Immigration History Research Center to move into state-of-the-art facility (05/28/00)

Immigration History Research Center to move into state-of-the-art facility

MINNEAPOLIS - The story of America's immigrant past, including much about Ukrainians and their descendants, can now be explored in a modern setting. With its recent move into a new state-of-the-art archives center, the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), a unit of the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, is poised to provide expanded services to ethnic communities, researchers of immigration and ethnicity, and the general public concerned about immigration issues. The center invites anyone interested to use its collections of books, periodicals, manuscripts and audiovisual materials or attend any of its public programs, which include conferences, seminars and exhibits. Much more information about the IHRC's resources and services is available at its website, http://www.umn.edu/ihrc/.

The IHRC has been relocated from its previous quarters in an off-campus warehouse to the Elmer L. Andersen Library in the heart of the university's Minneapolis campus on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Director and Professor of History Rudolph J. Vecoli has called the new building "the incredible, inconceivable, unbelievable realization of a long-held dream."

"A large number of our supporters contributed to this happy result," he noted, citing particularly the Friends of the IHRC who helped persuade state legislators and the governor to approve funding for the building.

The Elmer L. Andersen Library, new home to the IHRC and seven other university archives units, as well as the MINITEX Library Information Network, was funded by the state of Minnesota because of the building's statewide importance. In 1994 legislators approved a planning grant of $2.7 million, which resulted in an innovative design combining two constant-temperature-and-humidity underground storage areas - each the size of two football fields - carved out of the sandstone riverbank; ground floor headquarters for the MINITEX book distribution center; and three floors with office suites, reading rooms and areas for preservation work, public exhibits, classes and conferences, all built around a central atrium. The building was financed through sale of $38.5 million in bonds, approved by the legislature in 1996. Groundbreaking took place in May 1997. Completed in February 2000, the building is named for a former Minnesota governor, now 90 years old, who is also a businessman, rare book collector and university benefactor.

The public is invited to an IHRC open house at the Andersen Library to be held Sunday, June 4, at 1-5 p.m. The Friends of the IHRC will host a celebration of the move that includes tours of the IHRC office and storage caverns, entertainment by ethnic musicians and dancers, showing of a new video about the IHRC's work and a dessert buffet of ethnic pastries. A short program will be presented at 3 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to wear ethnic costumes.

Now celebrating its 35th anniversary, the IHRC is one of this country's foremost resources on immigrant and ethnic history. While the holdings and programs are especially rich for immigrants from eastern, central and southern Europe and the Near East, materials and interpretation encompass every major theme of immigration and its consequences. The center's Ukrainian American Collection is not only one of its largest, but is considered to be the largest collection of materials on Ukrainian immigration in the United States, covering all aspects of immigrant and ethnic life. The resources are used by community organizations, family historians, artists and the news media, in addition to scholars - ranging from high school students working on History Day projects to professors doing comparative studies across ethnic groups.

Coincident with its move to new quarters, friends of the IHRC have other reasons to rejoice. In spring 1999 the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation honored the IHRC's "Documentation of the Immigrant Experience" as one of the initial 101 Official Projects of Save America's Treasures, a public/private partnership encouraging protection of threatened U.S. cultural treasures. Such recognition, providing additional publicity for the IHRC and promising access to corporate and foundation funders, comes as the center begins a major fund-raising campaign.

The IHRC has undertaken, as part of the university's capital campaign, to create a $4 million endowment. The funds raised will enable it to provide ongoing support for community outreach and scholarly work on immigration and related subjects. Four areas have been targeted for the funds:

an endowed professorship/directorship in American immigration history;
staff to acquire, organize and preserve collections, including curatorial and graduate research assistant positions;
research and scholarship support, such as grants-in-aid and summer fellowships; yearly publication of the IHRC's research journal Spectrum, and an annual symposium to assess research trends and chart new directions for immigration and ethnic history; and
community outreach to promote heritage preservation by ethnic organizations and to provide information about immigration history to elementary and secondary school teachers and students.

For more information about the endowment campaign, the June 4 open house, or any of the IHRC's services, contact the center at 311 Andersen Library, 222-21st Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55455; telephone, (612) 625-4800; fax, (6l2) 626-0018; e-mail, ihrc@tc.umn.edu.

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