The customary distinction between source material and secondary material is often hard to maintain, so recent is the Scandinavian immigration, and so numerous are the first-hand and second-hand accounts by contemporaries participating in or observing the phenomena under consideration. The Northern peoples settling in the United States have had no William Bradford for a historian, but the work of Norelius and Mattson is in a class similar to that of Plimouth Plantation.
The best bibliography of immigration in general is that published by the Library of Congress, A. P. C. Griffin (compiler), A List of Books (with References to Periodicals) on Immigration (3rd issue, with additions, 1907), but this is not complete, especially as relating to Scandinavian immigration. It omits all state documents, but is strong in its list of Congressional and executive documents. For the Scandinavian movement, the bibliography in O. N. Nelson (editor), History of the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavians in the United States (2nd ed., I, 265-295), is the most useful, though it is unfortunately arranged on a strictly chronological basis in two parts. It is, however, far from complete, omitting practically all Federal and State publications, and all periodicals save for specific mention of certain articles. In the field of periodicals, is Bibliografi; Svensk-Amerikansk Periodisk Literatur (being No. 8, Kungl. Bibliothekets Handlingar, Stockholm, 1886).
In a general way, the following bibliography includes only those books, pamphlets, periodicals, and newspapers which were directly used in the preparation of this volume. In the case of foreign publications, the place as well as the date of publication is usually given.
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES
1. Official Publications of the United States.
Five series of reports published by the Federal Government are of very great importance in the study of immigration, both for their scope and their accuracy: the Reports of the censuses from 1850 to 1910; the Annual Statistical Abstracts (36 vols., 1879-1913); Annual Reports of the Commissioner-general of Immigration (17 vols., 1891-1909); Reports from the Consuls of the United States (notably vol. 22, No. 76, 1887), particularly those from the consuls in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; and Special Consular Reports (particularly vol. 30, 1904). The Report of the Industrial Commission (especially vols. XV. (1901) and XIX (1902)), contains a vast amount of recent, complete, and diversified material in the testimony taken by the Commission and in the well-digested reports prepared by experts like John R. Commons. The Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, Immigration into the United States, showing number, nationality, sex, age, destination (etc.) from 1820-1903 (in Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, June, 1903), gives general tables and a review in convenient form.
The following reports of committees of the House of Representatives and of the Senate include usually the “hearings” of the committees, if any have been held: Report from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, 51 Cong., 2 Sess., H. R. No. 3472 (Owen Report, 1891); 52 Cong., 1 Sess., H. R. No. 2090 (Stump Report, 1892); Report of the Committee on Immigration, 52 Cong., 2 Sess., S. R. No. 1333 (Chandler Report, 1893); 54 Cong., 1 Sess., S. R. No. 290 (Lodge Report, 1896); 57 Cong., 2 Sess., S. Doc. No. 62 (Penrose Report, 1902). Special reports of importance are: Report of the Immigration Investigating Commission (1895); Edward Young, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Special Report on Immigration, (42 Cong., 1 Sess., H. Mis. Doc. No. 19 (1871)); and C. C. Andrews, Report made to the Department of State on the Conditions of the Industrial Classes in Sweden and Norway (1874).
In a class by itself is the recent elaborate Report of the Immigration Commission, S. Docs., 61 Cong., 2-3 Sess. (Dillingham Report, 1910-1911), 43 vols., of which vols. 1 and 2 (Abstract), 4, 34, and 36 are specially important for this study. The Report is by far the most scientific, thorough-going, and detailed study of the nature, extent, distribution and results of immigration to the United States, and to a few other countries like Canada, Australia, and Brazil, which has yet been produced.
Various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large and the Congressional Directories have also some material.