In 1909, Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published a manifesto in Paris called "Le Futurisme," calling for a new art forged out of the beauty of speed and machinery and a glorification of war.

Futurism began to influence artists in Italy soon afterwards, and eventually the Italian Futurists made their mark on all the arts, including poetry and drama, book design, film and photography, painting, sculpture, architecture and even cooking.

Perhaps because this movement was founded by a poet, some of the Futurists' strongest influence was on typography. Futurist poems are boldly designed, highly visual pieces. F.T. Marinetti sought to free words from their typographical traditions; this he called Parole in Liberta´ :  Words in Freedom.

Rosa Trillo Clough was a respected scholar of the Futurist movement, and wrote a number of books about Futurism. She taught Italian at Hunter College from 1928 to 1956, and headed the Modern Language Department at Finch College from 1956 to 1971. She founded the Center for Italian Studies in the Palm Beaches, and lived in West Palm Beach until her death in 2001.

This archive began with Rosa's collection of books, given to us with thanks to her family and to Myriam Swennen Ruthenberg, FAU Italian Studies. Numerous original items have been added to the archive with thanks to Ruth and Marvin Sackner of the Sackner Archive of Conrete & Visual Poetry, Miami Beach.