Development of Modern America: Immigration 1865-1920
Spring 2004
How has US policy toward immigration changed over the last two hundred years?
Background Essays and Timelines
Readings
How the Other Half Lives by Jacobs Riis
"The Cycle of Reform" by William O'Neill
"The Nationalist Nineties" from Strangers in the Land by John Higham
Additional Resources
General Immigration Themes
Ellis Island
From 1892 to 1954 over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. Search passenger arrivals and learn about the immigration experience.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Information, forms, and regulations for immigration to the United States. The History, Genealogy, and Education section provides interesting information about immigration history.
Documenting "The Other Half": The Social Reform Photography of Jacob Riis
and Lewis Hine
Jacob Riis, a police reporter whose work appeared in several New York newspapers, documented the living and working conditions of the poor. Through articles, books, photography, and lantern-slide lectures, Riis served as a mediator between working-class, middle-class, and upper-class citizens.
Lewis Hine has been recognized in recent years as one of the pioneers of social reform, later called "documentary" photography.
On the Lower East Side:
Observations of Life in Lower Manhattan at the Turn of the Century
A collection of articles, documentary sources, and study guides about The Lower East Side urban experience.
Jewish Immigration from Russia
A People at Risk
From 1880 to 1920 a vast number of the Jewish people living in the lands ruled by Russia — including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Ukraine, as well as neighboring regions—moved en masse to the U.S.
Russing Immigration: A Cultural Renaissance
Even as the new immigrants were struggling to survive in the Lower East Side, the Jewish neighborhoods of New York became the site of a momentous cultural rebirth.
Chinese Immigration
Chinese Exclusion Act: May 6, 1882
An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese immigration.
Angel Island Immigration Station
From 1910 to 1940, tens of thousands of immigrants entered the West Coast of the United States through the Angel Island Immigration Station.
Angel Island Poetry
Numerous carvings and writings in several languages have been found on the barracks walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station. The overwhelming majority of the remarkable writings are poems written in Chinese, many of them made all the more impressive for having been carved into the wooden walls.
Resources
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