This guide provides information about immigration from Finland to the United States, and about the activities of Finnish-American immigrants in the United States from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
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Authors:
Troy Smith, Reference Librarian, Latin American, Caribbean and European Division
Note: This guide is adapted from an earlier version prepared by Taru Spiegel, Reference Specialist, and first appeared on the European Reading Room website.
Created: February 22, 2024
Last Updated: February 27, 2024
Introduction
This research guide provides information about immigration from Finland to the United States, and about the activities of Finnish immigrants in the United States from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Information is contained in a chronology and a bibliography of printed works about the Finnish experience coming to the United States.
"The Finns in America" was part of the pilot phase of a larger project to create, in cooperation with partners in Europe and the United States, a Transatlantic Digital Library dealing with themes of common European-American interest and significance. This project was also linked to the Transatlantic Information Exchange System (TIES), which was launched in May 1998 under the auspices of the United States-European Union New Transatlantic Agenda. Other projects in this series dealt with immigration from other European countries and with the fiftieth anniversary of the Marshall Plan and other important anniversaries of transatlantic significance.
The chronology was prepared by Taru Spiegel, reference specialist in the Library's European Division. Robert Garian of the European Division was technical director of the European Division's Transatlantic Digital Project. Partial funding for The Finns in America was provided by the United States Information Agency.