‘The Melting Pot’ – you probably remember the term from elementary school social studies…Now you can see the immigration patterns from 1880 onward using the interactive ‘Immigration Explorer’ map. Featured on the New York Times website front page on March 10th , this map produced by the Social Explorer (a demographics company), details immigration patterns and ethnic concentration in the United States.
‘Immigration Explorer’ map link:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigration-explorer.html?hp
Web site of Social Explorer:
http://www.socialexplorer.com/pub/home/home.aspx
Related library resources:
The Ray R. Brennan (class of 1935) map collection housed in library special collections contains over 6o items from the late 18th century including maps, atlases, and land deeds. Several maps from the collection hang in the library. Stop and see the ‘New and Correct Map of the Whole World’ (1719) near the B level elevator, the ‘City of Allentown’ (1876) map outside the B-01 computer lab, and the ‘Map of Lehigh County’ (1862) on C level. More information can be found on the library’s special collections page: http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library/special_collections/brennen.html
Atlases in the library’s reference collection are identified in the catalog by the location Ref Atlases and are stored in the oversize atlas cases in the reference section on A level.
As a depository for U.S. government documents, the library has a wide array of maps produced by the Government Printing Office. These are searchable in the catalog or you may wish to browse the map drawers located near the copiers on A level.
FYI – a limited number of copies of the New York Times are available free to students (weekdays only). They are located in the rack at the top of the terrace staircase on A level.
