Interview with Robin Tagliaferri

Title

Interview with Robin Tagliaferri

Description

Robin Tagliaferri shares stories about the experiences of her grandfather, Paolo, at the Gorham Manufacturing Company as he transitioned into working as the gardener. Paolo and Zelinda Tagliaferri were Italian immigrants to the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Paolo spend most of his life working for Gorham. He worked creatively in the Bronze foundry until he hurt his back and then served as the on site gardener. The strong family connection to Gorham is still remnant three generations later in Robin Tagliaferri. Robin attributes her artistic talents to her grandfather's own creativity and currently serves as the Executive Director at the Forbes House Museum in Milton, Massachusetts.

Date

November 1, 2011

Transcription

Robin Tagliaferri: He told stories about – well we believe, and my grandmother maybe reinforcing this, was that when he was was often mowing the lawn say on a lawn tractor type thing. That he'd hear some chinking noises. He would stop the lawn mower and lo-and-behold he would find on the ground silverware.

Forks and knives and spoons and probably things that people in the factory were tossing out that maybe they would go and pick it up on their way home from work, and they could make themselves maybe a set of silverware in time. My grandfather would collect them all. And we actually did have a big chunk of them at the house. They might still be saved. My dad might still have them. But they would be odd things here and there that someone would toss out the window and he would find them because they would jam in the lawnmower. So that was a fun story too.

So really outside of that just hard working people, setbacks of course but they were able to purchase their own house and have this wonderful property. So it was a, I think, a hard life. Lots of hard work but it was one that immigrant families did then and do now.

Interviewer

Maria Quintero

Interviewee

Robin Tagliaferri

Location

John Nicholas Brown Center, 357 Benefit Street, Providence, RI

Files

Citation

“Interview with Robin Tagliaferri,” Reservoir of Memories, accessed March 29, 2024, https://reservoirofmemories.omeka.net/items/show/28.