Millions of people from all over the world left their homelands in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to come to the United States. Their journeys were often long and perilous, but to these huddled masses, the sight of the Statue of Liberty signified hope for a new beginning in their new home-- America. Whether settling in city tenements or heading west for life on the frontier, these immigrants toiled to achieve the lives they had dreamed about. Their experiences helped to shape national identity and heritage.

Over one hundred vintage photographs, posters, and paintings from the archives of the Library of COngress-- often called "the storehouse of the national memory"-- remind us of what becoming American meant to millions of people.