Modern Greek Studies Association

The Immigration History Research Center Archives

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

History and Description

The Immigration History Research Center Archives (IHCRA) contain the largest and most significant collections of multi-ethnic immigrant experience in North America. Established in 1963, the then named Immigrant Archives' staff, affiliated ethnic scholars, and communities contributed toward the archival collections. In 1965, the College of Liberal Arts, in collaboration with the University Libraries, chartered a Center for Immigration Studies. This Center was renamed the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) in 1974. From 1965 through 2013, the archives and library were managed in cooperation with the Center's other research and programmatic work. In 2013, these collections returned to the University Libraries' Archives and Special Collections as its administrative home and became the IHRCA.

Archival holdings reflect the experience of immigrants, ethnic communities and organizational or resettlement records. The Greek American collections primarily fit within the late 19th- and early 20th-century migration documentation (from a geographic area described by Finland, Syria and Italy) collected by the IHRC, but 20th-century refugee materials also are collected. A related resource available at the Special Collections and Rare Books division at the University of Minnesota Libraries is the Basil Laourdas Modern Greek Collection of Greek literature. The circulating holdings of the University Libraries contain thousands of books on Greek topics that support the non-circulating archival and rare print materials for studying Greek culture and immigration.

Strengths

The Greek American holdings at the IHRCA contain several extraordinarily rich collections documenting Hellenic immigration on multiple levels. The archives of fraternal and educational organizations such as the Order of AHEPA or Daughters of Penelope provide valuable information on the community life of Greek-speaking immigrants and their descendants in many regions of the United States, from Tarpon Springs, Florida, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Papers of immigration historian Theodore Saloutos document various stages of Greek immigration, while the Demetrios Callimachos collection offers a wealth of complementary visual materials, among other sources. Religion is well represented in the papers of Rev. George Papademetriou which have recently been processed to make them accessible. The IHRCA also holds a significant library of books pertaining to Greek immigration, as well as newspapers and magazines produced by this immigrant group. The collections have been used in the past by scholars researching regional Greek American histories, relationships between immigrants and their country of origin, and other subjects of ethnic history and comparative studies of multiple immigrant groups.