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University of Galway Launches Imirce Database of Irish-American Emigrant Letters

The following is an excerpt from an article published by the University of Galway:

Letter from Patrick Callaghan, Fort Warren, Boston, Massachusetts, to his sister, Bridget Callaghan, Fallow, Kilmacthomas, Waterford (county), 9 March 1882. (reproduction). Archives reference ID: p155/1/1/1. Kerby A. Miller Collection. University of Galway. Credit: Imirce/University of Galway/Kerby A. Miller 

University of Galway has launched Imirce, a digital repository of thousands of Irish emigrant letters and memoirs dating from the late 1600s through to the mid-20th century. 

Featuring correspondence and other documents sent from North America, the collection offers an unparalleled insight into the personal reflections and lives of people as they wrote home to family and friends in Ireland.   

The Imirce project has enabled the creation of an online, publicly accessible archive of the Kerby A. Miller Collection – a unique record of personal correspondence from the Irish diaspora in the US. 

The archive includes approximately 7,000 letters, running to more than 150,000 documents, along with other important historical papers. It was collected over five decades of research by Kerby A. Miller, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Missouri and Honorary Professor of History at University of Galway, who donated the material to the University of Galway Library. 

The letters and documents provide valuable insights into universal themes and individual perspectives influenced by class, religion, gender and political circumstances. The collection is especially rich in the post-famine period from 1850-1950.

You can read the full article at: https://tinyurl.com/mr394mkt.