We are proud to be a partner of the Italian Rugby Federation for the FIR100 Project, with the online publication of the historical photographic archive of Italian rugby on the MomaPIX platform. It is a portal cataloged in various sections that will expand over time, currently made up of about 40,000 digitized images that want to represent a core of the broader cultural operation of approaching the first century of life of the F.I.R.
This publication represents the first step of the project called FIR100 which, through various initiatives dedicated to research, study and cultural dissemination, aims to celebrate the first century of the Italian Rugby Federation.
Historical photo archive: a common heritage to develop cultural identity.
The FIR100 Project aims to promote the values of Rugby, whose slogan is: Passion and Culture. Here are some statements from those who supported its launch.
This is the comment of the President of the F.I.R., Marzio Innocenti: “This project makes me particularly proud for two reasons: the first is that as an enthusiast, this archive represents for me a source of true pleasure, with a collection of extraordinary images , a rich and in-depth cataloging work, an already important organization by sections that can be expanded over time, making navigation and research increasingly capillary. The second is that this project fully embodies passion and culture, giving the whole movement a product of absolute excellence, in the belief that there can be no vision of the future without being aware of one’s roots, through which a fundamental element for a discipline acquires value like ours, the sense of belonging, which starts from one’s own Club, passes through the Blue shirt and is finally rooted in feeling part of a real community.”
“In recent years, many have already dealt with the history of rugby: fans, collectors, journalists, scholars, all animated by a great passion” explains Elvis Lucchese, institutional referent of the project. “The purpose now is to make the most of these resources, team up, with the long-term goal of creating a shared language, awareness of a common heritage. The mapping of the existing material is the first step to be taken and the historical-photographic archive plastically represents its meaning, giving shape to a project in which we all believe so much.”
Francesco Grosso, National Head of Promotion & Development adds: “The historical-photographic archive of the FIR represents an important action of the Promotion & Development area. An action that, starting today, is projected towards 2028, the year of the FIR centenary, with the aim of contributing to bringing out and enhancing the many stories of the area, because girls and boys, girls and boys, women and men who approach Rugby feel they belong to a Club, an environment and a community whose history (long or short) contributes substantially to making up the collective one of Italian Rugby, doing their part for its development and its growth in terms of awareness and cultural identity.”
Daniele Resini, photographer, founder and co-manager of the monthly Allrugby concludes: “With the networking of the FIR Historical-Photographic Archive, the curtain opens on a story never visited before with such breadth. The images of the personalities and sporting events in which they were protagonists will constitute a real genealogy of Italian rugby. I designed the archive structure in order to allow an exploration of this long story in all its possible articulations and, above all, to form the basis for further research, insights and the discovery of unpublished materials – which we want to share with all the components of the movement – from which to start to gradually insert the relative testimonies in the container that can now be visited, enriching it over time.”
Dynamism of the historical archive: ease of organization and classification with MomaPIX
The historical-photographic archive of Italian rugby is divided into eight sections in this first phase:
- The Azzurri, the Azzurre, the FIR
- Leagues and Clubs
- Youth and School
- Women’s Rugby
- Men’s Senior Nationals
- World Cups
- Six Nations
- Cups and Tournaments in Europe
The sections are destined to be enriched over time thanks to the contribution of private collections, collaborations with Study Centres, Research Institutions, Universities, Foundations, Committees and Territorial Delegations of the FIR and individual Clubs, such as the one with the prestigious Museo delle Civiltà in Rome.
We invite you to visit the photo archive of the Italian Rugby Federation.
