Historical Methods
Volume 50, Issue 3, 2017, Pages 144-155

Immigrants and savers: A rich new database on the Irish in 1850s New York (Article)

Wegge S.A.* , Anbinder T. , Ó Gráda C.
  • a Department of Economics, College of Staten Island–CUNY, Staten Island, United States, Ph.D. Program in Economics, Graduate Center–CUNY, New York, United States
  • b Department of History, George Washington University, United States
  • c Department of Economics, University College–Dublin, Ireland

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. © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Author Keywords

social mobility Irish immigration savings behavior New York

Index Keywords

New York [New York (STT)] nineteenth century banking immigrant social mobility database United States immigration New York [United States] Ireland Savings
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85019595289&doi=10.1080%2f01615440.2017.1319773&partnerID=40&md5=6191be80b9c672c780a74690469b68b2
DOI: 10.1080/01615440.2017.1319773
ISSN: 01615440
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English