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AMERICAN IMMIGRANT LETTERS, DIARIES, AND ORAL HISTORIES
This source includes 342 authors and consists of approximately
37,500 pages of information, most of it previously unpublished.
A formidable source for personal views of immigration to the
U.S.
and
Canada
, 1800-1950, it emphasizes the 1840s and the period 1890-1914.
Originally released in 2001 and updated since (ASP issued
release 2 in November 2003), it includes a welcome and unabashed
list of errata awaiting changes in the next renewal.
Produced in collaboration with the University of Chicago, it
draws on the editorial talents of many leaders in immigration
studies, among them Joel Wurl (University of Minnesota’s
Immigration History Research Center, whose Web site http://www.ihrc.umn.edu,
is the only online rival to NAIL); Hasia Diner (NYU), and Donna
Gabaccia (University of North Carolina—Charlotte).
Loading and maneuvering the database are virtually
effortless. Users are
invited not only to email for technical support or to report factual
errors but also to submit items for admission (for which they may be
paid royalties). Materials
may be searched through multiple facets—author, source, year,
place, nationality, personal events (childbirth, death of a
relative, graduation, starting a job, marriage), and institutional
subjects (labor unions, churches, schools, immigration societies).
Both beginning researchers and advanced scholars will benefit
from this site’s collection of primary and secondary documents,
which take various formats—e.g., immigration guidebooks, audio
interviews, and anti-immigration cartoons from Puck, Harper’s
Weekly and Judge’s Library. For
first-time users, the Help link gives a ten-minute guided tour
through the site’s basic features and searching techniques
earmarked to different levels.
Summing up: Highly recommended. All
collections. Reviewer:
F. J. Augustyn Jr., Library of Congress

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