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Egbert Stolk writes as a guest blogger for our User Spotlight Series this month. Egbert                recently graduated from the University of     Vermont’s Historic Preservation Program with a Master of Science. Below he shares his experience of using Chronicling America to research immigrant stories for The Burlington Edible Food Tour.

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In my work for the edible food walking tour in Burlington, Vermont, we strive to gather immigrant stories who were working directly or indirectly in the food industry in Burlington. The different ethnic groups that came to America, and in our case specifically Burlington, also brought their food traditions with them. Sometimes traditional food was sold in shops or otherwise immigrants sold American food, while cooking ethnic food at home. In The Burlington Edible Food Tour we try to uncover immigrant and food stories, and places that relate to these stories. We used the online newspaper database Chronicling America to find more stories for the tour. For example: to locate street vendors and restaurants owned by immigrants and events pertaining to those businesses. It was very helpful as history is sometimes lost forever, but with the help of century-old journalism we are able to reconstruct part of Burlington’s immigrant              history. Continue reading User Spotlight Series: Egbert Stolk →