Daughters of the Eternal City Records

Collection — Box: 1-2

Identifier: MS-139

Staff Only

Collection Scope and Content Summary

Records, 1915-1980, of the Daughters of the Eternal City, an Italian women's benefit society in Calumet, Michigan. Includes minutes of monthly meetings (earlier minutes in Italian), ledgers with payments of dues recorded as well as other financial records and reports. Also includes a ritual book, in Italian, and a certificate of appreciation from the Knights of Columbus.

Dates

1915-1980

Access

Available for use in the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections.

Biography

In January, 1915, the Ladies of the Eternal City (later the Daughters of the Eternal City) was organized with 20 charter members as an Italian women's benefit society in Calumet, Michigan. The organization met regularly at the Italian Hall in Calumet and sponsored dinners and dances, in addition to performing charity work. Initially the society provided both sick benefits and death benefits, although later the sick benefits were discontinued and the organization became more of a social club rather than a benefit society. Along with the Christopher Columbus Society, the local Italian men's society, the women attended meetings of the Italian American Federation of the Upper Peninsula, a mutual benefit society that united the various societies under one administration. The society was disbanded in 1980.