The Stephen H. Hart Research Center provides access to the History Colorado Collection as well as research and reproduction services. Please visit the History Colorado website for more information. Research Center staff are happy to help with virtual assistance at cosearch@state.co.us or by telephone 303-866-2305.
The Research Center is open for in-person appointments on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and select Saturdays from 10am-3pm. Please contact us to schedule an appointment. Appointments must be arranged at least 3 business days prior to date of intended visit.
Between 2002 and 2007 History Colorado (HC) staff collaborated with Colorado’s Italian American community to document that community’s story in the state—a story previously underrepresented in the HC collection. A key to this successful collaboration was the development of the HC Colorado Italian American Preservation Association (CIAPA). The mission of this volunteer organization founded in 2002 includes developing, supporting, and coordinating projects that preserve, promote, and celebrate Italian American culture and heritage. The organization has carried out its mission by meeting with people from Colorado’s Italian American community, recording their stories and creating an archive of research materials (the CIAPA archive) that include oral histories, documents, photographs, moving images, sound recordings, and artifacts. These materials served as the foundation for the development of the 2007 exhibit The Italians of Denver and the 2008 publication of the book Italy in Colorado: Family Histories from Denver and Beyond. History Colorado’s partnership with the Italian American community continues today; CIAPA members are helping to process the CIAPA archive for public access. A select number of items from the CIAPA research archive are presented here.
History Colorado’s responsibility as a museum organization includes rectifying, reconciling, and uplifting underrepresented stories, objects, people, and places. Some of the materials in our collection reflect positions, norms, and values that are no longer—or never were—consistent with those of History Colorado (formerly the Colorado Historical Society) or its staff. We do not endorse prejudiced, stereotyped, or offensive material in our collection and actively work to place those items in context and with interpretation from our communities, as they are an important resource in the study of past and contemporary cultures. For more about how History Colorado does this work, see the History Colorado Anti-Racism Grounding Virtues statement.
If you find inaccuracies or misrepresentations in any object records, please contact cosearch@state.co.us to help us better represent and access our collection.
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