specific proposals as to how they would present the material “in a public collection.” Felicani wrote, “I want to be sure about the proper presentation of the material and to know that it will be recommended with dignity and pride, so that scholars and visitors will be attracted to the Library from afar” (June 8 letter). The collection was donated to the BPL by Felicani's sons Aneto and Arthur in 1979. Access: The Aldino Felicani Collection: Sacco-­‐Vanzetti Defense Committee Records has been available to the public since 1980. There is a bibliographic record for the collection in Horizon that includes a link to the online finding aid. Languages: Primarily English and Italian. The letters of Sacco and Vanzetti are translated into English. There is a significant amount of material that is not translated. Related Collections: S.H.M. Clinton Collection Countercurrents Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht Papers Herbert B. Ehrmann Correspondence L’Aundata La Notizia Louis Joughin Correspondence Massachusetts Department of Public Safety Papers (photocopies) Massachusetts State Police Papers Norman D. Givovanni Papers Robert H. Montgomery Papers Francis Russell Papers Funding Support: Sackville H. M. Clinton Fund; FY13 Distribution = $10,466.52 Kimberly Reynolds, Curator of Manuscripts 8/27/12, revised 10/15/12