Additional resources on immigration and Americanization
Books and articles
Selma Berrol, Growing Up American: Immigrant Children in America, Then and Now
(1995)
John Bodnar, The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America (1985)
Harvard Graduate School of Education – Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco’s new sixvolume series, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the New Immigration
Nancy Foner, In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration (2005)
Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American
Life (1990)
John Higham, Send These to Me: Immigrants in Urban America (1984)
Walter Nugent, Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870-1914 (1992)
Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993)
Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (1990)
Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars (1985)
Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and
Immigrants Since 1882 (2004)
David Reimers, Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America (1985)
Carlos Kevin Blanton, The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in Texas, 1836-1981
(2004) [from German language schools to Spanish language disputes]
Ruth Glasser, My Music Is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and their New York
Communities, 1917-1940 (1995)
Local history
Ruth Glasser, Aqui Me Quedo: Puerto Ricans in Connecticut (1997)
David Dalin and Jonathan Rosenbaum, Making a Life, Building a Community: A History
of the Jews of Hartford (1997)
Samuel Koenig, Immigrant Settlements in Connecticut (CT Dept. of Education, 1938)
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Douglas Rae, City: Urbanism and Its End (2003)
Christopher Sterba, Good Americans: Italian and Jewish Immigrants during the First
World War (2003)
Bruce Clouette, “Getting Their Share: Irish and Italians Immigrants in Hartford” (Ph.D.
diss, 1992)
Bruce M. Stave and John F. Sutherland, From The Old Country (1994). Available from
the Manchester Historical Society, Manchester, CT.
Derby Historical Society, A History of Ansonia, Bicentennial-1976
http://www.derbyhistorical.org
University of Connecticut, The Peoples of Connecticut Multicultural Ethnic Heritage
Series (1976). Each book in the series focused on a different ethnic group in Connecticut.
David P. Schuldiner, ed. Connecticut Speaks For Itself, Firsthand Accounts of Life in the
Nutmeg State From Colonial Times to the Present Day (1996)
Novels/memoirs
Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers
Bharati Muhkerjee, Jasmine
Thomas Bell, Out of This Furnace
Willa Cather, My Antonia
Victor Villasenor, Rain of Gold
See also Paul Lauter, “Teaching History Through Immigration Stories,” from OAH
Magazine of History, at http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/literature/lauter.html
Bibliography of fiction and non-fiction on immigration for students of different ages,
with books identified by reading/interest level, collected by Library of Congress:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/community/bibliography/102002immigration/vie
wimmigbib.php
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Videos:
“Puerto Rican Passages” (CPTV, 1997)
“America and Lewis Hine” (1996)
“Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl” (American Social History Project)
“The Making of an American” (1920)
Available from Northeast Historic Film, http://www.oldfilm.org
Online resources
Library of Congress Learning Page: Port of Entry/Immigration
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/port/start.html
Library of Congress Learning Page: Immigration through Oral History
http://learning.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/oh1/ammem.html
Ellis Island: site includes passenger list search, interactive timeline of immigration, etc.
http://www.ellisisland.org
Lewis Hine – Ellis Island series:
http://www.eastman.org/fm/lwhprints/htmlsrc/ellis-island_idx00001.html
Comparing Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis photographs (go to “Slideshows”):
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/davis/photography/home/home.html
Lewis Hine – New York Public Library Digital Gallery:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?word=Hine%2C%20Lew
is%20Wickes&s=3&notword=&f=4&cols=4
Immigration/Migration: Today and during the Great Depression. Lesson plan and useful
lists of other resources as well.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/98/migrate/overview.html
Virtual tour of the Lower East Side Tenement House Museum. Select an apartment to
read about the story of the different families who lived at this address in NYC:
http://www.tenement.org/Virtual_Tour/index_virtual.html
The Chinese in California, 1850-1925,” American Memory collection:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml/cichome.html
“Angel Island: Immigrant Journeys of Chinese-Americans” Limited site, includes a few
oral history interviews with former detainees
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http://www.angel-island.com/
“Poetic Waves: Angel Island”
http://www.poeticwaves.net/
See also the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
http://www.aiisf.org/history
Documents (court cases and legislation) shaping early Asian-American history:
http://www.cetel.org/docs.html
Mary Bamford, Angel Island: The Ellis Island of the West Women’s American Baptist
Home Missionary Society, 1917) available on the web at
http://www.fortunecity.com/littleitaly/amalfi/100/angel.htm
Triangle Factory Fire website, from Cornell’s Industrial Labor Relations School:
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
“Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl” website:
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/ashp/heaven/index.html
See the classroom activity, “What Does a Shirtwaist Have to Do with a Sneaker?”
Smithsonian Museum of American History exhibit:
“Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820-Present”:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/
“Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889-1963” extensive website on the famous
settlement house in Chicago, containing many historical sources, images, narrative about
the settlement house and its immigrant neighbors.
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/urbanexp/#
Ruth Glasser, “Tobacco Valley: Puerto Rican Farm Workers in Connecticut,” Hog River
Journal (v. 1, no. 1, 2002): http://www.hogriver.org/issues/v01n01/tobacco_valley.htm
“The New Americans” Website accompanying a PBS series focusing on immigration of
people form Nigeria and the Dominican Republic. The site, targeted to students in grade
7 through 12, follows the stories of Nigerians living in Chicago and Dominicans recruited
by the LA Dodgers to play baseball.
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/newamericans
Sample materials available from “Americans All” website:
“Puerto Ricans: Immigrants and Migrants”
“Mexican Americans”
“Angel Island: A Historical Perspective”, etc.
http://www.americansall.com/aboutus/printed_resources.htm
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Teaching units on immigration from the National Center for History in the Schools,
UCLA:
http://nchs.ucla.edu/us-theme9.html
Teaching immigration policy:
Close Up Foundation Civics Education materials on immigration policy, at:
http://www.closeup.org/immigrat.htm
Brown University’s Watson Institute “Choices” unit on immigration policy:
http://www.choices.edu/immig_lesson.cfm
Connecticut History Online
Photo-essay Journeys component We Are All Connecticut Yankees: Diversity in the 19th
and Early 20th Century.
http://www.cthistoryonline.org/journeys
Online exhibits:
“Nuestras Historias” Oral histories and photographs from pioneers of the Puerto Rican
community in Hartford (also available in Spanish). Site is currently under revision;
however, you can obtain more information about this project by calling (860) 236 – 5621
ext. 249.
http://www.chs.org/nuestrashistorias/index.htm
“Finding a Place, Maintaining Ties: Greater Hartford’s West Indians”
http://www.chs.org/westindies/default.htm
“Strangers in the Land of Strangers: Defining ‘American’ in Times of Conflict” exhibit
from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, covers the issue of immigrant loyalty in
times of conflict, from the American Revolution through the 20th century.
http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=54
A Century of Immigration, 1820-1924 a component of From Haven to Home, 350 Years
of Jewish Life in America found within the Library of Congress, exhibitions.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/haventohome/haven-overview.html
Museum exhibits/resources
Stamford’s Little Italy
The Irish Community in Stamford, Stamford’s First Major Immigrants, 1850 - 1920
Stamford Historical Society
1508 High Ridge Road
Stamford, CT 06903
(203) 329 – 1183
http://www.stamfordhistory.org
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Note: The Vertical Files in the Marcus Research Library are organized under a series of
categories listed alphabetically on their web site. Click on “Ethnic” and you will find
files with the following headings: African American; German; Greek; Hispanic; Irish;
Italian; Jewish; Muslim; Polish; Slovak; Swedish; Ukrainian; however, to access these
files you must visit the library, as they are not available on-line.
Web site is still very extensive, informative and useful. For example, once on the Library
page, scroll to Record Groups and Publications, click on this and scroll to Oral History
Interviews, click on your choice of two different oral history transcripts, Dr. Jacob
Nemoitin (1880-1963) and Sarah Frances Smith (1895 – 1987).
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
New York, NY
http://www.tenement.org
Bridgeport Public Library
On-line oral history project, “Bridgeport Working: Voices from the 20th Century”
http://www.bridgeporthistory.org
Mattatuck Museum
144 West Main Street
Waterbury, CT 06702
(203) 753 – 0381
http://www.mattatuckmuseum.org
On-line exhibition, They Found Their Way: Generations of Jewish Life in Waterbury,
Connecticut, developed from their extensive Jewish Oral History Project. Components
include Coming to America, At Work, Keeping Faith, At Play, Timeline and Programs.
Also review the on-line exhibition, At Home in Waterbury: Brass City Life and click on
Resoiurces for Schools for numerous lesson plans and supplementary materials.
The Mattatuck Museum has also done several extensive oral history projects including
the Neighborhood History Project, the African American History Project and Aqui Me
Quedo: Puerto Ricans in Connecticut. A voluminous amount of material has been
catalogued into a database that is searchable and available at the museum by
appointment.
Ethnic Heritage Center
Southern Connecticut State University
270 Fitch Street
New Haven, CT 06515
(203) 392 – 6126
http://www.southernct.edu/ethnic
Founded in 1988, the Center has five member organizations: Greater New Haven
African-American Historical Society, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society,
Italian-American Historical Society of Connecticut, Jewish Historical Society of Greater
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New Haven and Connecticut Ukrainian-American Historical Society. Located on the
campus of Southern Connecticut State University, the Center has exhibits and programs
that celebrate the cultural differences and similarities of its membership organizations.
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
University of Connecticut Libraries
405 Babbidge Road Unit 1205
Storrs, CT 06269
(860) 456 - 4500
http://www.doddcenter.uconn.edu
Within this web site, click on Collections, then Subject Areas, then on Ethnic Heritage.
The Ethnic History and Immigration Collections highlight the state’s diverse history as
home to ethnic groups from around the world. The collections include photographs, oral
history interviews, Works Progress Administration essays from the 1930s, and Hartford
voter registration cards from the 1920s to the 1980s. The numerous Finding Aids will
give more information about the variety of materials available here.
Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford
http://www.jhsgh.org
Established in 1971, the Society’s main commitment is to reach the largest audience
possible through publications, exhibitions, seminars and educational programs.
Co-sponsored the publication of Back To The Land: Jewish Farms and Resorts in
Connecticut, 1890-1945 with the Connecticut Historical Commission in 1998.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
600 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06103
(860) 278 – 2670
http://www.wadsworthatheneum.org
Soul Food! African-American Cookery and Creativity
Nov. 15, 2006 – April 22, 2007
Presented by the Amistad Center for Art & Culture
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