Museum of Industrial Heritage

On the occasion of a training stage in cooperation with the Institut National du Patrimoine in Paris, the Industrial Heritage Museum has started the cataloguing of a collection of lithographic stones coming from the Tipografia Bodoniana in Bologna and dating back to the late 19th century – early 20th century. 120 specimens out of a total amount of 500 have been catalogued and digitized. The article reproduces a part of the final account by the trainee.

In March 2011 the Industrial Heritage Museum in Bologna and the Soprintendenza Archivistica for Emilia-Romagna have come to an agreement upon a census of historical company archives in the territory of Bologna. The project’s first step is a pilot study of the archives of four momentous companies in the Bolognese productive framework, namely G.D/ACMA, Fabbri, Carpigiani and SAMOR, focused on documentary evidence up until 1970, or to later years in individual cases. The project’s second goal is to network the results of the census, with the companies’ consent, by means of SIUSA, a computerized cataloguing system.

Roberto Curti, Director of the Industrial Heritage Museum from its establishment until March 2003, restyles his conversations with Bruno Gnudi, owner of GB Gnudi spa and a protagonist of the development of the packaging industry in Bologna, in the form of a story. His biography is typical in the packaging division: after getting a diploma at Aldini-Valeriani he got a job at OARE (Officina Automobilistica di Riparazione dell’Esercito) and began to collaborate with the dawning packaging companies. In 1956 he was recruited at CAM, owned by Antonio Martelli, where he took care of the customer office and played a leading role in the development of the packaging division.

The history of Marchesini originated from the intuition of its founder Massimo Marchesini. After attending Istituto Aldini-Valeriani and a work experience at CAM (Costruzioni Antonio Martelli) as a skilled worker in the field of  automatic machines, he decided to set up business on his own account and established 2M in Pianoro, a village near Bologna. On the occasion of the insertion of Marchesini BA1000 cartoning machine within the permanent collection of the Museum, the article reconstructs the firm’s history and highlights the technical innovations and entrepreneurship of its protagonists.