Lauren Wolfinger

Immigration is Awesome

This week, I looked through a few books on my topic. The library had quite a few good case studies on immigration, specifically in Pennsylvania; however, these books were largely unhelpful and focused on the period just after the turn of the century. The only book that fell within the time period was a book about a mill town in the 1870s. The Sellers and Morgan college history books were focused on the scandalous faculty restructuring under McCauley and were of little help.

I also looked through a few things in the college archives. Malinda thought that she had seen programs for societal debates on immigration, but these must have come later than the 1870s. I looked through all of the programs and found nothing indicating a debate concerning immigration. I looked through commencement orations and did find one oration concerning diversity in general. The basic idea of the oration was that all people are created by the same God, have similar sensitivities, and have similar experiences like enjoying the flowers of springtime. I looked through old issues of The Dickinsonian as well in case there was a student essay or editorial on immigration but found nothing. My library catalogue search identified two essays in the archives written by students in the 80s. One essay was on French immigrants in Carlisle during the 1870s, the other was specifically about one immigrant living in Carlisle in the 1860s. The biographical essay was of little use to me, but the French immigration essay did tell me that there was a large German immigrant population in the area and that the next largest population were the French.

For the most part, I think the change in immigrants and perception of immigrants occurred later than 1876. 1876 is roughly contemporaneous with the arrival of “less desirable” immigrants, so it does make sense that these changes had not yet affected public opinion enough to leave any record. Still, I think it is best to hold out for the Cumberland County archives. If there was any change of public opinion, a broader newspaper than The Dickinsonian might have editorials or letters to the editor concerning immigration. If I can’t find anything by the end of Tuesday, I will change my topic. I might change my topic to focus on the Germans or French that were living in the area, even though they are the white, anglo-saxon, and protestant old-model immigrant.