National History Day Research Resources
Reference Services Department
Topic:
Immigration 1890s-1930s
Created 10/2013
Print Resources
The American Immigrant: An Illustrated History, foreword by Frank McCourt.
New York, N.Y.: Life Books, 2004.
Americanizing the West: Race, Immigrants, and Citizenship, 1890-1930, by
Frank Van Nuys. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.
Coming to America Series:
Coming to America: Immigrants from the British Isles, by Shirley
Blumenthal. New York: Delacorte Press,1980.
Coming to America: Immigrants from the Far East, by Linda Perrin.
New York: Delacorte Press, 1980.
Coming to America: Immigrants from Northern Europe, by Albert
Robbins. New York: Delacorte Press, 1981.
Coming to America: Immigrants from Southern Europe, by Gladys
Nadler Rips. New York: Delacorte Press, 1981.
Foreign and Female: Immigrant Women in America, 1840-1930, by Doris
Weatherford. New York: Schocken Books, 1986.
Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins of the Diverse
Democracy, by Desmond King. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
2000.
Natives and Strangers: A Multicultural History of Americans, by Leonard
Dinnerstein, Roger L. Nichols, David M. Reimers. New York : Oxford
University Press, 1996.
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Prospector and Interlibrary Loan
Prospector: http://prospectorhome.coalliance.org/
Prospector is a unified catalog of academic, public and special libraries in
Colorado and Wyoming. For items not available at the Denver Public
Library, search here first. Items can take 1-2 weeks to arrive.
WorldCat: http://www.denverlibrary.org/content/didnt-find-it
Use this national and international catalog to search for items not available
at DPL or in Prospector. You must fill out a one-time Request It registration
to place Interlibrary Loan requests. These requests may take 2-3 weeks to
arrive.
Databases/Digital Resources
To access the Denver Public Library databases:
www.denverlibrary.org
Click on the “Research” tab
Click on “Databases A-Z”
Database suggestions:
America: History and Life
Index to historical coverage of the United States and Canada
from pre-history to the present.
History Reference Center
Research full-text articles, historical documents, biographies,
maps and photos.
MAS Ultra for High School Research
Full-text magazines, reference books, biographies, primary
source documents, etc.
Middle Search Plus for Middle School Research
Full-text magazines, reference books, biographies, primary
source documents, and an Image Collection of photos, maps and
flags.
New York Times Historical Backfile on ProQuest
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Contains full-text and images in PDF format of the New York
Times from 1851 to three years before current year.
Student Resources in Context
Reference essays, magazine, journal and newspaper articles,
and primary source documents.
Keywords for Catalog and Database Searching
Emigration and immigration -- Government policy.
Emigration and immigration -- History -- 19th century.
Emigration and immigration -- History -- 20th century.
Emigration and immigration -- Law and legislation.
Emigration and immigration -- United States.
Immigration AND [name of country]. For example, search “immigration and
Japan” to find information on Japanese immigration.
Primary Sources
The Ellis Island Source Book, by August C. Bolino. Washington, D.C.
Kensington Historical Press, 1985.
Immigration and Multiculturalism: Essential Primary Sources, edited by K.
Lee Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, and Adrienne Wilmoth Lerner. Detroit,
Mich.: Gale, 2006. eBook available through Gale Virtual Reference Library, at
http://ezproxy.denverlibrary.org:2048/login?url=http://galenet.galegroup.co
m/servlet/eBooks?ste=22&docNum=CX2688499999&q=denver (Available
with library card.)
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Laws and Issues: a Documentary
History, edited by Michael LeMay and Elliott Robert Barkan. Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 1999.
Note: Denver Public Library has many primary sources related to
immigration history in our genealogy collection, in the Western History and
Genealogy department. These materials do not check out, but you can use
them in person when visiting the Central Library.
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Internet Resources
American Memory http://memory.loc.gov/ammem
A gateway to primary source materials housed in the Library of
Congress.
United States Census Bureau http://www.census.gov
Data on the American people. Older census information can be found
in print at the library.
Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation
http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island.asp
A wealth of information on the immigrant experience, including a
timeline, photos, and family histories.
Immigration History Research Center (University of Minnesota)
http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/
This website contains digital resources from the IHRC, including
photographs, audio recording, and immigrant letters. Additional
websites recommended by the IHRC staff can be found at
http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/research/links.php
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (Purdue OWL)
MLA Formatting and Style Guide
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
Annotated Bibliography
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
Google Searching
By adding [site:gov] or [site:edu] to a Google search, you will return only
government or academic webpages.
By adding [-.com] to a search, you will remove .com sites from your
returned results.
Put quotation marks around words "[any word]" to search for an exact
phrase in an exact order.
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For more advanced Google searching tips, visit:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/136861
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