THE WORLD THEY CAME TO:

Touring Turn of the Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880 -- 1920
Part of the Library of Congress American Memory project, this site offers over 25,000 images that can be searched by keyword or browsed by topic. The collection is rich in images of New York City at the turn of the century -- some topics to search are: amusement parks (including Coney Island), tenement houses and immigration stations. A valuable visual resource for this time period.

Immigration in American Memory
The Library of Congress's American Memory Project introduces the theme of immigration and offers access to a range of their resources from first person recollections California settlers in the 1840s to film footage of Ellis Island and New York City at the turn of the century.

New York, NY, Ellis Island -- Immigration: 1900-1920
Twenty four stereographic photos of Ellis Island and immigrant arrivals are presented by University of California, Riverside's California Museum of Photography. The photos are drawn from the Keystone-Mast Collectionand are minimally placed in the social context of immigration and popular culture.

On the Lower East Side: Observations of Life in Lower Manhattan at the Turn of the Century
This site offers a collection of articles written by Progressive reformers focusing on immigrant acculuration issues, poverty on the Lower East Side and tenement housing conditions. Good source for primary documents on the Progressive movement.

How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements Of New York, By Jacob A. Riis With Illustrations Chiefly From Photographs Taken By The Author -- The Hypertext Edition
This site reproduces the full text and all the illustrations from the original print edition of Riis' book, first published in 1890 by Charles Scribner's Sons. There is no contextualization of this primary document.

The Tenement As History And Housing by Ruth Limmer and Andrew S. Dolkart
Created by the Tenement Museum in New York City, this site gives a concise history of the the Lower East Side and the evolution of tenement housing from the 1860s through the early 1900s with a particular focus on 97 Orchard Street, the building that houses the Tenement Museum.

Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and Their New York
Originally a Smithsonaian Institution exhibit, this site explores the urban vision of the six Ashcan artists and places their work within the social and cultural context of early-twentieth-century America. It features the following topics : Changing New York, Rich and Poor, Shopping, Public Spaces, Ethnic Neighborhoods and Urban Types, Men and Women, New York at Play, and Gotham News (a compilation newspaper that captures the spirit of New York of the early 1900's through actual articles and images). A useful resource for linking art and social history.

CHEAP AMUSEMENTS:

American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920
The American Memory Project created this site as a multimedia anthology selected from various Library of Congress holdings. This collection illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms of popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived from 1870-1920. Included are 334 English- and Yiddish -language playscripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion pictures, 10 sound recordings, and 143 photographs and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini.

THE RAG TRADE:

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
A very rich site that includes letters, oral histories, politcal cartoons, photographs, newspaper accounts and legislative responses to the Triangle Shirtwast Factory Fire of March 25, 1911. Created by the Institute on Labor Relations at Cornell University, the site also provides background information on sweatshops, strikes and union organizing in the 1910s.

History In Action
Created by UNITE (Union of Needle, Industrial and Textile Employees), this site offers a brief history of ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers' Union) and ACTWU (Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union) organizing and short biographies of key women union leaders from 1909 through the 1940s. Photographs from the ACTWU and ILGWU Archives housed at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives at Cornell University accompany the text. A good, brief introduction to women and union organizing.

At Work In Garment Industry Sweatshops: Photos From Yesterday And Today
A short essay with photographs created by UNITE makes comparisons between sweatshop conditions in the early 20th century and the present. Raises the issues about current work conditions but doesn't have much depth.

Stop Sweatshops: A Partnership For Responsibility
A UNITE page that provides news updates on sweatshop organizing and outlines a program for citizen involvement in improving industry conditions.

Sweatshop Watch
Sweatshop Watch is a San Francisco based organization that focuses on public education, public policy and workers' rights education around sweatshop labor internationally. The website provides information on the garment industry today, current campaigns and resources, news articles, and "The Faces Behind the Label," photographs of garment workers.

Labor Net
A general information and gateway site for labor and social activist groups that offers labor news updates, lists national activities, lists resources for worker education and provides links to other labor sites.

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