Description

Red bodice with white and tan floral decoration on fabric. Tan lace on front of bodice, sleeves, and collar. Orange-red bow in front. Sleeves have elastic and interior resembles a corset. The bodice was donated by Nancy Piazza. It was made by the Ms. Piazza's great grandmother in Sicily and sent to Minneapolis as a gift to Ms. Piazza's grandmother who lived here. The Piazza family went on to establish the famous Caf di Napoli in 1938, which ran for over 60 years before closing in 2005. Minnesota is well known as a state filled with German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Irish immigrants who came here in the 1800s and early 1900s, but the story of the Piazza family is echoed by thousands of other Italian immigrants, who established communities like the Beltrami neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis. Beltrami, named after Giacomo Beltrami, an Italian explorer who, with the help of Native Americans, searched for the headwaters of the Mississippi River in what would later become Minnesota. The neighborhood was home to Delmonico's, a beloved Italian grocery store that sold wholesale to the Caf Di Napoli.