Set against a backdrop of colonial expansion, industrial progress and global conflict, this collection tells the stories of those who risked everything to build new lives in North America and Australasia between 1800 and 1980. Diaries, correspondence, photographs, oral histories and journals narrate the vivid realities of ocean travel and life in adopted homelands. Organisational correspondence, government proceedings, shipping company papers and records of advocacy groups provide context to migrants’ everyday struggles. (Coverage: 1800-1900)