Digital Collections

American Stereoscopic Company. *Goodbye to old Ireland!--Passengers on tender at Queenstown, going out to an ocean-liner.* Circa 1903. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Library of Congress Digital Collections are free to view online. Interviews, articles, lectures, and blog posts discussing Irish American heritage and culture, as well as music and recordings can be found through these online collections.

A selection of these resources is provided below with links to specific items or to the home pages for each relevant archive. You can also explore the complete list of Digital Collections to find even more and see the latest additions.

To encourage further study and engagement with the collections, Library of Congress subject specialists have created research guides and other feature presentations that provide background information and useful resources. You can also browse the complete list of research guides from across all divisions of the Library to learn more.

Tip: Searching for "Irish" rather than "Irish American" may yield more extensive results in some of these collections.

Library of Congress Digital Collections and Online Resources

The American Folklife Center collects and documents living traditional culture, while preserving for the future its unparalleled collections in the state-of-the-art preservation facilities of the Library of Congress. Among the materials related to Irish American culture:

Chicago Ethnic Arts Project collection by American Folklife Center for the Illinois Arts Council, collector
Call Number: AFC 1981/004
Published/Created: 1976-1981
Including (Irish music, dance, etc.), this collection consists of approximately 344 sound recordings, 14,141 photographs, 269 folders of manuscript materials, 2 videorecordings, publications, ephemera, administrative files, and field notes produced and collected during the 1977 Chicago Ethnic Arts Project field survey from 1976-1981; but primarily during fieldwork conducted by fourteen folklorists directed by the American Folklife Center in 1977.
Interview with Mike Flannery about Irish American culture, Chicago, Illinois
Call Number: AFC 1981/004: AFS 20586a
Published/Created: May 8, 1977
Ireland and Northern Ireland Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
Finding Aids to Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture.
Montana Folklife Survey Collection
Call Number: AFC 1981/005
Published/Created: 1979
The Montana Folklife Survey was conducted in the summer of 1979 by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, in cooperation with the Montana Arts Council. The collection consists of approximately 145 sound recordings, 10,500 photographs; and 3 ½ linear feet of manuscripts that document interviews with Montanans in various occupations including ranching, sheep herding, blacksmithing, stone cutting, saddle making, and mining; various folk and traditional music occasions including fiddle and mandolin music in Forsyth; fiddle and accordion music performed in Broadus; the Montana Old-Time Fiddlers Association in Polson; Irish music, songs, and dance music on concertina and accordion in Butte; and other reminiscences and stories about life in Montana in 1979.
Rhode Island Folklife Project Collection
Call Number: AFC 1991/022
Published/Created: 1979
The Rhode Island Folklife Project collection is based on a field survey project of the American Folklife Center, in cooperation with the Rhode Island Heritage Commission, the Rhode Island Council on the Arts, and the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1979. The collection consists of approximately six linear feet of manuscripts and ephemera, 200 sound recordings, and 17,000 photographs which document the ethnic, regional, and occupational traditions of Rhode Island, especially ethnic arts (African American, French Canadian, Greek, Irish, Jamaican, Polish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Italian, Lithuanian, Narragansett, and others), maritime activities, material culture, and local history.

Library of Congress subject specialists have created Blogs that provide background and resources for further study.

Beyond the Blarney: A St. Patrick’s Day Look at Images of Irish Immigrants in America
Teaching with the Library of Congress. 1 March 2013.
It is a common misconception that primary sources convey the truth. On the contrary, many historical documents reinforce rather than disprove the stereotypes of racial or ethnic groups such as the Irish. In fact, some images in cartoons, sheet music, and broadsheets have historically spread far more damaging and negative stereotypes of the Irish than those seen in shop windows today.
Billy McComiskey: Irish American Tradition Bearer
Folklife Today: American Folklife Center & Veterans History Project. 7 July 2016.
One of the foremost musicians in Irish music today, Billy has played at every major festival of Irish music and most of the prestigious folk music concert series in the country, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Kennedy Center, and here at the Library of Congress.
Erin go bragh! Irish Music from the NLS Music Section
NLS Music Notes: Resources for the Blind & Print Disabled. 19 March 2015.
Although St. Patrick’s Day may remind you of tin whistles, bodhráns, bagpipes, or some other such traditional Irish instrument, one may neglect to think of the Celtic harp.
My Irish Song of Songs
In the Muse: Performing Arts at the Library of Congress. 17 March 2016.
Looks at three different aspects of the Irish- American identity using materials from the Music Division collections.
The Wearing of the Green: Irish-American History in Song
In the Muse: Performing Arts at the Library of Congress. 17 March 2011.
The story of Irish-Americans is one that can be told and studied through popular song and commercial culture as seen through the medium of sheet music.

Jacob Riis: Revealing “How the Other Half Lives”
Harrowing images of tenements and alleyways where New York’s immigrant communities lived, combined with Riis's evocative storytelling, were intended to engage and inform his audience and exhort them to act. Riis helped set in motion an activist legacy linking photojournalism with reform.