Harriet Lathrop Dunham alias Etta de Viti de Marco

In this Chapter the author Manuela Mosca reconstructs the life, thought and activity of Harriet Lathrop Dunham (New York 1894—Rome 1939), known in Italy as Etta de Viti de Marco. This chapter does not deal with her activism in the struggle for women’s emancipation, as this issue is dealt later in the book (Chapter 5 ). It outlines her biography, which has never been studied before, focusing mainly on her cultural and political interests. The chapter describes her social commitment, and her patronage of artists and writers. It also reconstructs her involvement in the political battles in support of free trade and of the development of the South of Italy. She fought them between the 1890s and 1920s with her husband—the economist and politician Marquis Antonio de Viti de Marco (1858–1943)—and the group of Italian liberals. In particular, Etta de Viti de Marco took care of the relations of the Italian radicals with the Anglo-Saxon liberal world. Like most of the enlightened elite of that generation, she believed in education, democracy and civil progress, topics on which she wrote articles published in prestigious journals.