On October 4, 2025, DaShoW joined the Metro Nashville Historical Commission, the City of Fanano (Italy), the Consulate General of Italy in Detroit (represented by the Honorary Consul Christopher M. Caputo) and members of Primo Bartolini's family to unveil a new historical marker honoring him at 511 Rep. John Lewis Way S in Nashville, Tennessee. The full ceremony is now available on our YouTube channel.
Primo Bartolini (1889–1959) was born in Fanano, in the province of Modena, Italy, and moved to Nashville in 1908. He was the first foreign-born resident of Tennessee to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War I. Alongside Gaetano Salvatore De Luca, he co-founded the Nashville Conservatory of Music and later became the first white faculty member to teach at both Fisk University and Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College (now Tennessee State University), two historically Black institutions. A scholar and champion of Italian American ethnic and cultural integration, Bartolini also wrote hundreds of poems on love, nostalgia, and patriotism.
The marker stands at the site of the stone house Bartolini built with his wife, Maria, in 1931, which was built over the remains of the home of Union sailor Captain William Driver. The house stood until its demolition in 2015.
The unveiling ceremony opened with remarks from Jessica Fitzpatrick Historical Marker Program Administrator for the Metro Nashville Historical Commission, and Matteo Brera, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Research Fellow at the University of Padua and Seton Hall University. Attendees included Christopher M. Caputo, Honorary Consul of Italy to the State of Tennessee; Angie Emery Henderson, Vice Mayor of Nashville and President of the Metro Council; Stefano Muzzarelli, Mayor of Fanano, Bartolini's hometown; Kelley Sirko and Ken Fieth of the Nashville Metro Archives; and William J. Connell, La Motta Endowed Chair in Italian Studies at Seton Hall University. Members of Bartolini's family also participated in the tribute.
This initiative was made possible by the support of the European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, grant agreement no. 101066188), the University of Padua, Seton Hall University's Alberto Italian Studies Institute and La Motta Endowed Chair in Italian Studies, the Nashville Metro Archives, and the Nashville Public Library Foundation, with institutional backing from the Metro Nashville Government, the Metro Historical Commission, the City of Fanano, the Honorary Consul of Italy in Tennessee, and the Consulate General of Italy in Detroit.
Watch the full ceremony here:
