Italian Shipyard Model

Glass-encased scale model (1:50) of an Italian ship under construction. The front half shows the manual construction methods employed in the 1870s, while the other half is the same boat as it would have been built about 1915-1920 with mechanical equipment. Made by Comincini Flaviano. Presented to FDR on November 8, 1943, by Mr. Genna, Chairman of the Administrative Counsel of the Royal Navy University Institute, Naples, Italy, through Col. Edgar E. Hume, G.S.C., Chief, Military Government Sect., Headquarters Fifth Army. Shipped to the US on the SS Andrew Furuseth, in the custody of the ship's commander, Captain W.S. Dodge. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library Museum Collection.