320 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946: 
After 1800.—To this early population, itself conceived through 
immigration and grown during 2 centuries to around 10 million, was 
added during the century beginning in 1820, as already mentioned, 
38 million more through immigration. This stream of foreign-born 
varied in number and composition from year to year (fig. 4). In the 
fluctuations are mirrored the history of Europe and the United States 
during this period. The peaks show when America was most inviting 
and the troughs reflect the wars and depressions. And finally, after 
the immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 setting quotas went into effect, 
there is a rapid falling off in numbers. However, since the present 
quotas are based upon the numbers of the different nationals resident 
in the United States in 1890, that is, before the immigration from 
southern and eastern Europe got under way, they have insured that 
most of the small number now being admitted come from those coun- 
tries that contributed the bulk of the early population. 
Now it is one thing to know which nationals participated, and to 
what extent they are represented, in the great period of immigration, 
and another thing to know how these nationals have become dis- 
tributed in the general population of the United States. Of course, 
there are well-known concentrations of foreign-born in various locali- 
ties, such as Germans in Pennsylvania, Poles in Connecticut, Scanda- 
navians in Minnesota, etc., but where else did these peoples go and in 
what numbers? Some idea of this distribution is given in the census 
recordings of the different nationalities by States. As an indication 
of what has happened to two of the foreign contingents (Irish, Itali- 
ans), I have plotted on outline maps their numbers in percentages of 
the native white population and by three census years (1880, 1910, 
1940). For example, in 1940 there were 3,408,744 native Whites in 
Massachusetts and only 114,362 foreign-born Italians. On the other 
hand, in 1880 the Whites in Massachusetts numbered only 1,320,291 
and there were in the State at that time 226,700 foreign-born Irish. 
Thus, the relationship of these two foreign-born elements to the native 
white population may be represented by the percentages 3.35 (Italians 
in 1940) and 17.17 (Irish in 1880), respectively. 
In using the native white population as a basis of comparison I 
have had in mind the population being affected by the immigrants. 
However, I realize that this gives a rather distorted view when the 
figures for 1880 are compared with those of 1940. This is owing to the 
fact that the native population has increased during this period. 
Because of this fact a group such as the Italians, that immigrated in 
large numbers only after 1890 (cf. fig. 4) , does not show the concentra- 
tions of a group such as the Irish, that came in greatest numbers before 
1890. In the example cited above, had the native white population of 
Massachusetts remained constant from 1880 to 1940 the Italians in 
