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An analysis of the changing spatial dimensions of ethnic neighborhoods in Omaha, Nebraska, 1880-1900
Abstract
Ever since the first Europeans settled in the Massachusetts Bay and Virginia colonies, immigrants have comprised a vital and integral portion of this country's population. Wherever the immigrants settled they often formed spatial communities, or enclaves, which focused on one or several cultural or business institutions. The extent of such communities, however, has often been obscured due to the gross scale at which data was collected. The goals of this study are to investigate urban ethnic settlement at the more detailed scale of the block, delineate the spatial boundaries of any ethnic enclaves discovered, and determine social and cultural factors influencing enclave formation. The study area selected is Omaha, Nebraska, from 1880 to 1900, a period when the city experienced rapid growth. First, city directories, newspapers, and early histories were searched for information to determine focal points for the ethnic communities based on cultural and business institutions. Next, the patterns of settlement were determined for nineteen ethnic groups through the use of manuscripts of the federal censuses, data from which were mapped on a block by block basis. Finally, analysis of the ethnic neighborhoods revealed by the first two steps was conducted, based on the measures of dispersion, clustering, and dominance. It was concluded that ethnic enclaves did exist in the study area when data were analyzed at a detailed level. A combination of social and cultural factors and residential location as indicated by the census resulted in a series of maps showing enclave locations for the five groups that clustered in 1880 and the nine that did so in 1900. A model was proposed for the various combinations of growth, decline, and re-alignment discovered for the nineteen ethnic groups over the twenty year period.
Subject Area
Geography|American history|Minority & ethnic groups|Sociology|Social structure
Recommended Citation
Fimple, Kathleen Louise, "An analysis of the changing spatial dimensions of ethnic neighborhoods in Omaha, Nebraska, 1880-1900" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9019563.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9019563