New York
Immigrant City
A showcase of immigrants in New York City, from past to present, through the projects made by NYU undergraduates.
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Taking History Outside the classroom
History Beyond gives undergraduate students experiences in undertaking independent historical research. The course encourages students to think creatively and boldly, to negotiate past difficulties in collaboration, and to learn from setbacks.
Student Projects
Fall 2019 – Spring 2020
Undergraduates at campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai launched the independent research projects to illuminate the fascinating contributions of immigrants in New York, from past to present. The projects span from podcast inspired audio episodes, to digital maps, and animations.
Approaches to Messy Digitized Archival Documents
Testing Automated Procedures for Enhancing OCR Legibility of 20th Century Business Licenses
Capturing Quantitative Data on Immigrants
US Census Data and NYC Immigrant Tenements
From Archive to Data
Optical Character Recognition and data visualization of documents used in New York Restaurant Keepers project.
NY Restaurant Keepers
By the end of the 19th century, a large percentage of the restaurants in the city were owned by foreign-born residents. Explore the migrant experience in New York through the city’s culinary scene.
Foreign Born Citizens and Tenement Housing
in the 18th and 19th Century
Chinese Restaurant Database
The 1917 Immigration Act
Listen to the podcast series that seek to explain the impact and legacy of the 1917 Immigration Act. The 1917 act was a crucial extension of existing anti-immigrant legislation, and it contributed to existing racialized discourse surrounding immigrants in the United States.
Immigrants at Ellis Island, N.Y.
The New York Public Library Digital Collections
New Method of teaching History
NY Immigrant City research cluster embraces the digital storytelling as a critical frontier in humanities pedagogy. Students are invited to present traditional research in innovative and creative ways. The intention is to give students independent, team-based research experience.
Taking cue from the physical and biological sciences, in which research teams work toward answering a common question, NY Immigrant City creates opportunities for students to work in unconventional settings and to develops skills less commonly taught in conventional classrooms. More importantly, the students draw upon their experiences as digital natives to curate and express their research findings.
Another view of Ellis Island from the harbor, showing various buildings.
The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1902 – 1913.
About the Team
NY Immigrant City is a guided research seminar with participation from the NYU New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai. It uses a team-based research program called Vertically Integrated Projects, piloted by Georgia Tech and coordinated through NYU Tandon School of Engineering
Chatham Square Branch, New York Public Library (old rented building)
The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1902.
Student Projects
Approaches to Messy Digitized Archival Documents
Capturing Quantitative Data on Immigrants
Chinese Restaurant Database
From Archive to Data
NY Restaurant Keepers
