In addition to signing the truce for the surrender of Italy, formalized on September 8, 1943, General Dwight David Eisenhower also saved the orphan school in Florence. Ten years later. And he did this by making him the official White House supplier when he became president, bringing a touch of Florentine style to the Oval Office: a writing set available to every U.S. president since 1953 that has seen more and more agreements of historic significance. the work of the Florentine Leather School was probably signed. A story that combines altruism, generosity, social redemption, the love of an American colonel and an Italian woman, and intertwines with the aftermath of World War II.
History within history
Until his election as President of the United States in 1953, Eisenhower almost felt at home in Italy. Especially in Florence. After serving as commander of US forces during the conflict, he was responsible for the demobilization of troops in Europe. Meanwhile, because of the war in Italy, there were many orphans. In 1950, Marcello Gori, a Florentine craftsman and tanner who owned a small workshop on Via del Corso, together with his son-in-law Silvano Casini, decided to found a company. leather school, a school where he wanted to teach the orphans of the war a trade in order to give them future jobs. Thanks to the Franciscan friars of the monastery of Santa Croce, Gori found a place for this: the old stables and dormitory of the monks, donated to them by Cosimo de’ Medici five centuries earlier and located on the site of the current San Giuseppe street. . A place in the area where skins were tanned back in the Middle Ages, processing them to make artifacts and objects. When the school opened, orphans who were looking for work did not fail to come here. Boys were taught to recognize quality leather, cut it by hand, and process it into various items. The especially gifted and willing were also taught to decorate their skin with gold, and the items made became more and more valuable.
The idea of a typeface
However, there were no paid jobs at the school, with which Gori would like to provide wages to the orphans. And this is where love comes into play. Tina Gori, Marcello’s sister, met William “Bill” Davis at the officer’s club at Palazzo Borghese, who at the time was a colonel in the American army. It was love at first sight: then they got married and had children. Davis, learning about what Marcello was doing, tried to help him. “Bill,” explains Beatrice Parry Gorey, Marcello’s nephew, “began talking about this school, introduced my grandfather to the US Sixth Fleet and Fifth Army stationed in Naples and Livorno, and we started selling it to the Americans. They were the first customers.” Then Davis, who knew Eisenhower, acted as his guide through Florence when he came to visit. And introduced him to the school. “When he became president of the United States,” explains Filippo Parri Gori, also Marcello’s nephew, “Eisenhower came up with the idea to try to help the school: order him a personalized writing set for the presidency. Since then, it has become a tradition for all presidents, except for the last two, who have their own set decorated with gold paraffs. We became official suppliers, and the School was able to live and help many people.”
Gori’s idea continues
A reproduction of the set can be found today in the display case of Scuola’s laboratory, which is still at the site donated by the monks and which has grown into a company with 20 employees. Many celebrities came to visit, such as Paul Newman, Grace Kelly or Will Smith. In the meantime, still in the old stables, the school has grown into an international center where students come from all over the world – the new course opened on September 6 – but has not lost its social message. In September 2022, the Marcello Gori Foundation was opened, which annually establishes 6 scholarships for people in difficulty, continuing the work of Gori, who, in addition to helping orphans, at the end of 1950 began to offer courses for prisoners, as well as Murate. prison in the hope of giving them work as soon as they get out of prison.