Moving Beyond "Rags to Riches": New York's Irish Immigrants and Their Surprising Savings Accounts

FAIN: RZ-51352-11

George Washington University (Washington, DC 20052-0001)
Tyler Anbinder (Project Director: November 2010 to May 2017)

Creation and preparation for online publication of a database of 19th-century Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank records and related materials, as well as related data analysis for articles and a book based on this research. (36 months)

One of the most enduring paradigms in American popular culture is that of "rags to riches," the belief that in the United States, people are able to rise from poverty to wealth more so than anywhere else in the world. Immigrants, in particular, are said to have come here to pursue their rags-to-riches dreams. Our study, a joint undertaking of historians and economists, will be the first to reliably analyze the wealth accumulation of pre-Civil War Americans.

Associated Products

City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York (Book)
Title: City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York
Author: Tyler Anbinder
Abstract: A history of immigrant life in New York from the first Dutch settlers to the present.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://firstsearch.oclc.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/WebZ/FSQUERY?format=BI:next=html/records.html:bad=html/records.html:numrecs=10:sessionid=fsapp6-54697-irwwiz8o-g7v6g5:entitypagenum=2:0:searchtype=advanced
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 054410465X
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Moving beyond "Rags to Riches": Using Digital History to Uncover the Lost Stories of New York's Irish Famine Immigrants (Web Resource)
Title: Moving beyond "Rags to Riches": Using Digital History to Uncover the Lost Stories of New York's Irish Famine Immigrants
Author: Tyler Anbinder
Abstract: The website contains documents related to the Irish emigration to America, specifically the records of savings accounts for some Irish immigrants in New York City.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://beyondragstoriches.org/home-exhibit
Primary URL Description: Project website

Networks and Opportunities: A Digital History of Ireland’s Great Famine Refugees in New York (Article)
Title: Networks and Opportunities: A Digital History of Ireland’s Great Famine Refugees in New York
Author: Tyler Anbinder
Author: Simone A. Wegge
Author: Cormac O´ GRA´DA
Abstract: For decades, historians portrayed the immigrants who arrived in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century fleeing the Great Irish Famine as a permanent proletariat, doomed to live out their lives in America in poverty due to illiteracy, nativism, and a lack of vocational skills. Recent research, however, primarily by economic historians, has demonstrated that large numbers of Famine refugees actually fared rather well in the United States, saving surprising sums in bank accounts and making strides up the American socioeconomic ladder. These scholars, however, have never attempted to explain why some Famine immigrants thrived in the United States while others struggled merely to scrape by. Utilizing the unusually detailed records of New York’s Emigrant Savings Bank in conjunction with the methods of the digital humanities, this article seeks to understand what characteristics separated those Irish Famine immigrants who fared well financially from those who did not. Analysis of a database of more than 15,000 depositors suggests that networking was the key to economic advancement for the Famine immigrants. Those who lived in residential enclaves with other immigrants born in the same Irish parish saved significantly more than other immigrants, and those who created employment niches based on Irish birthplace also amassed more wealth than those who did not. The electronic version of the article provides easy access to the database and interactive maps, allowing readers to ask their own questions of the data.
Year: 2019
Access Model: subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: American Historical Review
Publisher: American Historical Association

Immigrants and Savers: A Rich New Database on the Irish in 1850s New York (Article)
Title: Immigrants and Savers: A Rich New Database on the Irish in 1850s New York
Author: Tyler Anbinder
Author: Cormac O Grada
Author: Simone Wegge
Abstract: A new dataset created from the first 18,000 savings accounts opened (from 1850 to 1858) at the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank in New York City is described. The bank was founded by Irish Americans, and most of its depositors in its first decade of operations were recent Irish immigrants. The data offer a unique window on both savings behavior by the poor and not-so-poor in antebellum New York and on how emigrants who came primarily from rural parts of Ireland adapted to urban life. They also contain much that is new on the regional origins of mid-nineteenth-century Irish immigrants and on their settlement patterns in New York.
Year: 2017
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Historical Methods
Publisher: Routledge

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