Katie Kehoegreen HIS 400: Immigration and Ethnicity in Connecticut Department of History Arts and Sciences Research Conference and Exhibition Eastern Connecticut.

Katie KehoegreenKatie KehoegreenHIS 400: Immigration and Ethnicity in ConnecticutHIS 400: Immigration and Ethnicity in Connecticut

Department of HistoryDepartment of HistoryArts and Sciences Research Conference and ExhibitionArts and Sciences Research Conference and Exhibition

Eastern Connecticut State UniversityEastern Connecticut State UniversityApril 14, 2012April 14, 2012

Textbooks used in Willimantic public schools

during the years 1918 to 1920 presented anti-Italian sentiments and American ideals in an attempt to separate the children from their ethnic heritage and assimilate them into

American culture.

Thesis

Immigration

Periods of Italian Immigration to the United States

Year Number of

Immigrants

Origin

1600 - 1850

3,645 Northern Italy

1850-1880

9,000 Northern Italy

1880-1920

3.8 million

Southern Italy

Settlement

Settlement in Connecticut

Year

Town Number

1880

New Haven County

436

1880

Fairfield County 231

1880

Hartford County 129

1920

New Haven County

32,696

1920

Fairfield County 18,084

1920

Hartford 17,663

Italian Immigrants in Willimantic

Year Number of Immigrants

1900 415

1910 407

1920 566

1930 498

United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920-Population Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Research Italians & the Public Schools Willimantic Textile and History Museum

Source: 1. Connecticut School Registers 1918. Willimantic Textile and History Museum, Willimantic, CT.2. Windham High School Schedules 1919-1922. Willimantic Textile and History Museum, Willimantic, CT.

1 2

Textbooks

Elementary School Textbooks

High School Textbooks

1. Brigham, Albert Perry and Charles T. MacFarlane. Essentials of Geography .New York: American Book Company, 1920.2. Gordy, Wilbur Fisk . A History of the United States for Schools. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899.3. Muzzey, David Saville . An American History. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1911.4. Hughes, Osgood. Community Civics. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1917.

1 2 3 4

Representation of Italy: Agricultural Society with Simple Manufacturing

Source: Brigham and MacFarlane, 317

Source: Brigham and MacFarlane, 318

Representation of Italy: History and Religion

Source:Brigham and MacFarlane, 319

Source:1: Brigham and MacFarlane, 2702. Ibid., 316

1 2

2

1 2

Representation of Immigrants and Italians: Unassimilated Problem

Source:1. Muzzey, 6202. Hughes, 391

Representation of Immigrants and Italians:

Crowded into Clannish Settlements

Source:Hughes, 89, 119, 395-6

Source:Hughes, 89, 119, 395-6

Representation of Immigrants and Italians: Lowering the Wages for all

Americans

Source:Hughes, 393, 440

Encouragement of Naturalization and Citizenship

Source:Hughes, p. 21

The goal of the textbooks was the assimilation of

the immigrant children and the children of immigrants. The negative light in which their

culture was portrayed may have caused Italian children to be ashamed of their culture and

status as an immigrant. It may have propelled Italian children in Willimantic to separate

themselves from their ethnicity and cultural values, trading them in for citizenship and values

considered American.

Conclusions

Bloch, Mathew, and Robert Gebeloff. “Immigration Explorer”. New York Times Company.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigration-explorer.html (accessed October 21, 2011).

Brigham, Albert Perry and Charles T. MacFarlane. Essentials of Geography .New York: American Book Company, 1920.

Gordy, Wilbur Fisk . A History of the United States for Schools. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899.

Hughes, Osgood. Community Civics. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1917.Martinelli, Phyllis Cancilla. “Population” In The Italian American Experience: An

Encyclopedia. Edited by Salvatore John LaGumina, 497-499. New York: Garland Publishing, 2000.

Muzzey, David Saville . An American History. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1911.Steinberg, Stephen. The Ethnic Myth: Race, Ethnicity, and Class in America. Boston:

Beacon Press, 2001.United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of

the United States: 1920-Population (Reel 198). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Bibliography