My Americanization

About this book

Matilde Valenti Pfeiffer tells her story of immigrating from Italy to America with her American husband where he became a Harvard professor. She raised two children and traveled. Her husband was Robert Henry Pfeiffer (1892-1958). Pfeifer was born in Bologna, Italy. He received his MA and PhD from Harvard University. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1916 and held a pastorate in Sanborn, New York, from 1916 to 1919. In 1922, he was hired as a professor at Harvard University and he was appointed Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages in 1953. He also served as a professor at Boston University's School of Theology. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in anthropology in 1928 and served as Annual Professor for the Baghdad School of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) from 1928 to 1929. Pfeiffer also served as the curator to Harvard's Semitic Museum.