Immigrant Artisans and the Building of Yale

Two Italian New Haveners, Francesco Coiro and Peter S. Saldibar, contributed some astonishing artistic vision and talent to Yale’s collegiate Gothic buildings in the 1920s and 1930s. Sadly, like many craftsmen of the era, they received no recognition during their lifetimes. The two artisans will finally get their due during a lunchtime webinar for New Haven Museum, “Immigrant Artisans and the Building of Yale,” presented by graduating Yale University history student Daphne Stratton Gignac, on June 11, 2025, 12:30 pm.

Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sIXV9MjeQRWzVHNFxuMZkw#/registration

Stratton Gignac discovered Coiro and Saldibar’s stories when she heard a local community member’s story of her grandfather, who had come from Italy to work on Yale’s residential colleges. “I was immediately intrigued, but as I started to research the topic, I was struck by the lack of information in Yale’s histories surrounding the identifies of the craftsmen that contributed to the school’s early 20th-century buildings,” Stratton Gignac says.