Immigration

This Library of Congress Student Discovery Set is here to put history into your hands. It brings together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind documents from the collections of the Library of Congress. Interactive tools let you zoom in for close examination, draw to highlight interesting details, and make notes about what you discover. There’s no single right answer, only new discoveries to be made.


From its beginnings, the United States has been shaped by people from many nations. This set documents immigrant experiences in America from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It includes photographs and an Edison film of immigrants landing at Ellis Island, political cartoons, maps of immigration patterns, official documents, sheet music, and a song recording.


This set is intended for open-ended primary source analysis by students. A Teacher’s Guide with background information, teaching ideas, and additional resources is available on the Library’s Web site for teachers, loc.gov/teachers.