The CMS Archive
- The records and files of agencies that assisted immigrants entering the United States at Ellis Island;
- The manifests of ships that brought migrants to Ellis Island and case files of those processed;
- Papers of individual immigrants who rose to prominence in the United States through the arts, business, entertainment, labor organizing, the law, politics, and service to their communities;
- The records of numerous Catholic, Italian American and other immigrant service, advocacy and community institutions;
- The voluminous records of the National Catholic Welfare Conference’s Bureau of Immigration through 1975;
- More than 5,000 photographs of the immigrant experience, including photos of the orphaned offspring of American servicemen and Korean and Japanese women;
- Correspondence between Catholic leaders strategizing over possible responses to anti-Catholic bigotry and nativism in the early 20th century; and
- The largest surviving collection of material – including photographs — related to displaced persons in transit through New York City after World War II.
For more information or to request access to documents, please contact archives@cmsny.org.