Michael DeCiantis was born in 1900 in Sora, Italy. He was adopted at birth by Sofia and Luigi DeCiantis. His birth parents were Carlo Bruni and Zaiira Morganti. DeCiantis and his adopted family immigrated from Italy to the United States in 1909 and eventually settled in Natick, Rhode Island. In 1915, DeCiantis graduated from West Warwick Grammar School. In 1920, he received a commercial diploma from West Warwick High School. He attended Boston University Law School from 1921-1923, and clerked in the law firm of Quinn, Kernan, and Quinn. In 1925, DeCiantis was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar. From 1926-1928, he was judge of the probate court of West Warwick, and from 1933-1937 he served as assistant attorney general under Attorney General John P. Hartigan. DeCiantis was appointed Chief of the Division of Public Utilities by then Governor Robert E Quinn. DeCiantis held this position from August 1937 to January 1938. He was also the treasurer of the Democratic State Committee from 1937-1941 and the chief counsel of the Rhode Island Unemployment Compensation Board from 1941-1943, while resuming his private law practice. In 1946, DeCiantis was named town solicitor for West Warwick, a position he held until 1961, when Governor John A. Notte Jr. named DeCiantis to a new five-member Family Court. He served in this role until his retirement in 1978.
In 1930, Michael DeCiantis married Dorothy “Dot” (née Glenn), and the couple had one daughter, Ann Frances DeCiantis. The family lived in West Warwick, RI. Dorothy DeCiantis died in 1973, and Michael DeCiantis died in 1993.
The collection predominantly reflects Michael DeCiantis’s professional and political activities as an assistant attorney general in Rhode Island, as well as his role as associate justice of the Rhode Island Family Court. The collection includes professional and personal correspondence and documents concerning DeCiantis's study of the law, his law practice, and business investments. The collection also includes materials related to the Democratic Party and speeches DeCiantis delivered promoting Democratic candidates in Rhode Island. Materials relating to his personal life include photographs and oral histories, which mostly discuss his childhood in Italy, being adopted, finding his birth parents, and living in Natick and West Warwick, Rhode Island.
Researchers are advised to contact Rhode Island College Special Collections for questions regarding permissions to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise publish material from this collection. Although Rhode Island College has physical ownership of the collection, it does not necessarily hold literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The collection is open for research.
Michael DeCiantis papers, MSS-0001, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College
The collection has been arranged into the following series and subseries.
The collection was initially donated in 1972 by Michael DeCiantis to the Rhode Island College Ethnic Heritage Studies Project and the Rhode Island College Adams Library. A deed of gift was signed at that time, which transferred ownership to Adams Library. The records ultimately came under the auspices of the Rhode Island College Special Collections. Periodic donations were made to the collection between 1973 and 1980 with subsequent deeds signed by DeCiantis. The Ethnic Heritage Studies Project records in the collection arrived in 1983. A bust of DeCiantis, made by Mrs. Edward J. Hayes (first name not given) was donated to RIC Special Collections in 1975 by Edward J. Hayes.
The collection was arranged and described by Michael Kohl, assistant librarian in Rhode Island College Special Collections in 1975. In 2022, the collection was reboxed, redescribed to meet current archival standards, and additions that arrived between 1975-1983 were incorporated into the collection by Veronica L. Denison, Digital Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Rhode Island College. In 2024, additional collection materials were incorporated into the collection and the finding aid updated by Denison.
Works used in preparation of inventory: Biographical information was taken from items in the collection.
Publications were removed from the collection and added to the Adams Library General Collection and the Special Collections Rare Books Collection. Scrapbook numbers 1-25 were digitized and destroyed due to preservation concerns. Scrapbook 26, a diary, and a 1938 yearbook, which Michael DeCiantis originally donated with the collection, were removed by DeCiantis in 1979. Please contact the Rhode Island College Special Collections for further information.
The scrapbooks in this collection were digitized and are available online through Rhode Island College Digital Commons.
The scrapbooks in this collection were digitized and removed from the collection due to preservation concerns. The digital surrogates are available online through Rhode Island College Digital Collections. Additionally, DeCiantis’s oral histories and other collection items have been digitized and are also
Correspondence mostly pertains to DeCiantis’s career, law practice, and court cases he decided, though the series also includes personal correspondence. Rhode Island politics is a frequent topic throughout. Correspondents include: Christopher Del Sesto, Governor of Rhode Island; U.S. Representative John E. Fogarty (D-RI); Mayor of Providence James Doorley; U.S. Senator Theodore Francis Greene (D-RI); J. Howard McGrath, U.S. Attorney General; Rev. Russell J. McVinney, Bishop of Providence; John McWeeney, State Senator (D-RI); Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island John Notte Jr.; Robert E. Quinn, Governor of Rhode Island; John O. Pastore, U.S. Senator (D-RI); Frank Rao, Chairman of the Democratic State Committee. Arranged chronologically by folder.
This series contains cases from DeCiantis’s public and private career. The files include briefs, petitions, testimony, decisions, notes, and research materials. The series also includes three volumes of Family Court decisions rendered by DeCiantis, as well as a rescript of the volumes, and a list of all the cases he pleaded before the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The Family Court decisions concern divorce petitions, child custody cases, and juvenile rights.
The series contains speeches given by Michael DeCiantis relating to topics such as the Democratic and Republican Parties in Rhode Island as well as elections and local campaigns, controversies in West Warwick, and the status and troubles facing youths. The series is arranged chronologically.
This series consists of class notes taken by DeCiantis while at Boston University Law School.
The clipping files in the collection include loose clippings (subseries 6a) and clipping scrapbooks (subseries 6b). The newspaper clippings pertain to DeCiantis’s career and document public controversies, the Democratic Party in Rhode Island, government and law, and a variety of court cases. The entire series was microfilmed.
Most of the news clipping in this subseries pertain to DeCiantis’s career and document public controversies, the Democratic Party in Rhode Island, government and law, and a variety of court cases. The clippings in box 5, folder 18 are clippings related to Congressional Records. This subseries is mostly arranged chronologically and is also available on microfilm within the collection.
For preservation purposes, all scrapbooks were dismantled, digitized, and discarded (except scrapbook 26). Any photographs or original materials (not newspaper clippings) in the scrapbooks were removed and are indicated in the below inventory list. The scrapbooks are also available on microfilm. Most of the scrapbooks in this subseries contain news clipping relating to DeCiantis’s career and document public controversies, the Democratic Party in Rhode Island, government and law, and a variety of court cases. Item number 15 includes clippings related to the 1956 Rhode Island gubernatorial election and item number 26 contains newspaper clippings, poems, photographs, and other items which were collected by Michael DeCiantis’s mother-in-law, Mrs. John Glenn (no first name given). This scrapbook was microfilmed and subsequently removed from the collection by DeCiantis.
Many of the postcards of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have the name Earl R. Knight written on the back.
In February 1972, Rhode Island College announced the establishment of the Ethnic Heritage Studies Project. The project set out to document the experiences of Rhode Island's many ethnic groups and to create curriculum materials, conferences, and the acquisition of ethnic materials for the then newly created Special Collections at Rhode Island College. While the interviews with DeCiantis seem to be completed under this project, they were never part of the Rhode Island College Ethnic Heritage Studies Project records given to the Rhode Island College Special Collections. This series contains audiocassettes of the interviews as well as a transcript of one of the interviews and an edited version of another interview. The series also includes written recollections provided by DeCiantis. In the interviews and written recollections DeCiantis discusses his early life in Italy, being adopted and finding his birth family in Italy, politics, the Ku Klux Klan in Rhode Island, and his career. The materials relating to the Ethnic Heritage Studies Project were added to the DeCiantis papers in 1983.