Emigration Documentation Centre - Donato (Bi)

The experience

The Emigration Documentation Centre was established in 2007 in Donato at the Town Hall, in the premises that once belonged to the Workers’ Mutual Aid Society, granted for use by the Municipality to the Valle Elvo and Serra Ecomuseum.
All the material collected during the survey carried out since 2001 by the Research Group on emigrants from the fifteen villages in the area has been conferred there: Camburzano, Donato, Graglia, Magnano, Mongrando, Muzzano, Netro, Occhieppo Inferiore, Occhieppo Superiore, Pollone, Sala Sordevolo, Torrazzo, Zimone and Zubiena.
Between 2004 and 2024, the Ecomuseum published a series of nine volumes containing interviews and direct testimonies of emigrants and/or their families (vol. 1 and 2), a biographical dictionary with the cards of about 7,000 emigrants (vol. 3), a collection of essays on the themes of emigration (vol. 4, 5 and 6) and 3 catalogues produced on the occasion of the exhibition “Towards distant lands” set up in 2006 and the exhibition “At Work Beyond the Border” of 2024

All the material (oral and written interviews, video recordings, letters and documents, photographic archive of over a thousand digitized images) can be consulted for study and research purposes upon simple written request.

THE LIBRARY AND THE VIDEO LIBRARY

The Centre has a library of about 600 volumes, divided into two sectors:
1) Emigration from Biella, Piedmont and Italy (about 200 works);
2) Local culture (about 400 works).
It also has a video library of about 100 VHS and DVDs with documentaries and auteur films focused on the theme of historical and current emigration.

THE DOCUMENTARY ARCHIVE

In addition to the documentation on emigrants, the Centre collects documents (in original or photostatic copy) from family and business archives in the fifteen countries, as well as various collections of photographs relating to the landscape, the environment and local traditions.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES

The Centre houses some archives belonging to professional or amateur photographers in the area:

• Umberto Perin Riz Archive: over 10,000 images taken by the photographer from Netrese in his hometown and surroundings from 1930 to 1960
• Antonio Pozzato Archive: about 1500 images focused in particular on Graglia and its territory
• Archivio Marino Botalla Gambetta: about 700 images dedicated in particular to Donato and his territory
• Vittorio Canepa Archive: about 500 images relating to Pollone and its territory
• Alberto Levis Archive: about 900 images on Pollone
• Lelio Rettuga Archive: about 1500 images on local flora and fauna

Anyone who has material related to the themes set out above and would like to pay homage to the Center (even a copy, which can be made by the Ecomuseum) can contact us: they will have all our gratitude and will help us reconstruct another piece of our history.