University to celebrate 200th anniversary of birth of Giuseppe Garibaldi

The University of South Carolina, home to one of the world’s foremost research collections on Giuseppe Garibaldi, will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the famous Italian patriot and revolutionist with a public lecture, exhibition and conference April 3 – 5.

The three-day event will begin with the opening of the exhibit, “Garibaldi in His Time: An Exhibit from the Anthony P. Campanella Collection,” and a public lecture by Garibaldi scholar Dr. Lucy Riall from the University of London at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 3, on the mezzanine level of Thomas Cooper Library.

Riall’s talk, “Garibaldi: The First Global Hero,” will focus on her 2007 book, “Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero.” Both the exhibit and lecture are free and open to the public.

The “Garibaldi Abroad” conference is open to the public and will feature six sessions, running from 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Scholars from the United States, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom will discuss various aspects of Garibaldi’s life and influence around the world.

The 200th anniversary celebration is sponsored by the Association for Research on Ethnicity & Nationalism in the Americas (ARENA), College of Arts and Sciences, SC Humanities Council and the National Italian American Foundation. For more information about the events, contact Dr. Don Doyle, McCausland Professor of History, at 803-777-5195, or via e-mail at don.doyle@sc.edu.

The university’s Thomas Cooper Library acquired its Garibaldi collection in 1997 from the late Garibaldi scholar Dr. Anthony P. Campanella. The collection, considered the world’s most extensive research source on Garibaldi outside of Italy, contains diverse materials about the Italian patriot and revolutionist and the Risorgimento, the 1860 reunification of Italy.

The collection is an assemblage of more than 3,000 works, largely first editions and Garibaldi’s personal library. It also contains more than 400 of Garibaldi’s letters as well as extensive illustrative materials, 19th-century newspapers, postage stamps, medals and memorabilia.

Garibaldi, who lived from 1807 – 1882, devoted his life to the principle of self-determination of all people. His greatest triumph, for which he is best known, was the 1860 overthrow of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which precipitated Italian unification. In one month, he built an army from 1,070 volunteers in Sicily to an army of 40,000, crossed the Italian mainland and captured Naples. His march was viewed in America as a powerful vindication of the right of the individual to political self-determination.

For more information on the Anthony P. Campanella Collection of Giuseppe Garibaldi, visit the Web site: www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/hist/garib/garib.html