Explore the different experiences of immigrant communities arriving in the US

Multiple legal pathways exist for immigrating to the United States

This comprehensive guide outlines various routes to US immigration, including family-sponsored and employment-based visas, as well as humanitarian protections. Navigate the complex American immigration system and understand the options available to prospective immigrants seeking legal entry.

Explore the important legislation that has shaped US immigration policy

Read about pivotal immigration legislation from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act—the first law restricting immigration by nationality—through DACA, examining how economic conditions, national security concerns, and social attitudes shaped American immigration policy throughout history.

A primary source timeline of US history (1600-1968)

Compiled by the Library of Congress, this archive walks through important events in US history through civil rights era, while providing primary sources to explore.

The share of the immigrant population in the US peaked at nearly 16% in January 2025

In January 2025, the US reached a historic high of 53.3 million immigrants—nearly 16% of the population. By June of that year, the number had fallen by more than a million, ending 50 years of continuous growth in the immigrant population.

US immigrants shifted from primarily originating in Ireland and Germany to Mexico and India

This visualization tracks the top country of birth among US immigrants by state from 1850 to the present, revealing a dramatic shift from European-dominated immigration to today's prominence of Mexican and Indian immigrants.

Studies show immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans

Research examining incarceration records and crime data generally finds that immigrants—including undocumented individuals—have lower crime and incarceration rates than US-born citizens, though measurement is limited by gaps in national data on immigration status.

A free archive of firsthand historical documents from explorers of America

Maintained by the Wisconsin Historical Society, the American Journeys collection contains more than 18,000 pages of primary source documents—journals, letters, maps, and accounts written between roughly 1000 CE and the early 1800s. These include eyewitness records of the Norse arrival in North America, Spanish conquistador expeditions, and the Lewis and Clark journey. Browse this list of highlights where pages from the original texts are specified (clicking a link opens a PDF).

Explore the unexpected ways people use public libraries in this 'This American Life' episode

Libraries serve as far more than book repositories. This episode follows a family experiencing homelessness that spent months living in their local library, Iranian students reuniting with family across the US-Canada border because the library straddled both countries, and a Vermont man who built his own library to house unpublished manuscripts.

Hear the story of an Afghan refugee family's journey to America

Dori Samadzai Bonner recounts her family's escape from Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and their journey to find US refuge. This story reveals the challenges immigrants face in navigating the American immigration system and in seeking sanctuary.

Poems and stories inscribed on the walls of a US immigration island

What Ellis Island was to the East Coast, Angel Island was to the West. Just off the coast of San Francisco, this processing center became a detention center for those targeted by exclusionary immigration laws. Click here to read some of the stories left by the detained.

What was life like as a slave in the US?

Over 2,500 former slaves were interviewed by writers and journalists in the late 1930s as part of the US Federal Writer's Project. The collection recorded images and firsthand verbal accounts of life as a slave, eight of which are highlighted in this article at the Library of Congress. See the humanity in each of these individuals with their firsthand accounts.

The first Americans arrived between 14,000 and 40,000 years ago

Early peoples migrated to the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge or coastal routes, spreading across the continent as hunter-gatherers. Archaeological sites in present-day New Mexico containing stone tools and animal bones mark some of the earliest confirmed evidence of human life in North America.

How America's cocaine habit fueled its migrant crisis

The United States has been facing a migration crisis along its southern border. Thousands of people have been fleeing their homes in Central America, traveling north through Mexico, and claiming asylum in the USA. Much of this crisis can be traced...

15,000 people from over 20 nations lived in these Lower East Side tenements

The Tenement Museum recreated authentic immigrant homes using artifacts from historic buildings that housed diverse communities between 1863 and 2011. Take a digital tour that explores the immigrant experience through carefully preserved living spaces and belongings.

Early American citizenship was defined inconsistently by individual states

The original US Constitution did not define national citizenship, leaving it to the states to apply their own rules. This led to inconsistent and often exclusionary standards across the country until after the Civil War.

...and allowed newly arrived European immigrants to maintain their cultures

19th-century public schools often included Protestant spiritual instruction, something that was disturbing for Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, and elsewhere, who found homes in neighborhood “parochial” schools.

Native voices share their histories along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

Tribal historians recount their peoples' histories and perspectives on the Lewis and Clark expedition, offering an Indigenous narrative of the lands, encounters, and legacies that shaped the journey.

Many New Year's Eve traditions came from German immigrants

While it’s hard to trace the origins of many New Year’s traditions, many of the norms for American New Year’s Eve celebrations come from German immigrants, who significantly influenced American culture in the 1800s. Below is an excerpt from an 1863 New York Times article describing a German New Year’s celebration.

Hear from those who reported on the ground in Minneapolis amid immigration raids

In this podcast episode, journalists reporting from Minneapolis describe ICE enforcement actions, street protests, and community fallout—offering firsthand accounts of how immigration crackdowns are unfolding in the Midwestern city.

The Great Migration helped transform Harlem into the epicenter of Black culture

Starting in 1910, millions of Black Americans moved from the South to escape segregation, violence, and dismal work opportunities. They moved to urban areas in the North, Midwest, and West. Chief among them was Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood, which became an especially desirable location for Black people around 1910.

Hear firsthand stories from Americans who lived through the 1918 flu pandemic

This video shares personal accounts from survivors of the 1918 influenza epidemic, capturing memories of sickness, loss, and resilience. Their voices offer a glimpse into how ordinary people experienced one of history’s deadliest pandemics.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa—an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people—with evidence suggesting it may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s

This podcast delves into the history of Periplaneta americana and explores why the bugs elicit such fear, disgust, and, at times, shame. The bug likely climbed aboard the slave ships because they had both unprotected food sources and places to hide during their journey.

K-pop increased the visibility of Asians in American media

Yale sociologist Grace Kao speaks about the massive cultural impacts the world has received from K-pop’s success. The academic talks about the genres K-pop borrows from, the visibility that groups like BTS gave to the Asian community in the media. The resource also features an intro playlist curated by Kao for those interested in getting into the music.

Psychedelic compounds: a visual library

However psychedelic experiences manifest, they all begin with the presence of psychoactive compounds. Learn about their various chemical compositions in this structural library of psychedelic compounds. Clicking on an entry will take readers to a new page where they can learn about the chemistry and pharmacology of each compound, as well as the drug's possible applications.

Jeff Bezos’ adoptive father Mike Bezos immigrated to the US from Cuba at age 16

Mike Bezos’ mother made a coat out of cleaning rags for him before he immigrated, assuming that the United States would be very cold. Mike and Jeff told the story of Mike’s journey to the US and early days in America together in this video.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.