Amy Allemand Bernardy (January 16, 1880 – October 1959) was an Italian journalist, folklorist, ethnographer, and writer.

Amy Bernardy
A young white woman in 3/4 profile, dark hair in a bouffant updo, wearing a high-collared white blouse
Amy Bernardy, from the 1908 yearbook of Smith College
BornJanuary 16, 1880
Florence
Died1959
Rome
Occupation(s)Journalist, ethnographer, folklorist, writer, lecturer

Early life and education

edit

Amy Bernardy was born in Florence, the daughter of an Irish-American diplomat and an Italian mother. She was educated at l'Istituto di Studi Superiore in Florence, graduating in 1901 with a thesis on the history of Turkish-Venetian relations. Her academic mentor was Pasquale Villari; he was president of the Dante Alighieri Society, and she was the society's vice president.

Career

edit

Bernardy was a lecturer on Italian subjects at Smith College in Massachusetts from 1903 to 1910.[1][2] While in America, she wrote for American and Italian newspapers and magazines.[3] She was commissioned by the Italian government to report on the effects of emigration on Italian-born women and their children in North America,[4][5] including a visit to Ellis Island,[6] and studies of regional differences[7] and of "Little Italy" neighborhoods in American and Canadian cities.[8][9][10] She presented her findings at a conference on Italian ethnography in 1910.[11] She also studied Italian expatriate communities in Turkey[12] and in the West Indies. She returned to the United States from 1917 to 1920, to work at the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C., during World War I.[13]

Bernardy spoke against women's suffrage and for protections for workers' families, on a lecture tour of the United States in 1910.[14] She taught at the University of Florence in the 1930s,[15] and toured in Canada as a speaker on Italian social issues and expatriates, especially on education, in 1934.[16][17] On that tour, she defended the policies of Italy's fascist government,[15] and dismissed criticisms against it as being based on 'fables'.[18]

Publications

edit
  • L'ultima guerra turco-veneziana (1902)[19]
  • Venezia E Il Turco Nella Seconda Meta Del Secolo XVII (1902)
  • Zampogne e cornamuse nel secolo d'Elisabetta (1902)
  • America vissuta (1911)
  • Italia randagia attraverso gli Stati Uniti (1913)[20]
  • L'Istria e la Dalmazia (1915)[21]
  • La Via dell' Oriente (1916)
  • "The War Service of Italian Women" (1919)[22]
  • "The Adriatic 'Irredenta'" (1919)[23]
  • La questione adriatica vista d'oltre Atlantico (1917-1919) (1923)[24]
  • Paese che vai; il mondo come l'ho visto io (1923, an autobiography)
  • Forme e colori di vita regionale italiana (1926)
  • Santa Caterina da Siena (1926)
  • Istria e Quarnaro (1927)
  • La vita e l'opera di Vittoria Colonna (1927)
  • Zara e i monumenti italiani della Dalmazia (1928)
  • Rinascita regionale (1930)
  • Passione italiana sotto cieli stranieri (1931)

Personal life

edit

Bernardy died in 1959, in Rome.[25]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Amy Allemand Bernardy". Smith College Finding Aids. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  2. ^ Smith College, Class of 1908(1908 yearbook): 15. via Internet Archive
  3. ^ "Smith College Teacher Helps Italian Immigrants". The Boston Globe. 1907-05-26. p. 46. Retrieved 2023-02-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Gabaccia, Donna R.; Iacovetta, Franca (2002-01-01). Women, Gender and Transnational Lives: Italian Workers of the World. University of Toronto Press. pp. 353–360. ISBN 978-0-8020-8462-0.
  5. ^ Sorte, Michael A. La; Sorte, Michael La (2010-06-04). La Merica: Images Of Italian Greenhorn Experience. Temple University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-4399-0392-6.
  6. ^ Sorte, Michael A. La; Sorte, Michael La (2010-06-04). La Merica: Images Of Italian Greenhorn Experience. Temple University Press. pp. 45–46. ISBN 978-1-4399-0392-6.
  7. ^ Serra, Ilaria (2009). The Imagined Immigrant: Images of Italian Emigration to the United States Between 1890 and 1924. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. pp. 25–26, 46–48. ISBN 978-0-8386-4198-9.
  8. ^ Tirabassi, Maddalena (2017-10-05). Connell, William J.; Pugliese, Stanislao G. (eds.). The Little Italies of the Early 1900s. Routledge Handbooks Online. doi:10.4324/9780203501856. ISBN 978-0-415-83583-1. S2CID 186664341.
  9. ^ Robin, Ron (2018-01-12). Signs of Change: Urban Iconographies in San Francisco, 1880-1915. Routledge. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-1-351-13749-2.
  10. ^ Wood, Patricia K. (2004-06-03). Nationalism from the Margins: Italians in Alberta and British Columbia. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-7735-2370-8.
  11. ^ Bernardy, Amy Allemand; Tirabassi, Maddalena (2005). Ripensare la patria grande: gli scritti di Amy Allemand Bernardy sulle migrazioni italiane, 1900-1930 (in Italian). C. Iannone. ISBN 978-88-516-0067-9.
  12. ^ "Il ritorno di Amy Bernardy dalle 'Piccolo Italie' d'Oriente". L'Italia. 1914-06-20. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-02-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Tirabassi, Maddalena (2014-04-01). Cinotto, Simone (ed.). Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities. Fordham University Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-8232-5627-3.
  14. ^ "America Barbarous, 'New Woman' Says". The San Francisco Examiner. 1910-02-23. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-02-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ a b "Distinguished Italians Here Feb. 6, 7, and 8 for Addresses". Edmonton Journal. 1934-01-31. p. 17. Retrieved 2023-02-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Wood, Patricia K. (2004-06-03). Nationalism from the Margins: Italians in Alberta and British Columbia. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 978-0-7735-2370-8 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Italian Women Dominated by Spirit of Service Told by Signorina Amy Bernardy". The Winnipeg Tribune. 1934-02-02. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-02-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Balbo Jealousy Story Unfounded". The Gazette. 1934-03-02. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-02-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Bernardy, Amy Allemand (1902). Amy A. Bernardy. L'Ultima guerra turco-veneziana (MDCCXIV-MDCCXVIII) (in Italian). Stab. Tip. G. Civelli.
  20. ^ Bernardy, Amy A. (1913). Italia randagia attraverso gli Stati Uniti. Torino : F. Bocca.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  21. ^ Bernardy, Amy A. (1915). L'Istria e la Dalmazia (in Italian). Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche.
  22. ^ Bernardy, Amy A. (1919). "The War Service of Italian Women". The Journal of American History. 13 (1): 61–70.
  23. ^ Bernardy, Amy A. (1919). "The Adriatic 'Irredenta'". The Journal of American History. 13 (3&4): 358–361.
  24. ^ Bernardy, Amy A.; Falorsi, Vittorio (1923). La questione adriatica vista d'oltre Atlantico (1917-1919) ricordi e documenti (in Italian). N. Zanichelli.
  25. ^ Dompè, Giovanna (1960). "LUTTI: Amy A. Bernardy". Lares. 26 (3/4): 164–166. ISSN 0023-8503. JSTOR 26239733.