Library Guides: Historical Primary Sources: United States: Immigration & Migration

Published sources

Immigrant Experience Zotero library
A selection of resources at UC Berkeley Library on the immigrant experience in America. Many of the entries include links to open access copies.

The Library holds a number of microform collections of works by and about immigrants.

The Immigrant in America collection covers the fields of immigration history and ethnic studies from 1820-1929. Included are selected songs, plays, political pamphlets, family histories, folklore and first-hand accounts of experiences of various immigrant groups. Compiled from several major archives, this collection includes books, pamphlets, government publications, serials, society publications and lesser-known ethnic newspapers. Many selections are in the native language of the immigrant group. It is located at Newspapers & Microforms MICROFILM 78024. There is an accompanying guide. The first-hand accounts written in English are included in the Zotero Library.

Voices from Ellis Island an oral history of American immigration: a project of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. More than 200 transcribed interviews with immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island Immigration Station between 1892-1924 , or who were employed at the Station. Newspapers & Microforms MICROFICHE 24312 For guide, see MICROFICHE 24312 guide NEWS.

American Immigrant Autobiographies includes manuscript autobiographies from the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota. The guide to the collection outlines the contents of the autobiographies and also includes a subject index. The collection is located at Newspapers & Microforms MICROFILM.71258. Some of the autobiographies are included included in the Migration to New Worlds digital archive and are listed in the Zotero library.

Government documents

Dillingham Commission Reports
The 41-volume report of a commission established by Congress in 1907 to research the causes and impact of recent immigration. Released in 1911, the report recommended literacy tests as a means to reduce immigrant numbers.
Immigration Records of the INS, 1880-1930 (HV)
Comprises files from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, detailing immigrant processing, exclusion policies, and assimilation efforts during a period of significant immigration to the U.S. It includes case files, reports, and statistical data.

Digital collections

Border and Migration Studies Online
Border and Migration Studies Online is a collection that explores and provides historical background on more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including: U.S. and Mexico; the European Union; and others.
Featuring at completion 100,000 pages of text, 175 hours of video, and 1,000 images, the collection is organized around fundamental themes associated with border and migration issues.

Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files, ca. 1882–ca. 1960 (New York)
The files consist of forms used by the Immigration and Naturalization Service including applications for return certificates and certificates of residence, identification photographs of the applicant; transcripts of interrogations of the individual and occasionally those of verifying witnesses or business associates; copies of Federal and local court records, and some personal letters and photographs submitted by the applicant for use as evidence in determining the status of the immigrant or returnee.
Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files, ca. 1895–ca. 1927 (Port Townsend, WA)
These NARA files consist of forms used by the Immigration and Naturalization Service including applications for return certificates and certificates of residence, identification photographs of the applicant; transcripts of interrogations of the individual and occasionally those of verifying witnesses or business associates; copies of Federal and local court records, and some personal letters and photographs submitted by the applicant for use as evidence in determining the status of the immigrant or returnee.
Digitizing Immigrant Letters
The Digitizing Immigrant Letters Project aims to make available on-line letters from the IHRC Archives and other collections (private individuals, partner institutions) that were written between 1850 and 1970 both by immigrants (the so-called “America letters”) and to immigrants (“homeland letters”).
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The project aims to make available on-line letters from the IHRC Archives and other collections (private individuals, partner institutions) that were written between 1850 and 1970 both by immigrants (the so-called “America letters”) and to immigrants (“homeland letters”).
Hmong Oral History Project
The Hmong Oral History Project works to connect the younger generations of Hmong, and the broader communities in which many Hmong live, with resources describing Hmong culture in Laos, the Secret War in Southeast Asia, and stories of the Hmong immigrant experience, facilitating greater intercultural and intergenerational understanding.
Immigrant Voices: Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
A growing archive of personal stories of immigrants to the Pacific Coast
from Angel Island Immigration Station detainees to those arriving today.

Immigration and multiculturalism: essential primary sources
Provides primary source documents focused on immigration and multiculturalism in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

Immigration History Research Center
Photographs, letters, and scrapbooks illustrating the history of immigration to the Minnesota region
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
This digital collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression.

Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954
A rich variety of original manuscript collections from the American Jewish Historical Society in New York. [1654-1954]
The material is based on a rich variety of original manuscript collections from the unique holdings of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York. It provides access to twenty-four collections of personal papers and six major organizational collections, including: Papers of the Industrial Removal Office (1899-1922), Papers of the Jewish Immigration Information Bureau (1901-1920), Records relating to the American Jewish Historical Exhibition (1901-1902), Papers relating to the American Jewish Tercentenary in 1954 (1949-1956), Records of the Baron de Hirsch Fund (1819-1991), and Records of the Board Delegates of American Israelites (1859-1881).
Migration to New Worlds
Explores the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia. [1800-1980]
Unique primary source diaries, correspondence, photographs, oral histories and journals narrate the vivid realities of ocean travel and life in adopted homelands. Organisational correspondence, government proceedings, shipping company papers and records of advocacy groups provide key context to migrants’ everyday struggles.

Minnesota Immigrant Oral Histories
A collection of over 360 oral history interviews conducted between 1967 and 2012 with recent immigrants to Minnesota and their American-born children
Nebraska Western Trails
Includes artifacts, books, documents, maps, postcards, original paintings, and photographs on a variety of topics relating to trails in Nebraska.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Browse subjects list for Immigration and emigration.
Include approximately 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries by more than 1000 women. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions. Also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography.

Promise of America: Norwegian Emigration to America
Collection of photos, letters (mostly in Norwegian) and other material dating from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries
South Asian American Digital Archive
Documents the South Asian diaspora experience in the United States; includes photographs, correspondence and more
Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869
Collection of the original writings of 49 voyagers on the Mormon, California, Oregon, and Montana trails who wrote while traveling on the trail.

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Historical Primary Sources: United States: Immigration & Migration

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Published sources

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