Rome Campus - Correspondence and notes, 1987-1988

The Cesare Barbieri Endowment for Italian Culture collection comprises six series of records pertaining to the administration of the Barbieri Endowment and its activities and events, including files pertaining to the Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut) Rome Campus program. The collection includes files from three Trinity College faculty and staff members (Michael Campo, Borden Painter, and Robbins Winslow) responsible for the administration and oversight of the activities and operations of both the Barbieri Endowment for Italian Culture and the Rome Campus program. Dates range from 1957 to 2003, with one item dating to 2020. Because Campo, Painter, and Winslow were working together (each in his own defined role) to administer and operate the Barbieri Endowment for Italian Culture and the Rome Campus program, the materials within each series tend to overlap.

It is evident that the Rome Campus Program files in the first series were generated by Robbins Winslow in his capacity as director of the Office of Educational Services at Trinity College and as coordinator of the Rome study-away program. Documents inside the file folders previously were stored in 3-ring binders and arranged according to the academic calendar (e.g. fall and spring semesters). Materials include program documentation that was sent to students, parents, and other Rome Campus constituents, such as correspondence and memos, forms, lists, travel planning information, and view books. Dates range from the 1977 fall term to the 1994 spring term. Because of problems regarding Italian tax laws, the program was called different names at different times: the Barbieri Center Rome Campus (BC/RC), as well as the Trinity College Rome Campus (TC/RC). Measures taken in 1989 solidified the name to Trinity College Rome Campus.

The Michael Campo files in series two include several folders of materials from the earliest years of the Cesare Barbieri Center of Italian Studies which document the events and activities of the Center. Of interest are scrapbook pages which chronicle some of the arts and cultural events sponsored by the Barbieri Center and held on the Trinity College campus in Hartford, specifically a symposium on contemporary Italian music in 1959. Fliers and event programs demonstrate an array of offerings sponsored by the Barbieri Center over the years. Files also include Campo's report of a trip to Rome in 1969 to scope out the possibility of Trinity establishing a program there; correspondence related to the donation of Italian war documents belonging to Benito Mussolini; and Rome Campus program files including correspondence and memos, and view books. (Note: Files found here both complement and overlap with files in the Michael Campo papers (see Related Materials note)).

The Borden Painter files in series three primarily include materials that pertain to events sponsored by the Cesare Barbieri Center of Italian Studies when Painter was serving as Director of Italian Programs at Trinity and later as Chairman of the Barbieri Endowment for Italian Culture. The series also includes program files related to the Rome Campus in the late 1990s and in 1974 when Painter served as faculty for the summer program. Of interest in the 1974 summer program file are Painter's handwritten notes about his time there, as well as a notebook of handwritten notes by students describing their days' work at an archaeological dig site. The bulk of these files, however, pertain to a special issue of the Cesare Barbieri Courier published in 1980, and a subsequent two-day conference sponsored by the Cesare Barbieri Center of Italian Studies in 1982 and held at Trinity College. Painter served as the compiler and editor for the special issue, "Mussolini and Italian Fascism," which also was the title of the 1982 conference. Part of the conference involved Trinity repatriating a collection of documents related to Mussolini, Hitler, and World War II to representatives of the Italian government.

The Robbins Winslow files in series four comprise a small amount of materials related to the administration of the Rome Campus program (much of it overlapping with the binder materials in Series 1) and include correspondence and memos, student rosters, program evaluations and statistics, as well as Winslow's handwritten meeting notes. Of interest are the files related to Trinity's membership in the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). One file contains a pocket-folder which belonged to Trinity College student Alicia Mioli, with photocopies of documents related to the Rome Campus (presumably part of her 1994 research for her thesis "Transitions: A History of Trinity College Rome Campus," see Bibliography).

The Audiovisual series includes seven folders of photographs in varying formats taken at the Rome Campus and around Rome and other parts of Italy in the 1970s. It appears as though the photographs were gathered and used by Trinity College student Alicia Mioli while conducting her thesis research in 1994. In addition, the series incldes 15 audio cassette tapes of interviews conducted in 1994 and 1995 by thesis student Alicia Mioli with Michael Campo (10 cassettes), Borden Painter (4 cassettes), and Robbins Winslow (1 cassette). The Artifacts and Ephemera series includes a single item, a cloth tote bag from the 50th anniversary of the Rome Campus program in 2020.