Immigrant Newspapers is a project to centrally gather primary documents that help to tell the stories and experiences of immigrant groups from the late 19th century in what was at the time considered New York City (Manhattan) and the neighboring cities of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. The collection and display in a public forum of newspapers serving immigrant readers illuminate an important aspect of New York’s history, and centralizes the stories of immigrant groups in their own words. Seeing these sources also reminds us that, both then and now, the United States is a country made stronger by the interwoven heritage of its citizens.

The current project has a necessarily limited scope, focusing on papers that began publishing between 1860 and 1890, served immigrant communities, and were located within the boundaries of 19th-century New York and its surrounding communities, which are today considered boroughs. We began by searching existing archival resources for historical presses, then looked through microfilm reels at the New York Public Library. We plan to expand the database to include additional groups and periods.

This is not a complete archive of newspapers published within the time period, nor do the papers in the collection represent all communities residing and publishing in the New York region in the late 19th century. In most cases, images of immigrant newspapers were difficult to obtain; many were not found. We hope that you enjoy the representative sample we have gathered and perhaps think of the missing newspapers as an important reason to contribute to our work.