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*A Flood of Immigrants*

The 1880s through 1920s was an era of massive immigration, as people fled economic depression. Europeans including Northern Italians, Alsatians, Bavarians, Azorean and mainland Portuguese, as well as French Canadians, came to the Plymouth area, many to work in the Cordage Company and other mills. Cape Verdeans came from islands off the coast of Africa to work in the fishing and cranberry industries.

Maria Rosa Marcella packed her belongings in this basket, when she emigrated to Plymouth from Portugal in 1918. Many immigrants carried their belongings to America in baskets.

Stamped metal trunk brought from Lancashire, England, by the Preston family ca. 1887.

Margherita Vergnani shipped her trunk via Genoa when she emigrated to America in 1904. Vergnani was from the small northern Italian town of Saint Agostine.

These immigrants were coming to established towns, so they did not have to bring as much as the early colonists. They brought the clothes they wore, essential cooking and craft tools, and religious items. Maria Rosa Marcella brought her embroidered trousseau linens, Margherita Vergnani her treasured pasta roller.