The material in this libguide provides information on the Native American, immigrant, and refugee history of Lowell, Massachusetts, for educators, students, researchers, and anyone interested in immigration and refugee history. The Lowell story provides an entry point to the immigrant and refugee history of the United States.
This project combines the research and writing skills of history students with the design and motion graphics skills of design students at UMass Lowell. Professors Robert Forrant (History) and Ingrid Hess (Design) coordinated student activities and oversaw the project. Funding support came from Mass Humanities and various offices and academic departments at UMass Lowell.
A cradle of the industrial revolution, Lowell, MA, is a quintessential immigrant city from its early 19th-century inception to the present day. Classroom teachers will have the resources at their disposal to teach this history from a multipurpose website. The motion graphics, photographs, history essays, and additional supporting materials offer classroom teachers a one-stop place to gather content to make immigrant and refugee history come alive. Researchers will find the site useful for its rich and varied content. Community members interested in immigration history will also find the site accessible.
The motion graphics are a unique, creative, and compelling way to introduce immigration history to students at all levels. In addition, the inclusive site presents the full sweep of Lowell’s human story from the Native American populations who inhabited the space to the waves of Irish, French-Canadian, Greek, and Portuguese immigrants who arrived in the city In the 19th and early 20th centuries to the Southeast Asian, South Asian, Central American. Caribbean. African, and Middle Eastern immigrants and refugees settling in the city In the late 20th and 2Ist centuries.
For further information: Robert_Forrant@uml.edu
Navigate between stories of immigrant communities from different countries through the side menu. Each page includes an overview of the community's immigration story, an animated video that explains their journey to Lowell with easy-to-read graphics, and a long-form essay describing the history of the community.
To cite this resource as a whole:
Forrant, Robert, et. al. Immigration Stories: The World Comes to Lowell. University of Massachusetts Lowell Libraries, 2023, url, Accessed [date Month year].
To cite a specific video:
Creator Last name, first name, additional creator(s) if needed. “Title of video.” Internet Archive, uploaded by UMass Lowell Libraries Archives and Special Collections, date uploaded, url.
Example:
Forrant, Robert, et. al. "Immigration Stories: Armenia to Lowell." Internet Archive, uploaded by UMass Lowell Libraries Archives and Special Collections, 4 May 2023, https://archive.org/details/immigration_armenia.
To cite an essay:
Author(s). "Title." Immigration Stories: The World Comes to Lowell, University of Massachusetts Lowell Library, 2023, Date of Access.
Example:
Kuzara, Alison, and Robert Forrant. "Congolese Refugees in Lowell." Immigration Stories: The World Comes to Lowell, University of Massachusetts Lowell Libraries, 2023, https://libguides.uml.edu/ld.php?content_id=71724498, Accessed 5 May 2023.