US Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Compensation From Before Wwi Through Great Depression [Pdf]
This interesting article from the Bureau of Labor Statistics discusses how working conditions and low pay prior to World War I led to the increase in union membership. Read how the government viewed labor and labor unions during World...
Texas State Historical Association
Texas State Historical Association: Labor Organizations
The history of the labor movement in Texas is examined, beginning during the Republic of Texas. The article discusses the different labor organizations that formed in various industries, and how these evolved over time. As immigration...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Immigration and Migration
[Free Registration/Login Required] A lengthy essay discussing the differing opinions about immigration and the role of immigrants in the United States in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Find out about the...
Harvard University
Open Collections Program: Immigration to the United States, 1789 1930: Timeline
A broad look at immigration policy, its changes, and the numbers of immigrants arriving in the United States from its beginnings until 1940. Included are hyperlinks to primary sources related to the topic in the Harvard University Library.
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Child Labor in America
Historical photographs provide students with a firsthand look at the issue of child labor during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. In this lesson plan, students will use photographs to further understanding of the...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Irish and German Immigration
Read about the reasons thousands of Irish and Germans emigrated to the United States in the first half of the 19th century. Find out why there was a backlash to influx of so many immigrants, and learn about the Nativists who wanted to...
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr History Museum: Chinese Laborers and Construction of the Central Pacific
An article from the Utah Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, by George Kraus, recounts the decision to use Chinese laborers in building the Central Pacific Railroad. Many primary source documents included as well as supplemental direct quotes in...
Library of Congress
Loc: Chinese Immigration to the Us, 1851 1900
A collection of primary source documents giving historical evidence regarding the immigration of Chinese into the U.S. and the feelings of the government and the other settlers about it.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: City of Immigrants
Players navigate New York's Lower East Side as Lena, a young Jewish immigrant from Russia who is trying to save money to bring her parents to America. She works long hours in a factory for little money and gets caught up in the growing...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based: Reading Like a Historian: Chinese Immigration, Exclusion
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students reading primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This inquiry lesson allows students to explore the social and economic factors that fueled the wave of...
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Iehs: Marc Sanko, "The Worlds of the Immigration Historian"
This article focuses on the role of an immigration historian. The future of immigration history is a blending of the immigration story with the wider historical world: an immigration historian, a labor historian, and a diplomatic historian.
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Iehs: Melanie Simone Lorenz, "Promoting Immigration in 19th Century America"
This blog focuses on the U.S.'s need for immigration in the 19th and early 20th century to satisfy particular labor needs and increase investments.
Tennessee Historical Society
Tennessee Encyclopedia: Knights of Labor
The Tennessee Encyclopedia offers an interesting account of the Knights of Labor organization, particularly its actions in Tennessee. Read about how immigrants, African Americans, and women were all included in the membership of the...
University of California
University of California, Berkeley: Immigration From Mexico
This article explores how immigration from Mexico has both helped and hurt the American economy.
Library of Congress
Loc: Learning Page: Labor in America
A rich collection of resources, including primary sources, student activities, and lesson plans, to support study of Americans at work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota: Immigration History: Global Economy & Migration
This resource is a suplement to a documentary about global labor migration, from developing to developed countries, at the end of the twentieth century. This module encourages critical thinking about the influence that global capitalism...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Immigration: Framing Soo Hoo Lem Kong
[Free Registration/Login Required] This resource presents a primary lesson plan that looks at primary sources to learn about Chinese immigration to California.
Harvard University
Harvard Univ. Library: The Tide of Immigration: The Alien Contract Labor Law
This chapter from a 1916 book by Frank Julian Warne, titled The Tide of Immigration, outlines how the so-called native workers' jobs should be protected from the influx of immigrants. Read about the law that made it illegal for...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Industrial Revolution & Immigration
[Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson has notes covering the American Industrial Revolution and famous leaders of the industrial age. Also includes the need for immigrants to supply the factories with workers.
University of California
The Endless Debate: Immigration and u.s. Agriculture
This article describes the special treatment agriculture as received in order to retain an illegal and poorly compensated Mexican work force. Potential solutions are discussed.
George Eastman Museum
Lewis Hine: Immigration and the Progressive Era
Lewis Hine documented the conditions of life during the industrial development of America. His photographs show the impact of both child labor and immigration.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: Labor Battles in the Gilded Age
Discusses the Homestead Strike of 1892 and the Pullman Strike of 1894 and how these ended, as well as responses of the federal government to the labor movement. Includes questions for students at end.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Us Immigration Laws
Provides a timeline, facts, and information about the history of US Immigration Laws with a description of the dates and the purpose of each of the US Immigration laws.
Oakland Museum of California
California's Untold Stories: Natives and Immigrants
This site provides a tour through the history of natives and immigrants to the California Gold Rush area, including African American, California Indian, Chinese, and Latino.