While teaching their "Modern Art, Architecture, and Urban Planning, 1870—Today" course for Duquesne University's Rome Program, Professor Emeriitus David Wilkins & his wife, Dr. Ann Thomas Wilkins, were invited to present a lecture on "How Material Culture Illuminates History" for a course on World War II at Temple University in Rome. The original source material that was passed around among the students included pamphlets that promoted Fascist accomplishments, medals with images of Mussolini, and postage stamps that documented the Fascist fascination with ancient Roman emperors. Examples of World War II ephemera from America were magazine advertisements with caricatures of Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito and many patriotic envelopes. Other examples included brochures in English produced to educate and enlighten Allied soldiers, such as "A Soldier's Guide to Italian History" and "A Soldier's Guide to Rome," "...to Florence," and "...to Tuscany."
