About Us

The Peluso Family Exhibition Gallery

The Assunta, Ignazio, Ada and Romano Peluso Exhibition Gallery was dedicated on March 14, 2008. Located on the Second Floor, the Gallery houses exhibitions showcasing the Library's collections.

The Peluso Family Exhibition Gallery

The Gallery is named in recognition of the extraordinary generosity of Ada and Romano Peluso, and in honor of their parents, Ignazio and Assunta Sommella Peluso. Assunta and Ignazio Peluso, Moscow, late 1930s.Ignazio Peluso was a member of the Library for a number of years, and the entire Peluso family were and are great readers and lovers of books. The senior Mr. Peluso was an Italian diplomat who had postings in Moscow and various parts of Europe before World War II. His wife Assunta had been a teacher and earned a PhD in Economics. After they came to this country, Ignazio Peluso served at the Italian Embassy in Washington and was Chief Chancellor of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations. A resident of the Upper East Side, he first discovered the New York Society Library after his retirement, and he came to treasure this special place for books and reading.

Ada and Romano Peluso have followed their parents' footsteps as cultured and enlightened citizens with a keen sense of civic dedication. For more than 40 years Ada has been on the faculty at Hunter College, where she has served for many years as the Chair of their Department of Mathematics. Her brother Romano shares her combination of interest and skill in both numbers and letters: he is one of the foremost experts on corporate trust matters, having served for most of his professional career in the corporate trust departments of leading financial institutions here in New York and having published widely and authoritatively on the subject. Both Ada and Romano are remarkable for their exemplary philanthropy of which we are so fortunate to be beneficiaries.

Romano I. Peluso and Ada Peluso at the dedication of the gallery, March 2008