Family History and the Immigration Experience
Learn what life was like for emigrants on board a transatlantic steamship, including supplies, sanitation, and even fashion. These resources explore the immigrant experience including the ships, cost of passage, ships captains and crews, and medical and mental inspection and quarantine.
Explore a web-based collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the United States between 1789 and 1930, with a heavy concentration on the 19th century. Digitized materials include over 400,000 pages from more than 2,200 books, pamphlets, and serials, over 9,600 pages from manuscript and archival collections, and more than 7,800 photographs. Diaries, biographies, and other writings help to capture the diverse experiences of ordinary immigrants. More »
Another great resource from the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives is this collection of articles on the inspection of immigrants, both upon departure from the old company and on arrival in the United States, between 1892 and 1914.More »
Shipboard, an online exhibit from the collections of the State Library of New South Wales, brings to life "the experience of the long voyage to Australia undertaken by thousands of emigrants in the second half of the 19th century," through personal diaries, sketches, published ships' newspapers, and ephemera from the United Kingdom and Australia.More »
This multimedia project presents poetry and interviews from immigrant Chinese detainees at Angel Island Immigration Center. In addition to the interactive, audio presentation, the website also includes an interactive timeline, photo gallery, and immigration station tour.More »
The Keystone View Company, Underwood and Underwood, H. C. White Company and other publishers of popular stereoscopic photographs in the early 20th century documented immigration through the most famous point of entry, Ellis Island. Photographs documenting life and labor of the newly arrived immigrants are also included in this online exhibit.More »
The Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay was often the first stop for immigrants crossing the Pacific Ocean to the United States. The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation has created this online repository of personal stories of immigrants who came through Angel Island, as well as those who came in the many years after the immigration station closed.More »
The Immigration History Research Center & Archives at the University of Minnesota has gathered vast holdings of archival and published sources related to U.S. immigration, including personal papers, oral histories, newspapers, and the organizational records of immigrants and refugees and the agencies created to serve them. The collections are particularly rich on the labor migrants who came to the U.S. between 1880 and the 1930s, on the displaced persons who arrived in the U.S. after World War II, and on the refugees resettled in the United States after 1975. Digital copies of selected items from IHRC's collections can be searched and viewed in the University of Minnesota Libraries' Media Archive.More »
1. Aspiration, Acculturation, and Impact: Immigration to the US, 1789–1930
Explore a web-based collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the United States between 1789 and 1930, with a heavy concentration on the 19th century. Digitized materials include over 400,000 pages from more than 2,200 books, pamphlets, and serials, over 9,600 pages from manuscript and archival collections, and more than 7,800 photographs. Diaries, biographies, and other writings help to capture the diverse experiences of ordinary immigrants. More »
2. Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives - Special Collections
The Special Collections section of the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives includes a wide variety of original immigration and other historical documents from the 19th and early 20th century, a rich source of information for immigration research (primarily transatlantic westbound immigration). Explore the wide variety of documents and other materials they offer, including immigrant documents, vaccination cards, luggage contracts, health certificates, steamship tickets, and vintage brochures, menus and postcards.More »3. GG Archives - Steerage Class: The Immigrant's Journey
The Gjenvick-Gjønvik (GG) Archives hosts an extensive online collection of historical documents from the 1800s through 1954, many of them focused on the immigration experience. This collection of articles focuses on the accommodations and living conditions of immigrants in Steerage (or Tween Decks) and Third Class.More »4. GG Archives - Daily Life Aboard a Steamer
Discover what life was like on board the steamship, from provisioning to housekeeping, through this online collection of illustrated historical articles from the 1870s through the 1950s. The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives has also included articles on steamship captains, ship cargo and carrying capacity, stowaways, steamship crews, and even sanitation, as well as on transatlantic ships and voyages.More »5. GG Archives - Medical and Mental Inspection of Immigrants
Another great resource from the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives is this collection of articles on the inspection of immigrants, both upon departure from the old company and on arrival in the United States, between 1892 and 1914.More »
6. Shipboard: The 19th Century Immigrant Experience in Australia
Shipboard, an online exhibit from the collections of the State Library of New South Wales, brings to life "the experience of the long voyage to Australia undertaken by thousands of emigrants in the second half of the 19th century," through personal diaries, sketches, published ships' newspapers, and ephemera from the United Kingdom and Australia.More »
7. Angel Island: Poetic Waves - The Chinese American Immigrant Experience
This multimedia project presents poetry and interviews from immigrant Chinese detainees at Angel Island Immigration Center. In addition to the interactive, audio presentation, the website also includes an interactive timeline, photo gallery, and immigration station tour.More »
8. The Golden Door: Immigration Images from the Keystone-Mast Collection
The Keystone View Company, Underwood and Underwood, H. C. White Company and other publishers of popular stereoscopic photographs in the early 20th century documented immigration through the most famous point of entry, Ellis Island. Photographs documenting life and labor of the newly arrived immigrants are also included in this online exhibit.More »
9. Angel Island: Immigrant Voices
The Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay was often the first stop for immigrants crossing the Pacific Ocean to the United States. The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation has created this online repository of personal stories of immigrants who came through Angel Island, as well as those who came in the many years after the immigration station closed.More »
10. Immigration History Research Center & Archives
The Immigration History Research Center & Archives at the University of Minnesota has gathered vast holdings of archival and published sources related to U.S. immigration, including personal papers, oral histories, newspapers, and the organizational records of immigrants and refugees and the agencies created to serve them. The collections are particularly rich on the labor migrants who came to the U.S. between 1880 and the 1930s, on the displaced persons who arrived in the U.S. after World War II, and on the refugees resettled in the United States after 1975. Digital copies of selected items from IHRC's collections can be searched and viewed in the University of Minnesota Libraries' Media Archive.More »
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