Oro alla Patria: handing in gold wedding rings in Milan, 1935
Men, women and a small girl queue to hand in gold at a collection desk in Milan during the Ethiopian war, under a poster reading "Date oro alla Patria" (Give gold to the Fatherland) with a helmeted Italia and marching troops. The wedding ring, the fede (also "faith"), is turned into a public proof of loyalty, and the queue itself shows that everyone else is giving.
- Date
- December 1935
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- National Fascist Party (PNF), Oro alla Patria collection
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- Fascist Italy
- Medium
- Photograph
- Issuer type
- Party
- Regime
- Fascist Italy
- Leader
- Benito Mussolini
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- War and the military, Economy and finance, Home front
- Event
- Second Italo Ethiopian War
- Techniques
- Identity fusionTransferBandwagon
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (PD-Italy simple photograph; PD-1996 in the U.S.)
Photographer unknown, Milan, 1935. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
DATE·ORO·ALLA·PATRIA
GIVE GOLD TO THE FATHERLAND
This is the only legible printed text visible in the photograph; it is the arched headline of the poster hanging behind the collection desk. Any smaller text elsewhere in the poster or on the desk is not legible at this photograph's resolution (500x355 px).
