Italian American identity in Pennsylvania is rooted in the legacy of the vast number of immigrants who settled here during the great wave of immigration to America at the end of the nineteenth and during the early decades of the twentieth centuries. Factories boomed and needed workers. Pennsylvania played a key role in the transformation of America from an agricultural to an industrial economy.  Foreign immigrants followed the same pattern as other Americans, moving to towns and cities where most of the new manufacturing jobs existed.

So many Italians headed to Pennsylvania looking for jobs that from 1890 to 1960 their population was the second highest in the country, behind only New York State. Although work attracted Italians to Pennsylvania, where they settled and what jobs they took depended on many factors, not the least of which included the aspirations and expectations of the immigrants themselves. While ninety per cent of Italian immigrants to the United States settled in American cities, seventy-one percent of those who immigrated to Pennsylvania moved to the mid-size and smaller industrial towns scattered throughout the state, rather than to the two largest cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

To study Italian ethnic history in Pennsylvania, this lesson uses the concept of ethnic identity rather than the somewhat antiquated idea of an immigrant "group." A group brings to mind people who all share certain characteristics. In the multicultural landscape of contemporary America, many Italian Americans are third or fourth generation with a complex combination of heritages through intermarriage of previous generations with other ethnic groups. Even for those with a less diverse cultural background, however, identifying one’s ethnic identity or identities is often a personal decision. It becomes an option that can be chosen to be displayed or not in a given situation depending on the individual's needs or desires. Also, a person’s ethnic identity can change over time.

Three activities compose this lesson. The first introduces students to the history of Italian immigration, settlement, and the development of ethnic identity in Pennsylvania placing this history in a larger historical context. Gross differences between rural, small town and urban life are made illustrating the important role of place in contributing to the diversity of communities that existed. The second activity introduces students to key themes in Italian immigrant life during the first half of the twentieth century through oral history excerpts of immigrants and second generation Italian Americans. Students learn the importance of oral history in the study of immigration history and how historians use it. The third activity allows students to create a dramatic performance by drawing on all the material learned in activities one and two. By using primary sources from the HSP and other local collections as well as material from the author’s own collection, the students learn about issues significant to the study of Italian immigration and ethnic identity in Pennsylvania.

Sources used in this Introduction:

Saverino, Joan L. "‘Domani Ci Zappa`’: Italian Immigration and Ethnicity in Pennsylvania." Pennsylvania Folklife. 45 (autumn 1995):2–22.