DESTINATION U.S.A.

Between 1860 and 1924 well-over twenty-five million individuals crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States on steamships.  Steam transport allowed migrants to seek new homes and temporary employment in the United States, Canada, and South America, as well as Australia and New Zealand.  While popular media remains fixated upon the grand luxury liners like Cunard's ``Mauritania" and White Star's ``Titanic", the emigrant experience generally cannot be found in their exquisitely decorated staterooms and dining parlours. 

Rather, it is in the steerage, a large, single compartment into which multiple rows of beds were crammed, that most migrants traveled.  Adequate provisions for meals, ventilation, and sanitation were sorely lacking throughout most of this sixty year period, leaving emigrants hungry, dirty, ill (seasick or otherwise), and either too hot or too cold--totally bereft of privacy and struggling to maintain dignity while likely frightened/excited at the prospect of arriving in their new home.

The Balch Institute Archives houses a collection entitled ``Steamship Ephemera" into which accessioned materials from the major trans-Atlantic steamship lines have been gathered.  Holdings include advertisements, menus, passenger information booklets, tickets, receipts, and agent instruction booklets. 

You are invited to view these fascinating mementos that provide a unique window into the migration experience.  See how agents attempted to attract ticket purchasers, how much steerage passage cost as opposed to cabin passage, and even what was served for lunch on a particular liner.  Embark upon our STEAMSHIP EXPERIENCE tour!

Continue your experience by reading three personal accounts regarding life in the steerage, all of which are taken from materials in the Balch Institute Library and Archives.  View the observations of two emigrants, one traveling aboard a Russian-East Asian steamship and the other on an Inman Liner.  Also, read those of an ``undercover" agent of the American government posing as an Eastern European emigrant, reporting on conditions in steerage.   Explore the STEERAGE EXPERIENCE by clicking on the links below!

References and recommended further reading:

Anuta, Michael J.  Ships of Our Ancestors.  Menominee, Michigan: Ships of Our Ancestors, Inc., 1983.

Jones, Maldwyn A.  ``Aspects of North Atlantic Migration: Steerage Conditions and American Law, 1819-1909."  In Maritime Aspects of Migration, edited by Klaus Friedland.  Koln and Wien: Bohlau Verlag Gmbtt & Cie, 1989.

Moltmann, Gunter.  ``Steamship Transport of Emigrants from Europe to the United States, 1850-1914: Social, Commercial and Legislative Aspects."  In Maritime Aspects of Migration, edited by Klaus Friedland.  Koln and Wien: Bohlau Verlag Gmbtt & Cie, 1989.

Morton Allan Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals for the Years 1890 to 1930 at the Port of New York and for the Years 1904 to 1926 at the Ports of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore.  Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1979.

Nugent, Walter.  Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870-1914.  Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1922.

Smith, Eugene W.  Passenger Ships of the World--Past and Present.  Boston, Massachusetts: George H. Dean Company, 1978.

Steamship Experience - View tickets and ads from steamship lines!

Steerage Experience - Read first-hand accounts from three travelers!

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