North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories includes more than 2,000 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to the United States and Canada between 1800 and 1950. The materials date from around 1840 and extend to the present, focusing heavily on the period from 1920 to 1980. Personal stories provide perspectives both on North America and on the immigrants’ countries of origin, including Eastern and South Europe, as well the Baltic countries. Users will find vivid descriptions of life under the Tsar and the various revolutionary governments in Russia; accounts of anti-Jewish pogroms in Eastern Europe; stories of persecution and fascism; and detailed descriptions of life in rural communities and towns as well as in major cities such as Budapest, Warsaw, and Moscow.