Harriet Luthrop Dunham and Carolina de Viti de Marco: Emancipation Through Lacemaking

This chapter by Elena Laurenzi, starts with the reconstruction of the political and social project of two sisters-in-law: Harriet Lathrop Dunham (alias Etta de Viti de Marco) who we have already met, and Carolina de Viti de Marco (1863–1965). The partial portrait of the former, outlined in the second chapter of the book, is now completed with the analysis of her activism in the struggle for women’s emancipation. The author shows that her most outstanding and original contribution to feminism was in the field of political philanthropy, thanks to her innovative vision of social assistance, and her active participation in the Italian Female Industries. Together with her sister-in-law, Carolina de Viti de Marco, in 1901 she set up a pioneering enterprise, the Casamassella School of lacemaking, where the techniques of the old embroidery were taught. Their project intended to fight poverty and to foster the autonomy of the local women. Their enterprise grew during the first decade of the twentieth century and became so internationally known and renowned that their products twice received a gold medal in exhibitions (in 1906 and 1910). Carolina de Viti de Marco was also asked to run the female section of an Art School Applied to Industry, in a period in which women’s technical and professional training was very scarce in Italy, particularly in the south of the country. The hostility of the local aristocracy and the effect of the Great War put an end to their lacework production.