Are you a student (or do you know a student) who needs a unique topic for a research paper? Check out the Center for Migration Studies’ original historical documents on JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/site/cmsny/
JSTOR is a respected source for scholarly articles on numerous subjects. Recently, JSTOR developed its Open Community Collections, where individual archives may post material. The Scalabrini Fathers’ Center for Migration Studies has used JSTOR’s initiative to post material from its extensive archives.
CMS’s first Italian American collection to go on JSTOR is a run of “The Dispatch,” the American Committee on Italian Migration’s newsletter. ACIM was founded in 1952 after the McCarran Act continued to limit Italian migration. The organization worked to help pass what became the 1965 immigration reforms. The Dispatch articles detail how ACIM promoted its cause. Students interested in the women’s history will also find valuable information, as women did much of the fundraising for ACIM.
CMS hopes to post more Italian American history as it is processed for uploading. CMS is also posting documents covering immigration history more generally, Italians included. Most recently, CMS has posted the annual reports of the New York Port Office of the National Catholic Welfare Conference Bureau of Immigration. These reports detail the care of immigrants from 1922 to 1965, that is, from Italians on Ellis Island to Cuban refugees arriving at JFK airport.
Questions or comments about ACIM’s history or about using JSTOR’s history collections? Please contact CMS’s archivist Mary Brown at archives@cmsny.org
By Mary Brown for Voce Italiana June 2024.
