Libraries

Provides access to primary source material recounting the varied personal experiences of 350 years of migration, from government-led population drives during the early nineteenth century through to mass steamship travel. Includes Colonial Office files on immigration, diaries and travel journals, ship logs and plans, printed literature, objects, watercolors, oral histories, as well as secondary research aids.

Module 1: Migration to New Worlds: The Century of Immigration
This module concentrates on the period 1800 to 1924 and covers all aspects of the migration experience, from motives and departures to arrival and permanent settlement. To supplement this, the collection includes early material such as the first emigration ‘round robin’ from 1621 and letters from late eighteenth-century merchants and travelers in the United States. Some later material is also available, including ocean liner and immigration depot photographs from the mid-twentieth century.

Module 2: Migration to New Worlds: The Modern Era
This module begins with the activities of the New Zealand Company during the 1840s and presents thousands of unique original sources focusing on the growth of colonization companies during the nineteenth century, the activities of immigration and welfare societies, and the plight of refugees and displaced persons throughout the twentieth century as migrants fled their homelands to escape global conflict.