Read Works
Read Works: Immigration Ellis Island: The Hunt for Alois Hanousek
[Free Registration/Login Required] An autobiographical account of a family looking for information about their great-grandfather. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Other
Creating a Family History
What do you know about creating a family history? This site offers a complete lesson plan for developing a sense of how your own family history fits into the bigger picture of the world's history.
US National Archives
Nara: Prologue Magazine: u.s. Marines in the Boxer Rebellion
On this site provided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), we are provided with a discussion of the history and laws that affected immigrant women and their citizenship. Includes some information about the Cable...
A&E Television
History.com: How the Horrific Tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Led to Workplace Safety Laws
The March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was one of the deadliest workplace catastrophes in U.S. history, claiming the lives of 146 workers, most of them women immigrants in their teens and twenties. The fire was so horrific it...
C-SPAN
C Span Classroom: Immigration Reform
Learning module and lesson plan on the challenges of creating immigration policy. Includes all the materials students need for a well-informed opinion on immigration reform, C-SPAN video with background information, related articles,...
Migration Policy Institute
Migration Policy Institute: Immigration in the United States
This country profile examines key legislative events that form the history of the U.S. immigration system, the size and attributes of the immigrant population in the country, the characteristics of legal and illegal immigration streams,...
A&E Television
History.com: The Mariel Boatlift: How Cold War Politics Drove Thousands of Cubans to Florida in 1980
After Fidel Castro loosened emigration policies, some 125,000 Cubans landed on U.S. shores over a span of five months. The Mariel Boatlift of 1980 was a mass emigration of Cubans to the United States. The exodus was driven by a stagnant...
Read Works
Read Works: Irish Immigrants
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about Irish Immigrants to the United States. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Travel Document Systems
Tds: Qatar: History
A brief look at the history of Qatar comes from the Background Notes of the U.S. State Department. Although ruled by an Amir, Qatar is moving toward democracy. Information current to 2007.
Curated OER
History Matters: Japan Responds to Japanese Exclusion
An editorial from the Japan Times and Mail denounced the the U.S. Senate's inclusion of the National Origins Act within the Immigration Act of 1924 that limited the immigration of Japanese to the United States. Read the background of the...
Library of Congress
Loc: Interviews With Today's Immigrants
This site, part of a larger lesson plan about immigration from the Library of Congress, provides interviews that students had with immigrants from around the world.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Old Values vs. New Values
An overview of the clash between the old way of life of the Victorian Age and the new, the Jazz Age.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Mining Boom
The allure of getting rich quick by finding gold or silver was just a dream for most prospectors. Read about the gold and silver rushes that usually ended up enriching the mining industry, not the miner. Find out about the make-up of the...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Underside of Urban Life
Read about the plight of the urban poor in the rapidly growing cities. In addition to the modern skyscrapers, the cities also had tenement housing where the poor lived. Find a description of that housing and the problems this housing bred.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Gold in California
The gold rush in California accelerated the western migration of thousands of young American men, who streamed into California to find riches. See who else arrived in California and find out what they did. In addition, there is a map...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Rise of American Industry
The Industrial Revolution came to America, smuggled in by Samuel Slater, who brought plans for a cotton-spinning mill. See how the growth of industry led to the growth of corporations, the growth of the nation geographically, and the...
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Iehs: Lucy Salyer Uncovers the History of Expatriation & the Fenian Brotherhood
Scholar Lucy Salyer writes about Irish Americans who joined the Fenian Brotherhood around the time of the U.S. Civil War and the shifting ideas of allegiance, citizenship, and expatriation implicated in their story. Read the following...
Digital History
Digital History: Italian Immigration
This Digital History article provides a complete picture of Italian immigration, looking at reasons for immigration and the areas Italians were likely to live and work.
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Ap Us History: Unit 4: A House Divided
This extensive learning module examines how the United States became more connected with the world as it pursued an expansionist foreign policy, became the destination for many new immigrants, and encouraged migration to the Pacific...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Open Course Ware: The Places of Migration in United States History
MIT provides and extensive list of reading and viewing materials in regard to the migration within the United States. Lecture notes and possible assignments included.
New York Public Library
Haitian Immigration
An outstanding site for anyone who wants to know about Haitian immigrant issues.
Other
Understanding Race: The Famine and the Irish Race: 1840s 1890s
Article discusses how the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the potato famine in Ireland brought millions of people to the U.S. and highlights some of the impacts of immigration during this time.
Other
Brown Quarterly: The History of Japanese Immigration in the u.s.
The Brown Quarterly article provides photos and a history of Japanese immigration in the United States. It also offers information about religion, discrimination, and work.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: The New Americans (Lessons on the Immigrant Experience)
Find eleven lesson plans developed in conjunction with the PBS documentary "The New Americans," which explores what it means to be a new Americans in the twenty-first century. Lessons touch on topics associated with recently arrived...