Modena Institute for the history of the Resistance and Contemporary Society

The Modena History Institute is a non profit-making cultural institution founded in 1950 by a number of anti-Fascists and Partisans, including the Mayor of Modena Alfeo Corassori, to study the Resistance in the Modena area and preserve the relative documentary material. With the passage of time, it has become an institute of contemporary history, focusing on the history of the entire Twentieth Century , and this shift was officially recognised in 1987.
The Institute is funded by Modena’s Provincial Council and the local Municipalities, in recognition of the public services it offers the local population, and its educational and cultural activities. Institutional members include the local Partisan, Workers’ and Co-operative associations.
The History Institute holds an impressive body of documents, comprising a historic collection of over 120 archives relating to Modena’s Twentieth Century history, a library specialised in contemporary history, and a photographic and audio-visual archive. All services are free of charge and open to the public.
An important sector of the Institute’s activity is the provision of courses for history teachers and the preparation of teaching materials. Its cultural activities involve the promotion of historic research, the organisation of exhibitions, debates, seminars and congresses, the publication of books on history and the history research journal “Novecento”'; and the scientific management of the Museum of the Partisan Republic of Montefiorino.
The History Institute forms part of the network of over sixty similar Institutes dedicated to the Resistance, headed by the Milan national Institute for the history of the Italian liberation movement. Today, this network of Institutes is Italy’s largest, best-organised structure for the study of contemporary history (after the universities), for the collection and proper conservation of historic documentation (after the State Archives) and for the training and information of teachers. The national Institute and the network which it co-ordinates enjoy Government recognition under law n. 3, 16 January 1967.