Gualdo Tadino, in Umbria (Italy), hosts the first Regional Museum of Emigration. Mrs Catia Monacelli is its Curator, responsible for the collection centre and the cataloguing of information in the recently opened centre.
The museum is arranged on three floors: the first one is assigned to arrivals abroad. In this way, we let the visitor be immediately immersed in that atmosphere, by way of videos and objects belonging to the land of emigration. The first area that one encounters is the work place, the mines particularly; it was here, in fact, that most of the emigrants used to work. Here you will observe a safety helmet, a mining trolley, a statue of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners. Another sector is dedicated to female emigration and work done by women - such as wet nursing. The second floor of the Museum is devoted to travels to reach foreign lands;  here emigrants’ original trunks and suitcases are displayed and video stories of experiences such as journeys of hope across the sea or the Alps are broadcasted. On the last floor the historical causes of emigration are analysed, beginning with the crisis in the Italian countryside, going on with emigrants’ moods provoked by being forced to leave their homeland and ending with sensations felt after the arrival in a foreign country. This floor also hosts a planisphere providing statistics and destinations of the great emigration experience.
The museum collects mainly short films of the period from RAI and Swiss Radio and Television’s video archives; great room is also dedicated to newspapers, documents and objects.
The museum is first of all a permanent study centre, a place for conventions and debates, but also a didactic laboratory to teach research, in order to avoid losing the memories of our Region.

Associazione ONLUS Museo Regionale Dell'Emigrazione Pietro Conti
Palazzo del Podestà
06023 - Gualdo Tadino - Perugia - Italia
Tel: 39 075 9142445
www.emigrazione.it