Chicago Collections Partners with the Chicago Cultural Alliance
on Stories of Im/migration: Chicago digital archive project
The Chicago Collections Consortium (CCC) is proud to partner with the Chicago Cultural Alliance (CCA) as they join forces to amplify first-voice immigration and migration experiences in Chicago with a new digital archive project. Stories of Im/migration: Chicago, will highlight collections of diverse communities around Chicago and connect them to current day discussions of immigration and migration in the US. The project will make accessible 1,000 new digital collections from 6 Alliance members on CCC'S EXPLORE CHICAGO COLLECTIONS portal, a free, centralized, web-based search engine. A dialogic toolkit will accompany the collections and will be made available for area libraries and educational institutions to talk about immigration and migration past and present.
Participating institutions include:
Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture
Chinese American Museum of Chicago
Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago
National Hellenic Museum
Polish Museum of America
Puerto Rican Arts Alliance
With users of EXPLORE in all 50 states and over 180 countries, this partnership will allow others to see Chicago's unique history through these rich first-voice immigration and migration collections. Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago Board Member Anthonie Tumpag shared, “The Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago is excited to contribute some of our extensive collections through the Stories of Im/migration: Chicago digitization project. By sharing our stories through EXPLORE, we are able to not only reach a wider audience but also continue in our society’s mission and objectives to preserve archives of our history and educate others about the Filipino-American experience in Chicago and our beloved Philippine heritage. Additionally, we are elated to be counted amongst such a wonderfully diverse collaborative force of institutions and societies who together enrich and make up a vital part of Chicago history and culture."
The project was generously funded by Illinois Humanities Multiplier Grant Program. Mark Hallett, Illinois Humanities Program Manager for Grants and Evaluation stated, “This initiative celebrates the city’s diversity through multi-layered partnerships but also by harnessing digital tools to share the archives of multiple organizations with broad audiences. It also goes a step further, by providing additional organizations with the tools to digitize their archives as well.” Images from the organizations involved in the Stories of Im/migration: Chicago project will be made available in August 2019.