Brown Bag Program

Join Beltrami County Historical Society on Thursday, June 15 at noon as we welcome Dr. John Welle to learn about our county’s namesake, the Italian explorer Giacomo Costantino Beltrami, through his writings.

Beltrami’s seminal work, A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Leading to the Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Bloody River, provides his extraordinary biographical account of his travels in the United States.  Who is the man behind the writing, and why are his works relevant today, especially when they were met with criticism and even hostility during his lifetime?

Dr. Welle is Emeritus Professor of Italian and Concurrent Professor Emeritus of Film, Television and Theatre, at the University of Notre Dame.  He is a long-time teacher and scholar of various authors and topics in Modern Italian literature, including Beltrami.