Abstract Correspondence of German Jewish archaeologist Dr. Hermine Speier (1898-1989), the first woman employed by the Vatican, who converted to Catholicism and worked under Church protection. The majority of the correspondence is with Speier's lover, Italian airship navigator General Umberto Nobile, who lived in America in exile due to personal conflicts with Mussolini. The collection includes many photographs of Nobile and some of Speier, and a photograph album of Nobile, compiled and dedicated by...

Scope and Contents This is a collection of letters (as well as postcards and telegrams) written by Umberto Nobile in Joliet, Illinois and in Lockport, Illinois to Hermine Speier in Rome from January, 1940 to April, 1940. Having left two of Totosca’s puppies in Rochester with his cousin and his wife, Nobile is left with Totosca and one male puppy, both of whom he continues to portray as his preferred company during his stay in the States. In these letters, Nobile continues to keep Speier apprised of his social...

Scope and Contents This is a collection of letters (as well as postcards and telegrams) written by Umberto Nobile largely in Joliet, Illinois to Hermine Speier in Rome during May and June of 1940. During this period, Nobile travels to a conference hosted by Sicilian residents of Milwaukee, and he continues to make quick jaunts to Chicago and other nearby towns for social and professional outings – as always, he keeps Speier well informed of his itinerary. He expresses the lingering difficulty of having lost...

Scope and Contents This is a collection of letters (as well as telegrams) written by Umberto Nobile largely in Rochester, NY to Hermine Speier in Rome during July through December of 1940. The majority of the envelopes in this folder bear indications that their contents have been censored. During this period, Nobile is enjoying the peacefulness of the countryside at his cousin’s home in Rochester; rather than doing the work he intended to accomplish during his vacation, he admits to passing his days reading,...

Scope and Contents The very few letters from Umberto Nobile to Hermine Speier in 1941 indicate that he is once again living in Joliet, IL at this time. He shares that, during his time in Joliet, his workload is exceptionally heavy (he mentions publishing and presenting a new work) and his solitude, unremitting. The delay in the postal service continues to be problematic for the couple’s communication. Nobile describes this period as the worst time in America he’s endured so far. In one letter, Nobile explains...

Scope and Contents

This folder contains undated correspondence from Umberto Nobile to Hermine Speier. Included are postcards from Bolzano, Joliet, and Notre Dame; letters from the years in which Nobile lived in Italy as well as from those in which he lived in America; and telegrams from Milan and Augsburg on which the dates are illegible.

Scope and Contents

This folder contains a letter in German from one Robert Boehringer (German industrialist and poet) to Speier, another letter in German from one L. Lichnowsky to Speier, and a telegram from the Pope congratulating Speier on her conversion to Catholicism.

Scope and Contents This folder contains dated letters, telegrams, and letter drafts written by Hermine Speier to Umberto Nobile between 1937 and 1940. It contains one letter from 1937, 9 letters from 1938, 12 letters and a telegram from 1939, and 15 letters from 1940. Most recurrently, Speier discusses her concern for Nobile’s health, her desire to receive more frequent and detailed updates on his life, her concern for the trajectory of their relationship as they spend increasingly long spans of time apart,...

Scope and Contents

This folder contains undated and/or incomplete letters and letter drafts written by Hermine Speier to Umberto Nobile. The contents of this folder are in no particular order, as many of the documents are too fragmentary to group together into cohesive units.

Scope and Contents

Ephemera include newspaper clippings (many of which are articles about Nobile lifted from American papers during his time in Illinois), postcards that have not been postmarked, and programs from events Nobile attended.