Hey everyone!
Link to photo(prob wrong way of doing this - sorry pretty new to reddit) - Photo
So My Great Grandfather Giuseppe was born in Italy in the Caserta-Napoli area and immigrated to the USA at some point prior to World War I. Near the end of WWI , Giuseppe enlisted in the United States Army, but from what we were told the war ended prior to him being deployed. After the war he returned back to Italy, started a family, and passed away from an illness when my Grandfather was only a small child. So we don't have too many facts about his time in the USA aside from (now long dead) relatives who were in Italy at the time he was in America.
Now this is where I need help. What we do have is a photo of him in his army uniform which has a boarder around it with a few different images. The photo was always at my Grandfather's house, but I never truly looked at it until my cousin got the photo copied and framed for everyone in the family as a gift. In it you will notice some things I found odd. The American Eagle is at the top with a "e pluribus unum" scroll, but instead of the traditional olive branch and arrow it seems to be perched on top of what looks to me the be the Italian Fascist logo, and surrounded by the Italian and American Flags. Also the heart with a black star at the bottom, not sure if it has any significance. The rest of the images seem just like war time stages for the soldiers ( with family, fighting, reunited with loved one).
It seems odd because, unless I'm wrong, The Fascists party doesn't get founded until 1921-22 while WWI has been over for about 3 years at this point. So the symbolism in the photo doesn't fit the time frame of world war 1. Also if its an official army photo (not sure how photos were done back then) the mix of the Italian and American imagery is odd. I also thought the US and Italy were considered enemies during the Fascist rule (maybe that came later as well)
I did a bunch of research on google but couldn't find much, so not sure if anyone could shed any light on the photo.
Also related to my Great Grandfather. Is there any place where we could find his enlistment documents from about 100 years ago? He is the reason my Mother's side of family was able to immigrate to the USA- due to his service in the army his family was able to become citizens. His name is even on a WWI memorial in town showing he served, Yet we have never had it verified or have any formal documents showing he ever enlisted.
TL;DR- Have a photo of my Italian Great Grandfather in a US army uniform with American and (I believe) Fascist images and I'm not sure what the images surrounding the photo means. Imagery also doesn't fit in the same time period. Also interested in finding his Military/enlistment documents from WWI.
Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification may be of use to you. It provides a number of different resources, including how to request service records from a number of national agencies around the world, as well as graphical aids to assist in deciphering rank, unit, and other forms of badges or insignia. While the users here may still be able to lend you more assistance, hopefully this will provide a good place to start!
My friend has used Ancestry.com to find photos and documents that were uploaded by distant relatives. He found some old family pictures from Norway that his parents hadn't seen. Maybe you could upload your photos and see if anyone there can give more insight, or compare them to similar ones. Also, the DNA mapping is pretty cool, just be aware of conspiracy theories about companies selling your genetic information to insurance companies and whatnot.
Fasces, involving a bundle of sticks and usually with an axes, did not and does not necessarily mean Fascism.
The Founding Fathers certainly knew of classical civilization and admired much of it: it didn't just influence the public buildings but also the government (the Federalist Papers had six references to the Roman Republic). Fasces were a symbol of authority in the Roman Republic, and that symbolism has been used in the U.S. continuously. To illustrate with some significant examples, I easily found examples of fasces all over the place, most of them provably from before Fascist Italy.
all over the Lincoln Memorial
on and about the rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives
atop the U.S. Capitol dome, about the base of the statue of Freedom
the seal of Colorado
the reverse of the U.S. dime from 1916 to 1945, and 2016, the Winged Liberty Head dime (nicknamed the Mercury dime). For that matter, a double eagle of 1859 (“ISSUES OF THE MINT OF THE UNITED STATES [Continued].” American Journal of Numismatics, and Bulletin of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society, vol. 10, no. 2, 1875, pp. 38–41. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43583846.). Note that this continued while the U.S. was at war with Fascist Italy (it was changed to a torch after 1945).
The first Bank of the United States had faces over each window. (Contosta, David R. “Architecture and the United States History Survey.” The History Teacher, vol. 18, no. 1, 1984, pp. 17–43. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/492876.)
and others less prominent.
The 48-star flag was adopted in 1916, so there's a starting point, so it could easily be not an Italian Fascist reference at all. Or perhaps it might have been, but it's fair to say that it was nothing that would have raised alarms even after 1922.