Anne Boyer

Angel Island: Life in Detainment
<http://www.i-channel.com/angelisland/menu.html [link unavailable as of 6/13/00]>. Often called the "Pacific Gateway" or the "Ellis Island of the West," Angel Island was a stopping point for the majority of Asians who immigrated to the United States. The International Channel maintains this listing, focusing on immigrants' experiences while detained at Angel Island. Separate pages address living conditions, medical examinations, and interrogation, while another investigates the poetry some immigrants carved into the walls of the facility.

Angel Island: Stories, Photography, and Poetry:
<http://www.a-better.com/LK-AHSTY.HTM>. This web site, sponsored by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, offers a look into the history of the island and into the experiences of those who traveled through it. It addresses such issues as the Open Door Policy, the "Coolie" trade, Asian railroad workers, and the virulent racism many Asian immigrants faced.

Arduini and Pizzo: An Italian-American Family History:
<http://homepage.interaccess.com/~arduinif/index.htm [new link http://www.arduini.net]>. A family's decision to rediscover its roots becomes an educational opportunity for all. Created by Frank Arduini in 1994, this site records the histories of the Arduini and Pizzo families -- two Italian immigrant clans joined in marriage in 1947. Arduini includes over thirty stories and eighty photographs on his pages, offering a very personal view of what it is like to build lives and legacies in a new country.

Ellis Island Photography, 1900-1920:
<http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/exhibitions/immigration_id.html [link unavailable as of 6/13/00>. Part of the Keystone-Mast Collection of the California Museum of Photography, this site contains numerous photos taken at Ellis Island during the great waves of immigration in the early twentieth century. The collection includes images of the structure and makeup of the Ellis Island facility, as well as photos of immigrants undergoing various examinations and questioning. This site provides an excellent resource for jump-starting discussions on the immigrant experience.

Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild:
<http://istg.rootweb.com/index.html [link unavailable as of 6/13/00]>. Founded only a year ago, the Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild (ISTG) now has over five hundred volunteer members who translate, decipher, and transcribe the passenger lists of immigrant ships to the United States. Currently available online are the lists for nearly two thousand ships dating back as far as the mid-1600s. This site can easily be navigated and searched by teachers and students alike for names, dates, ports of departure, or ports of arrival.

Learning About Immigration Through Oral History:
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lesson97/
oh1/ammem.html>. This lesson plan, part of the library of Congress American Memory Collection, uses the oral histories of contemporary immigrants in East Central Illinois to teach students the process of historiography and give them an understanding of our nation's ethnic diversity. The plan uses selections from the American Memory online collection as well as print and video resources. The lesson can be geared toward high school or middle school classes, spans several curricular areas, and can comprise either a short unit or a semester-long study.

Learning, and Earning, Their Stripes:
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov/18/
citizen.htm# [link unavailable as of 6/13/00]>. The text of this site originally appeared in the Washington Post in 1996. It includes an article describing the controversial process of U.S. citizenship testing and a list of one hundred questions that the Immigration and Naturalization Service gives prospective citizens to prepare for their naturalization exam. Having students take the test provides an excellent introduction to a class discussion on citizenship and immigration.

Migration in History:
<http://www.nara.gov/education/historyday/migrate/
migrate.html>. The 1998 National History Day competition called for papers on "Migrations in History: Peoples, Ideas, Culture." To support this theme, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) digitized a large collection of migration-related documents. This web page provides a sample of this collection and instructs students on how to search NARA's catalog of digital images (NAIL) to locate still more sources.

North to Alaska!:
<http://www.nara.gov/education/historyday/alaska/
home.html>. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has created this site so that students can explore the various factors that fueled migration to Alaska. The site contains digital images from the National Archives, along with links to related sites.

Six Billion Human Beings:
<http://www.popexpo.net/english.html>. This exhibition from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris focuses on the growth of the world's population. A counter continually tracks population growth as the project addresses issues ranging from the birth rate to birth control to AIDS. Some pages enable students to personalize their navigation of the site by entering their age and region of the world, while other pages offer information based on the answers students give to questions regarding marriage and children. A Shockwave plugin is required to get the maximum benefit from this site.

Social Studies School Service Immigration and Migration Links:
<http://www.execpc.com/~dboals/diversit.html [link unavailable as of 6/13/00>. This site, maintained by the Social Studies School Service, contains dozens of links to migration-related sites as well as more specific links devoted to Asian, African, Hispanic, and Native American populations and culture. For teachers combining a study of genealogy with a unit on migration, pages of genealogy links can be access through <http://www.execpc.com/~dboals/geneo.html>.

Teaching with Historic Places:
<http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/descrip.html [link unavailable as of 6/13/00]>. Created by the National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places lesson plans use historic locations across the United States to examine developments in American history. Approximately sixty lessons, complete with photos, maps, graphs, and readings are either posted online or can be ordered free of charge through this web site. Topics such as "Log Cabins in America: The Finnish Experience" and Ybor City: Cigar Capital of the World" explore immigrants' lives in places outside the big East Coast cities.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
<http://www.unhcr.ch/>. Devoted to the protection and support of refugees, the UNHCR site provides a look in to contemporary forced migrations. The pages are constantly updated, offering students an opportunity to follow the lives of groups of refugees as they are sheltered or as the flee. UNHCR also offers a teacher's page containing lesson plans, discussion ideas, and print and video resources -- many available free of charge -- which examine the plight and experiences of refugees today and in the past.

Virtual Ellis Island Tour:
<http://www.capital.net/~alta/index.html>. Created by students and teachers at Queensbury Middle School in Queensbury, New York, this site works as a sample lesson for teachers and an educational tool for students. Using the Queensbury School's "Ellis Island Day" project as a guide, the site combines primary documents and photography to simulate an immigrant's experience upon arriving at Ellis Island. The site also contains suggestions for teachers planning similar activities as well as links to other sites on Ellis Island.

The Wall of Honor:
<http://www.wallofhonor.com>. The Wall of Honor, created by the Ellis Island Foundation as a monument to those who entered the United States through the island's gates, is inscribed with the names of thousands of immigrants from all over the world. Through the monument's web site, students can search for names of specific ancestors or simply search for their family name, offering an opportunity to learn from where and when one's predecessors settled in this country.