New Chinese Exclusion Act Book and Course!

We’re happy to announce the release of two new learning tools for exploring the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act:

Interrogation and Image of Jew YeungThe Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Documents and records of individual case files and Certificates of Residence housed in the National Archives detail the individual stories resulting from this and subsequent legislation.

These new resources explore stories about Chinese immigrants through primary source document analysis. The stories contained also reveal how the democratic rights of American-born children of Chinese immigrants were affected by Chinese Exclusion laws. Analyzing the stories that emerge from these sources provides perspective on U.S. immigration history.

The book — available on iPad, iPhone, and Mac — weaves together primary source documents from the Immigration Service, custom houses, ports of entry, and Angel Island Immigration Station. It includes interactive features, questions for topic exploration and reflection, transcriptions for highlighting, and review activities.

Certificates of Residence Page from Book

“The Chinese Exclusion Act” on iTunes U is a self-paced course designed to take 21 weeks. It incorporates the companion book, articles, videos, and assignments. It challenges students to explore, discover, and research in the digitized records of the National Archives to further understand the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act and related legislation.

This project was made possible through a collaboration with Apple Distinguished Educators Cheryl Davis and Mia Morrison, who are the main authors of the book and course. Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) are part of a global community of education leaders recognized for doing amazing things with Apple technology in and out of the classroom. The collaboration was supported through the ADEs in Residence Program, which places selected ADEs in some of the world’s leading museums, archives, science centers, and cultural organizations to develop innovative teaching and learning resources.

In the past six months, we’ve more than doubled the number of digitized records related to Chinese immigration available in our main online catalog. This is thanks to both Mia and Cheryl, and teachers who participated in our Primarily Teaching Summer Institute in Washington, DC.

These documents are all available as teaching tools on DocsTeach, our online tool for teaching with documents.

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