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IT and US: Italian American Museum receives visit from 93-year-old quasi immigrant
Ever since the Italian American Museum (IAM) in New York City’s Little Italy put the original shipbuilder’s model of the SS Giuseppe Verdi on exhibit in May, it has been searching nationally for passengers who might still be alive and who were among the more than 70,000 Italian immigrants it brought to America from 1915 to 1928. At best, the museum’s president, Dr. Joseph Scelsa, thought these passengers would likely be in their late 80’s or early 90’s if they were on the ship during its latter years of operation The Museum received a few dozen responses, but only from passengers’ children and grandchildren, including one woman from Staten Island who even showed up with her father’s Italian passport bearing the official stamp of the Verdi.